I think the Canadian election result is pretty interesting, and useful to think about in the context of the various American debates over the Electoral College / popular vote / US House
As you may know, Trudeau was reelected and fairly comfortably. But it appears the conservatives won the most votes, reversing what we've seen for the center-left in the United States (and the UK on Brexit, if it had been by constituency rather than popular vote)
So what happened? One big part is that conservatives are dominant--truly dominant--in Albert and Sask., where they win 2/3 of the vote and beat the Liberals by a huge margin.
On the other hand, the left is split between the Greens, NDP and Liberals, denying the Liberals the opportunity to run up the score in the sort of places where they might have run-up the score in a one-on-one race
Leaving the causes aside for a second, the end result is that the conservatives wind up more votes in landslide margins. Liberals would win a hypothetical Canadian Electoral College vote with narrower wins in ON/QU and elsewhere.
conservatives wind up *wasting
This is the reverse of what we see in the US House at the district-level, where Dems runup the score in the cities.
It's not really like what we see in the Electoral College, where both Democrats and the GOP waste fairly equal numbers in say CA v. strong red states
It's not really like what we see in the Electoral College, where both Democrats and the GOP waste fairly equal numbers in say CA v. strong red states
This is basically the scenario that Electoral College defenders cite to defend a winner-take-all system: the possibility that one region could basically decide the result for the rest of the country. Again, that's not what we've had in the US, but here it plays out IRL
Anyway, IMO the Electoral College is not really the natural way of addressing the 'regionalism' concern. It is possible to take regionalism seriously and think the E.C. has some serious issues, by essentially introducing unnecessary noise/luck into close elections
But for those (presumably mainly liberals) who don't really give any credit to the regionalism argument on behalf of the E.C., it is worth mulling how they would feel about a one-sided vote in Alberta/Sask. basically overruling the country
Or a not impossible future in the US, where Dems win the big coastal states (even including TX/FL/GA) but lose a high-turnout, white, old, working class American interior by a huge margins
And lol at my replies.
Folks, there's nothing about seeing the other side's arguments playing out that means you're wrong or that you have to change your views. You can understand both sides, imagine the other side, and continue to be 100% convinced in a national vote. It's fine
Folks, there's nothing about seeing the other side's arguments playing out that means you're wrong or that you have to change your views. You can understand both sides, imagine the other side, and continue to be 100% convinced in a national vote. It's fine
