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referendum A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of a ...
was held in the
Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''Roman province, provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire ...
of
Prince Edward Island Prince Edward Island (PEI; ) is one of the thirteen Provinces and territories of Canada, provinces and territories of Canada. It is the smallest province in terms of land area and population, but the most densely populated. The island has seve ...
on November 28, 2005, to determine whether to adopt the
Mixed Member Proportional Mixed-member proportional representation (MMP or MMPR) is a mixed electoral system in which votes cast are considered in local elections and also to determine overall party vote tallies, which are used to allocate additional members to produce ...
(MMP) syste
as recommended by the Prince Edward Island Electoral Reform Commission
in 2003. The referendum failed, with "Yes" receiving only 36.42% of the popular vote. However, a subsequent nonbinding plebiscite in November 2016 resulted in a vote of 52.4% in favour of MMP vs. 42.5% for the First-past-the-post system. This was followed by a referendum pitting FPTP and MMP against each other in conjunction with the April 23, 2019 provincial election. The result of that referendum was 49% for MMP vs. 51% for FPTP, but neither side reached the threshold of a majority in 60% of the seats for the referendum to be binding.


Results

The question asked was: ''Should Prince Edward Island change to the Mixed Member Proportional System as presented by the Commission of PEI's Electoral Future? '' * In order to pass, the referendum had to receive 60% of the province-wide
popular vote Popularity or social status is the quality of being well liked, admired or well known to a particular group. Popular may also refer to: In sociology * Popular culture * Popular fiction * Popular music * Popular science * Populace, the total ...
and a simple majority in 60% (16 of 27) of the electoral districts.


Analysis

The referendum was held in response to some extraordinarily lopsided results in PEI from the first-past-the post system - cases where the opposition was reduced to only one or two seats despite having a combined 45% share of the vote. The referendum failed to pass by a vote of 64% to 36% in favour of the status quo for a number of reasons, but for
Jeannie Lea Sarah Jean "Jeannie" Lea is a former Canadian politician. She was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island in the 1993 provincial election. She represented the electoral district of 6th Queens and was a member of the Liberal ...
, the primary lesson to be learned appears to be the need for a referendum such as this to be done as a two-step process, in which the first step is to ask whether a change is considered desirable and the second step involves the choice of a specific model, as was done successfully in New Zealand under the 1992/93 referendum. Otherwise, a bias is created because some people will vote against the proposed because they would prefer something somewhat different. On the other hand, in a 2018 referendum held in the Canadian province of British Columbia, which included a two step question, the voters rejected switching to proportional representation (PR) voting by a similar (61% to 39%) margin.


References


External links


Elections PEI
{{PEIElections 2005 in Prince Edward Island 2005 elections in Canada 2005 referendums Referendums in Prince Edward Island Electoral reform referendums in Canada November 2005 events in Canada