So that was the election - I think we need to rethink and reform it

Yesterday's election that swept a Conservative majority to power has caused me to think about true representational democracy. The kind that we think we already have, but really don't. Canada's election system came to be through a long and tumultuous process, but the last reform of any significance (and even that - advance voting criteria - wasn't that significant) was in the 1990's - long before the advent of modern social media and the proliferation of smart phones. The unrepresentative situation we find ourselves in now can be easily solved with simple technology - years ago I could imagine the vote counting would be onerous - and people couldn't and wouldn't wait weeks for the results of an election. Today, though, we can get a good understanding of the results - offered to you any which way you'd like - almost immediately after the polls close. Here's what we have today - post election:

• Conservatives - 167 (54.2%) seats and 39.6% of popular vote
• Liberals - 34 seats (11.0%) seats and 18.9% of popular vote
• NDP - 102 (33.1%) seats and 30.6% of popular vote
• Green - 1 seat (0.3%) seats and 3.9% of popular vote
• Bloc - 4 (1.3%) seats and 6.0% of popular vote

If the seats were won with a proportion of the votes cast, here's how the Parliament would be arranged:

• Conservatives - 122 seats (over-represented by 43 seats)
• Liberals - 59 seats (under-represented by 25 seats)
• NDP - 95 seats (over-represented by 7 seats)
• Green - 13 seats (under-represented by 12 seats)
• Bloc - 19 seats  (under-represented by 15 seats)

So here are the reasons to reform the voting in this country:

• parties will get the number of seats they actually deserve
• every vote actually counts - because seats are given in proportion to popular vote
• the partie(s) that form the government will actually represent the majority of voters
• the parties would represent all of us - men/women/right/left/rural/urban

There are a few methods of fair voting, listed here. Pick one, any one - it's better than we have now.