Not Bloody Likely

John Ibbotson writes in today's Globe that a hung Parliament in the UK could lead to a referendum on proportional representation in the UK and thereby advance the same debate in Canada. However, such a referendum is highly unlikely to succeed, or advance the cause of proportional representation in Canada. Why would supporters of Britain’s Labour and Conservative Parties, who together received 65% of the votes and who each benefit from the current system by receiving about 140 more seats than their share of the popular vote would entitle them to under PR, vote en masse, to change to an electoral system where their seats, and therefore their power, was much less? It boggles the imagination! Let's be realistic. The only beneficiaries of proportional representation in the UK are a minority -- the 35% of the electorate who voted for Liberal Democrats and other smaller parties, but who only received 13% of the seats. For Labour, or even the Tories for that matter, to give the Liberal Democrats their referendum on PR will be like giving free ice in winter – the political cost should be close to zero.

The only way proportional representation will come to Britain will be if it enacts a law to do so and does not hold a referendum. Otherwise it won't happen.