Please do not go down the path of the US. It’s far easier for two parties to collude.

Federally, only two parties have formed government. They change their names etc, but it’s pretty close to being a two party system already.

It’s fair to say other parties have had an effect (like the NDP before the last election), but they haven’t gotten anywhere near forming government.

Electoral reform and the NDP coming out swinging, leaning hard into social programs with a sharp and charismatic leader.

It’s totally up to us.

Mark Carney’s liberals and Andrew Sheer’s conservatives must be pressured to support a citizen’s assembly to decide on the next electoral system that parliament must pass.

We need to put first-past-the-post to rest.

The issue is that politics in Canada is increasingly adopting the team sports US model. Instead of being FOR certain policies or ideas, people are AGAINST somebody else. In that game, you only need two teams.

As long as you focus on competent administration, the three party system will stay strong. The third party is for bringing policies and ideas to the national stage. Because any time the two most powerful parties are ignoring popular policy, the second party will partner with the third to gang up on the party in power or the party in power will court the third to prevent it. Either way, the third party gets a national voice. And the third party has to focus on popular policy because they do not have enough power to do anything else.

The third party never forms a government but that does not mean it does not have an impact on national politics. See my other comment.

A three party system is completely different than a two party system even if only two of the parties have ever held a majority.

The NDP has been the official opposition. There are times, as in many minority governments, where the third party has more impact on national policy than the opposition does (via alliances).

FPTP guarantees that out come so get hype. We are pretty much there now. We just need a few more cycles of left splitting before people get tired of that and then our transformation will be complete.

They already do.

Why would they do that? The current system ensures that at least one of them will always be in charge, and they effectively have the same politics.

Because they want to keep the support of the populace. The kiwi politicians didn’t want to pass electoral reform for years either until the public had enough of their nonsense and held steady on the issue.

Absolutely the politicians serve us not the other way around.

Most abc do voters support proportional representation at 79%. It’s the elite politicians on the conservatives and liberals that are being the hold up, who haven’t face enough political consequences for opposing electoral reform in the first place.

Source

The provincial ndp need to get with the program and pass proportional representation already in BC and Manitoba!

The left was forced to consolidate behind the liberals due to the Trump stuff. It’s just not a safe environment to split the vote right now.

I mean, we have the Bloc Québécois, which I thank Quebec for because from my POV, we would already be there if it weren’t for the stubbornness of Quebeckers

Anyone in BC looking to make this happen, you can make your opinion known to the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia here: https://consultation-portal.leg.bc.ca/consultations/43

And that is why electoral reform is important; so that splitting the vote is not penalised.

Written from NZ who adopted MMP about 30 years ago.