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Rural–urban proportional representation (RUP), also called Flexible District PR, is a hybrid proportional system designed by
Fair Vote Canada
Fair Vote Canada (FVC) (french: Represéntation équitable au Canada) is a grassroots, nonprofit, multi-partisan citizens' movement for electoral reform in Canada. Headquartered in Kitchener, Ontario, it promotes the introduction of an element o ...
with the intention of meeting the special challenges of Canada's geography, which includes wide-flung, sparsely populated areas. As conceived in general terms by Fair Vote Canada, the rural–urban proportional model combines the use of multi-member ridings and top-up seats to meet the different needs of both rural and urban areas, while protecting the objective of proportionality. Sweden, Denmark and Iceland use similar voting models.
A version of rural–urban proportional was proposed in 2018 as one of three systems which could have been adopted in
British Columbia
British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...
had voters decided to adopt a proportional voting system in a
2018 referendum in the province. This version of rural–urban proportional would have used
single transferable vote
Single transferable vote (STV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which voters cast a single vote in the form of a ranked-choice ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vote may be transferred according to alternate p ...
(STV) in urban and semi-urban areas and
mixed-member proportional representation
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) in rural areas.
Rural–urban proportional is the only proportional voting system proposed in BC's 2018 electoral reform referendum to include an approach previously used in Canada. Alberta and Manitoba used STV in major cities and single-member ridings in rural areas to elect provincial
members of the Legislative Assembly
A member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is a representative elected by the voters of a constituency to a legislative assembly. Most often, the term refers to a subnational assembly such as that of a state, province, or territory of a country. ...
(MLAs) for 30 years.
In a country like Canada, which already has some ridings of considerable geographic size, rural–urban proportional allows for the creation of smaller multi-member ridings, or even the retention of some single-member ridings, in rural areas. In more densely-populated areas, it gives voters more choice of candidates to choose from and ensures representation by a number of elected representatives from different parties or points of view, including independents. The use of ranked ballot under the single transferable vote allows voters to more fully express their preferences than otherwise.
Background
Rural–urban proportional was devised in response to a suggestion made by former
Chief Electoral Officer Jean-Pierre Kingsley
Jean-Pierre Kingsley (born July 12, 1943) is a Canadian civil servant and businessman who served as the president and CEO of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES). He was the chief electoral officer of Elections Canada befor ...
to the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...
Special Committee on Electoral Reform on July 7, 2016. He proposed the idea of having proportional multi-member ridings of 4–5 representatives in urban areas while retaining single-member ridings in rural areas.
Proposed usage in Canada
A version of rural–urban proportional was proposed as one of three PR systems to be adopted in
British Columbia
British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...
(BC) had voters decided to adopt a proportional voting system in a
2018 referendum in the province.
It was the only proportional voting system proposed in BC's 2018 electoral reform referendum to include a proportional voting system previously used in Canada: Alberta and Manitoba used multi-member STV in major cities to elect provincial
members of the Legislative Assembly
A member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is a representative elected by the voters of a constituency to a legislative assembly. Most often, the term refers to a subnational assembly such as that of a state, province, or territory of a country. ...
(MLAs) for 30 years from the 1920s to the 1950s.
This approach produced proportional outcomes in the cities where STV was used, but not in rural areas, which used STV's non-proportional single-member equivalent,
instant-runoff voting
Instant-runoff voting (IRV) is a type of ranked preferential voting method. It uses a majority voting rule in single-winner elections where there are more than two candidates. It is commonly referred to as ranked-choice voting (RCV) in the Un ...
(IRV), in single-member ridings. As a result, and because rural seats comprised a large proportion of the total, the overall election results under this system were not proportional. Rural–urban proportional as proposed for BC would have had similar combination of two electoral systems but would use mixed-member proportional in rural areas, which would ensure proportional results province-wide.
Comparison to other proportional systems
As originally conceived by Fair Vote Canada, rural–urban proportional requires the incorporation of fewer top-up seats compared to MMP because the use of multi-member ridings would include a more proportional base to begin with. It is estimated that only 10–15% top-up seats would be needed, versus 40% under MMP.
The inclusion of the rural–urban proportional option in the BC referendum reflects lessons learned from previous referendums in British Columbia and other Canadian jurisdictions, particularly with respect to concerns about previously proposed systems requiring vast rural ridings to achieve proportionality.
Design and operation
Rural–urban PR as envisaged for BC is a hybrid of two electoral options for achieving proportional representation: STV and MMP. Urban areas would use the single transferable vote for elections and rural areas would use the mixed-member proportional system.
In urban and semi-urban areas using STV, existing urban ridings would join together to form multi-member ridings and typically electing 3–7 MLAs using
ranked ballot
A ranking is a relationship between a set of items such that, for any two items, the first is either "ranked higher than", "ranked lower than" or "ranked equal to" the second.
In mathematics, this is known as a weak order or total preorder of ...
. The candidates elected would reflect the popular vote of the voters in these larger, multi-member ridings. The use of a ranked ballot permits a high degree of voter choice by permitting voters to rank preferences for multiple candidates. For urban and semi-urban voters, this makes rural–urban proportional very similar to
BC-STV
BC-STV is the proposed voting system recommended by the Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform in October 2004 for use in British Columbia, and belongs to the single transferable vote family of voting systems. BC-STV was supported by a majority (5 ...
.
In rural ridings using MMP, voters would have two votes: one to elect their local MLA, and another that would be used to elect a regional MLA to ensure the proportionality of overall results in rural regions. Their first vote on the ballot would be used to elect a local MLA in the same way as the current first-past-the-post (FPTP) electoral system: the candidate with the most votes would be elected. The second vote would be used in either an
open list
Open list describes any variant of party-list proportional representation where voters have at least some influence on the order in which a party's candidates are elected. This is as opposed to closed list, which allows only active members, par ...
or
closed list
Closed list describes the variant of party-list systems where voters can effectively only vote for political parties as a whole; thus they have no influence on the party-supplied order in which party candidates are elected. If voters had some inf ...
system in which voters select either a candidate or party to represent them at a regional level. However, it is expected that only open list have any real likelihood of being implemented. These regional MLAs are used as "top-ups" so that overall proportionality is achieved in rural regional areas, given the lack of proportionality that results from first-past-the-post elections. Top-up MLAs would be elected using regional party lists. A commitment has been made that no region will lose ridings under any of the three proposed electoral systems in the
2018 electoral reform referendum.
Support
Rural–urban proportional was one of three "made-in-Canada" systems endorsed by
Fair Vote Canada
Fair Vote Canada (FVC) (french: Represéntation équitable au Canada) is a grassroots, nonprofit, multi-partisan citizens' movement for electoral reform in Canada. Headquartered in Kitchener, Ontario, it promotes the introduction of an element o ...
in its submission to the 2016 Special Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reform. The other two were MMP and STV.
Fair Voting BC gave rural–urban proportional its highest ranking in its scorecard of proportional voting systems. During the federal government's consultation on electoral reform at the federal level in 2016,
both the
New Democratic Party of Canada
The New Democratic Party (NDP; french: Nouveau Parti démocratique, NPD) is a federal political party in Canada. Widely described as social democratic,The party is widely described as social democratic:
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and
Green Party of Canada
The Green Party of Canada (french: Parti vert du Canada) is a federal political party in Canada, founded in 1983 with a focus on green politics.
The Green Party is currently the fifth largest party in the House of Commons by seat count. It el ...
recommended Canada adopt either RUP or MMP.
References
External links
How We Vote Consultation website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rural-urban proportional representation
Proportional representation electoral systems
Electoral reform in Canada
Preferential electoral systems
Mixed electoral systems