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From: brad@looking.UUCP
Newsgroups: can.politics
Subject: Re: N.B. Elections
Message-ID: <1077@looking.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 25-Oct-87 23:56:58 EST
Article-I.D.: looking.1077
Posted: Sun Oct 25 23:56:58 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 27-Oct-87 06:45:22 EST
References: <1168@water.waterloo.edu> <1665@ubc-cs.UUCP> <1010@utflis.UUCP> <1051@looking.UUCP> <2885@hcr.UUCP>
Reply-To: brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton)
Distribution: can
Organization: Looking Glass Software Ltd.
Lines: 22

In article <2885@hcr.UUCP> jimr@hcr.UUCP (Jim Robinson) writes:
>What seems to me to be a reasonable compromise is to have a threshold
>which a party has to reach in order to qualify for seats. In West
>Germany 5% is required. That way extreme fringe and/or frivolous groups
>are excluded, yet proportional representation is, for the most part,
>achieved.
>
>J.B. Robinson

Why so high?  With 25,000,000 people, a party with 2% of the vote would
represent 500,000 people (around 200,000 voters).  This is hardly what
I would call "extreme fringe."

Would even 125,000 people be an "extreme fringe" at .5 %.  To suggest that
anything less than 1,250,000 people is fringe or frivolous is silly.
Minority viewpoint deserves serious attention in this country.

If 1% of the population voted rhino, they deserve 2 seats in our 263 seat
house.  The fact that some people find our political system silly should
not be squashed.
-- 
Brad Templeton, Looking Glass Software Ltd. - Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473