Comment by barbazoo | Hacker News Reader

Comment by barbazoo | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

Having had to experience the Canadian federal election this week and seeing a resulting parliament that has very little to do with what the people actually voted for, I yearn for Germany's system and it's kind of challenges.

Monday's election resulted in 5.9% of people being completely unrepresented in parliament and the now (again) governing Liberals representing 32.6% of the populace, even less than it's Conservative competitor [0]. Sure they need the NDP for a majority vote but it's nothing like the coalitions in a Government like Germany where parties come up with a formal coalition agreement.

Seeing how people's research leading up to the election consisted of figuring out how to vote strategically for the opposing party in their riding to be defeated, instead of comparing party platforms and deciding who they agree with instead, made me want to barf honestly. There is a significant chance that we'll just get called to another election a year or 18 months from now, for what, another $600m minor shuffle of seats [1]?

[0] https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/elections/federal/2021/resul...

[1] https://elections.ca/content.aspx?section=res&dir=rep/off/co...

Tangential point but Germany's parliament has a 5% public vote threshold for parties to enter parliament (some exceptions apply).

According to current polls, that means between of 6%-9% of votes (for minor parties) will end up without parliamentary representation (5% at the last federal election).

NB: The number of not represented people is of course much higher, even discounting non-voters and underage citizens, since most(all?) foreign residents don't have the right to vote in federal elections.

That's true and probably exacerbated by the huge number of political parties. 5.9% in Canada is not that bad then maybe? I don't know.

Same applies here, only citizens of age are allowed to vote.

I don't know either, therefore I considered it a pretty tangential point. It feels like the choice is a bit more diverse here because there are six(+1*) parties all but guaranteed to enter parliament, so you wouldn't waste a vote if you voted for any of them.

*) seven actually, one party (CSU) only standing in Bavaria instead of the conservative party CDU.

> Sure they need the NDP for a majority vote but it's nothing like the coalitions in a Government like Germany where parties come up with a formal coalition agreement.

Coalition agreements are 'formal' in the sense that they last until they get broken. And they get broken whenever it is politically convenient for the participants therein. They are alliances of convenience, not suicide pacts.

The libs will now govern as long as they have support of at least one other party in parliament. It's not that different from a formal coalition.

Trudeau promising electoral reform in his first election, and delivering not a damn thing is the real travesty, here. Had he done that, the country would be ran by a Lib-NDP coalition from now until the end of time.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com