First-past-the-post voting

I think what we've not seen, Craig, so much is this kind of debate happening in a democracy.

And what's fascinating is we've got First Past the Post, and actually that has been a real, almost a lock times on the political system to have just two main parties.

It may be that in some respects it's quite healthy to have that lock broken, Because for the first time, people have got more of a choice, but it does mean that they need to demand real solutions and people deserve better than, if you like, rhetoric without a plan.

So I think you're right in what you're saying, that it's good for people to have options.

All voting systems suck.

So, like, I mean, why did we get FPP? Because political parties were getting 20% of the vote but electing no MPs because they couldn't win.

They were quite popular, but they couldn't win any particular seat.

You see that in the UK.

come in, Liam.

Yeah, but also just comparing First Past the Post in the UK and SCV in Australia, which is biased against, you know, we have proportional representation.

We're becoming a lot more European, not only in our system, I think, but also our voting habits.

The loyalties that are the hallmark of the FDP system are breaking down.

It might herald a much more permanent breakdown of the old two-party dominant system where you had your two parties that would be in government alternating and then they would have, you know, a few sort of minor allies on either side propping them up.

And we might be shifting to a much more mature MMP environment where we're sort of casting off the FPP voting habits...

And moving into this sort of more prolonged system of true coalition governments and crucially, I think, possibly shorter term governments, right? We might really be moving into the sort of a more sort of European model.

where we vote out the incumbent because we don't like them, and then within record time, the new incumbent loses popularity, right? And we've seen that in places like France and the UK, and it might just be that we've had a delayed reaction to it here, and it finally might be coming.

Yeah, but also just comparing first-past-the-post in the UK and STV in Australia, which is biased against, you know, we have proportional representation.

We're becoming a lot more European, not only in our system, I think, but also our voting habits.

The loyalties that are the hallmark of the FPP system are breaking down.

Yeah, very good point about it being a different system.

Yeah, I don't think the small target strategy works in a multi-party system.

It's fine if you've got First Past the Post and you've got two major parties.

If you're in opposition, you just say, look, the present crowd have made a mess of it.

We're a better alternative.

Yeah, I don't think the small target strategy works in a multi-party system.

It's fine if you've got First Past the Post and you've got two major parties.

If you're an opposition, you just say, look, the present crowd have made a mess of it.

We're a better alternative.

How much of a challenge to these five MLAs and potentially more who will join? How big is the challenge here?

Well, normally we would say that this is the kind of project that has a very slim chance of survival given that First Past the Post tends to... create space for two major parties, and there's not really room for third parties to carve out major spaces unless one of those first two parties effectively dies off.

And that's why this is not normal times, because we see the B.C. Conservatives in a partial die-off moment where the caucus has collapsed, and we have seen about a third of the caucus leave since the election in 2024, and we don't know where the bottom is just yet.

So clearly...

So I don't think there will be a civil war as people would imagine civil war to be.

One of the things I did see, too, is obviously right now we've got first past the post system.

And now they're trying to well, at least they're talking about changing it to proportional representation.

And I feel they only make these changes if they know that it's going to guarantee their success, right? And again, with the demographics changing, I feel like they pretty much know that there's no way that they would come out of power, the whole uni party and stuff.

And in a situation like that, PR is greatly beneficial to any party that is not that particular party.

I think that both political systems have their opportunities and have their drawbacks.

The drawback of First Past the Post is that It takes you a much longer period of time to actually win anything in the first place.

That's the main drawback.