Fair results: Parties receive seats in proportion to their

support. Unlike first-past-the-post and other winner-take-all
systems, with proportional ranked choice voting there will
be a much closer correspondence between vote shares
and seats won than with our current system.

 

Voter Choice: Proportional ranked choice voting is a
candidate-centered system. It usually gives voters a
choice of candidates of the same party, and allows voters
to rank candidates in any order, across party lines. This
gives voters the freedom to put more emphasis on the
party or on the qualities of individual candidates in
making their choices.

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One the reasons the BC Citizens' Assembly recommended

it was because they felt it put more power in the hands

of voters, not parties. 

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As this video from the Irish Times states, "The power the Irish voting system gives the voters to decide which personality, which actual politician, they want represented is extraordinary."

One of the "weaknesses" of proportional ranked choice voting identified during the learning phase of the BC Citizens' Assembly was "It has the potential to weaken party control of candidates and members of parliament." Obviously not everyone feels such a slight shift towards MP independence is a weakness.

Proportional ranked choice voting also also gives popular independent candidates a better chance of being elected.

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Almost Eliminating Strategic Voting: Compared to other voting systems, including other proportional models for Canada, proportional ranked choice voting is extremely resistant to the manipulation of strategic voting. Imagine how hard it would be to organize a strategic voting campaign whose success depends on understanding how voters will rank candidates first, second, third and so on and the order in which votes will be transferred!  This system encourages voters to be sincere in their choices, knowing that about 90% of voters will help elect an MP.

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Making Almost Every Vote Count: PR systems aim to make as many votes as possible affect the makeup of Parliament. . With our current system, only 48% of voters voted for their MP - 52% of voters elected nobody. With STV, about 90% of voters will have an MP they helped elect.

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Stable, Collaborative Governments: Over 80% of

OECD countries use some form of PR, and most are

governed by majority coalition governments

representing a majority of voters. These governments are

just as stable as single-party governments elected with

winner-take-all voting, and tend to produce policies closer

to the views of the median voter.

As the Electoral Reform Society notes in its report on the

successful introduction of PR-STV in Scotland:

 

It is clear that political parties have to embrace the new environment of coalition administration, and move away from the outdated language of who ‘won’ or ‘lost’ the election. With STV, parties represent different proportions of the electorate, and have to try to work together for a greater good, as opposed to pursuing overtly partisan objectives on the false premise that they alone have the right to drive policy on the basis of 20-30% of the electorate that actually voted for them.

 

Representation of Diversity: With proportional representation, seats in each region of Canada would reflect the diversity of opinion. No longer could the Conservatives sweep every seat in Alberta, the Bloc every seat in Quebec, the Liberals every seat in Toronto. And when parties offer voters the choice of more than one candidate, PR systems elect more women and minorities, naturally.
 

Strong Local Representation: All proportional

systems designed for Canada have local representation

built in. Proportional ranked choice voting means voters
elect a team of representatives from their local riding,
and almost every voter has an MP he/she helped elect.
 

Having more than one MP means having choice,

as well as increasing the responsiveness of each MP

to local constituents.
 

As an elected representative in Scotland said of his fellow
representatives after they switched from first-past-the-post
to PR- STV, “They’ve been very, very good for me.
Particularly the conservative candidate in this ward has
worked really hard, it’s kept me on my toes…it’s very
healthy. It doesn’t allow any candidates to rest on their
laurels.”

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