Image: Can. Press / File

By Mel Rothenburger

Armchair Mayor

ROTHENBURGER: U.S. Speaker fiasco gives us a taste of proportional representation

Jan 9, 2023 | 4:12 AM

THE LATEST WEIRDNESS issuing forth from the American system of governance wrapped up early Saturday as the House of Representatives picked a new Speaker. It took four days and 15 separate votes to do it.

It happened because election of a new Speaker — who, by the way, has a totally different set of powers than the one in our Parliament — requires a clear majority.

Apparently they’ve never heard of first past the post. As one headline said, the whole degrading exercise illustrated the power of a few over many.

The Republicans, having regained a majority in the House, were divided over whether Kevin McCarthy should get the job, with enough party members voting for alternatives to keep him from winning.

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This strange charade provided a clue to what proportional representation would look like if it was ever adopted in Canada.

OK, electing a new speaker down there doesn’t actually involve prop rep but the necessity of achieving a majority rather than a plurality made it look like it.

Prop rep requires that the number of seats awarded to each party equals the percentage of its total popular vote. The result can be parliamentary stagnation as the parties negotiate endlessly with each other trying to reach deals on legislation.

In this case, it got so contentious that, at one point, a congressman physically muzzled a colleague during a confrontation on the floor.

I’m not saying prop rep leads to physical confrontations but the lengthy stalemate we saw in the U.S. House is the kind of thing we could see a lot of if the prop rep folks ever get to saddle our own country with a system of elections that tries to make everyone a winner at the expense of effective government.

If the U.S. House of Representatives had used first past the post, they could have gotten their new Speaker with one vote instead of 15.

I’m Mel Rothenburger, the Armchair Mayor.

Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops, former TNRD director and a retired newspaper editor. He is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.