We like minority governments, poll shows

[daleo]

Canadian voters seem comfortable with the idea of a minority federal government and reluctant to give any party a commanding majority, a poll suggests.

The Canadian Press Harris/Decima survey asked respondents to choose the kind of split they'd ideally like to see in a hypothetical Parliament of 100 seats.

The results, on average, gave 36 seats to the Liberals, 31 to the Conservatives, 15 to the NDP, 10 to the Bloc Québécois and eight to the Green party.

Projecting those percentages to the actual House of Commons of 308 seats, the Liberals would end up with 111 seats rather than their current 96 and the Tories would have 95 instead of their present 126.
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http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080106.wminority0106/BNStory/National/home
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The poll is a bit silly, but still interesting.

[nAtionAstray]

1. interesting,,,

True, a silly poll, but telling in the fact that it may show the growing disillusion among all Canadians with the political system. For as long as I could vote, its always been (for most), about picking the "lesser evil". Thats not going to change until any party does something different. Hence, the minority gov't syndrome, nobody likes (or trusts) any party enough to give it a majority.

Sorry, I may be a little cynical; the scourge of youth :P

[daleo]

2. You only get more cynical as the years roll by

That's my experience anyway.

[Canadian_moderate]

3. It's just about time for proportional representation

I don't understand why Canadians are not demanding it? Why should any party with less than 50% of the popular vote have a majority in parliament?

WE recently had a referendum for a hybrid system here in Ontario and something like 2/3 of Ontarians rejected the notion. I feel it was poorly present and people simply didn't understand it so they voted for the status quo. Either that or they felt that a hybrid electoral system was a half-asses attempt at proportional representation.

I was born in the Netherlands and they have not had a majority government in over 150 years, yet their government seem quite functional. Coalition government tend to pass legislation that more accurately reflects the will of the people. What is wrong with that?