New election, new electoral system?

With a federal election upon us, I've been doing some research for journalism class on proportional representation, a different kind of voting system in which the popular vote is proportionally reflected in the number of seats received by each party.

While the details of it all can get confusing, here's a great demonstration of why I think it's necessary.

Here are the number of seats gained by each party in the 2008 federal election:

Conservatives: 143
Liberals: 77
Bloc Quebecois: 49
NDP: 37
Green: 0
Independent: 2

And this is the number they should have received if the popular vote was proportionately reflected:

Conservatives: 117
Liberals: 80
Bloc Quebecois: 31
NDP: 55
Green: 21
Other: 4

A few other notes of interest from the '08 election:

• 940,000 voters supporting the Green Party elected no one, while fewer Conservative voters in Alberta alone elected 27 Conservative MPs.
• In the prairie provinces, Conservatives received roughly twice the votes of the Liberals and NDP combined, but took seven times as many seats.
• New Democrats: The NDP attracted 1.1 million more votes than the Bloc, but the voting system gave the Bloc 49 seats, the NDP 37.


Maybe instead of just changing up parliament this federal election, we should think about changing up the way we elect our representatives.

Just a thought.