RoFo 2014!! (This is your democracy on drugs)

What’s worse than having a crack-smoking, alcoholic mayor who hangs out with criminals and indulges in violent outbursts? Watching one get re-elected…

Under siege

This is your democracy on drugs.

Ford Nation makes up about 32% of the vote and according to them, it’s all a big misunderstanding. The fault really lies with the media.

According to Christie Blatchford of the National Post, Ford is akin to Piggy in the book, Lord of the Flies. Piggy was ridiculed by the other boys and eventually murdered by them. See, Ford is just a regular guy and that’s why media elites persecute him so ruthlessly!

More insane

What’s more insane than that crack-addled interpretation of events, is our primitive voting system, First-Past-the-Post. Instead of Torontonians deciding who will be their mayor in 2014, they have to rely on a crapshoot. The candidate with the biggest block of voters wins the race, not the one who commands a majority.

So all is left to chance on how the vote is divided. If Ford alone runs on the center-right, and many candidates on the center-left, he could win on 32%, even though 68% would rather poke out their eyes with knitting needles than see him mayor for another term.

Real democracy

In a real democracy, voters elect their representatives with a majority of votes. The only way to do this is with runoff voting — or the ranked ballot which is instant runoff voting.

Ford might win the first round, but if the people of Toronto don’t want him — and nothing could be more painfully obvious — there’s no way he’ll win the final round.

Harper

In a related note, if we used the ranked ballot during the 2011 federal election, Harper would be gone. That’s right. Finished. Vanished. Relinquished. No more!

Instead of a 40% minority overruling the 60% super-majority — and plaguing Canada with its worst government in history —we would’ve got an NDP–Liberal government that held 53% of the seats on 50% of the vote.

Conclusion

Tired of putting up with a democracy on drugs? Just say No to First-Past-the-Post! Justin Trudeau proposes ranked ballot voting reform. In 2015, let’s put our electoral system in rehab!