In an uncanny bit of timing, a New Brunswick commission on provincial electoral reform has just released their findings. A great overview of the commission can be found on the CBC website:
NB's Electoral Reform Commission Proposes Preferential Ballots
The article explains some key suggestions from the commission in great detail while touching on some other recommendations in passing. There are two topics I am very intrigued by: 1) Preferential Ballots and 2) Voting age.
In regards to preferential ballots:
I like this system as it promotes positive politics and respects our system of regional representation by allowing voters to rank their choices on a ballot from best to worst.
In recent years it seems politics has become very polarizing, pitting one party against another rather than one idea against another. In a system such as this, you not only have to win over support from your followers but you are encouraged to avoid pushing your non-supporters away. Rather than promoting extreme viewpoints one must be careful to be realistic and make proposals that, even if you don't agree, you can be trusted and respected for reasonable debate. FPTP has a tendency to create us vs. them as candidates are considered either winners or losers in voters' eyes.
I also like this ballot system as it promotes support for small parties. More parties means more ideas. In a FPTP system we are often pushed to vote against someone we dislike rather than for someone we like. Preferential ballots allow voters to vote for a small party and not fear their ballot is wasted. Not fearing a ballot is wasted leads to voting for ideas we support rather than against ideas we do not support. It is a fine line but one that creates much more positive politics.
Lastly on Preferential ballots, this hybrid style of election does not destroy our long-held and often ignored need for regional representation. As a province with stark divides between rural and urban voters, many forms of proportional representation risk alienating those who live outside of our cities. We may find more of a balanced voice on party lines but there is a great risk that bypassing the tradition of one vote per region would end up with voices in the legislature being almost all people from Fredericton and Moncton, ignoring the people of Bath, Woodstock or St. Stephan. We may not see much harm in that at the provincial level but I know out tone would change if it were the whole of Atlantic Canada being excluded at the federal level.
I will save my thoughts on voting age for another day.
Please comment below your reactions to my thoughts or the article in general.
Friday, 3 March 2017
Saturday, 25 February 2017
Folks,
Welcome to our new classroom blog.
The concept is fairly simple!
If you have ideas, opinions or stories you would like to share and discuss with the class you are invited to do so here.
Why share here?
Perhaps some of your thoughts are too complex to explain or properly address in class. Maybe you aren't completely comfortable sharing an undeveloped thought in class and prefer to work through it yourself before posting here. It is possible you were surfing the net on a weekend and came across an article you thought we may all like to talk about so you came here instead of posting it straight to Facebook. Whatever the reason, the intent is to provide a safe space for discussing and developing our ideas and practicing our target skills.
What should a post look like?
Ideally, each post will have three elements: 1) a reference to a relevant source (i.e. a book title or a web link); 2) an overview of the topic or the article that sparked your interest; and 3) your thoughts on the topic.
You are free to mix it up and take a different approach, as long as you focus on our target skills.
Is this a required activity?
This blog is meant to provide yet another opportunity to practice our thinking and communication skills. When we sit down down at conference time I would expect someone looking to defend a "Beyond Grade Level" to have posted at least twice and commented on other posts at least 5 times.
Welcome to our new classroom blog.
The concept is fairly simple!
If you have ideas, opinions or stories you would like to share and discuss with the class you are invited to do so here.
Why share here?
Perhaps some of your thoughts are too complex to explain or properly address in class. Maybe you aren't completely comfortable sharing an undeveloped thought in class and prefer to work through it yourself before posting here. It is possible you were surfing the net on a weekend and came across an article you thought we may all like to talk about so you came here instead of posting it straight to Facebook. Whatever the reason, the intent is to provide a safe space for discussing and developing our ideas and practicing our target skills.
What should a post look like?
Ideally, each post will have three elements: 1) a reference to a relevant source (i.e. a book title or a web link); 2) an overview of the topic or the article that sparked your interest; and 3) your thoughts on the topic.
You are free to mix it up and take a different approach, as long as you focus on our target skills.
Is this a required activity?
This blog is meant to provide yet another opportunity to practice our thinking and communication skills. When we sit down down at conference time I would expect someone looking to defend a "Beyond Grade Level" to have posted at least twice and commented on other posts at least 5 times.
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