Here is an interesting development in Canada.
Marc Garneau is running for the leadership of Canada’s national Liberal
party, and his web page (at
http://marcgarneau.ca/support-marc-democratic-reform/) says:
"If elected, my proposal would be to reform Canada’s electoral system by
changing our voting process to a preferential ballot, or a ranked ballot.
Adrian, you now know enough to write a very short article for Democracy
Chronicles about this increased interest for election-method reform.
Wikipedia has info about him, including a photo of him when he was an
astronaut. I'm sure he would love the exposure.
This is happening somewhat near the top of a political party. Currently
he isn't the most likely winner for the leadership position, yet he is
popular enough that he can attract significant attention to the issue of
banning the use of single-mark ballots.
The counting method he recommends is instant-runoff voting (IRV), which
is not the best choice. Yet when used within a political party, this
would be a big improvement, and the winner would never be from the
"wrong" party.
Soon enough, just as has happened in Aspen (CO) and Burlington (VT), the
weaknesses of IRV counting will get exposed. In the meantime, just
getting people to talk about, and think about, the possibility of better
ballots and better counting methods is a wonderful development.
(The word "riding" in Canada is equivalent to "district" in the U.S.)
Richard Fobes
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