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Until and unless we get ranked voting, we're stuck using the shit two-party system if we want to actually have a chance for our votes matter.
No you're not.
I'm Canadian. We have first past the post. Largely its a toss up between 1 of 2 parties federally but our far left party has won provincial elections and was within spitting distance of winning federally in recent memory.
It isnt fptp that's prevenring you from electing a third party. Its your share delusion that it can't happen.
Your election system allowed Doug Ford to win the Premiership of Ontario with 2.3 million votes, despite the NDP winning 1.9 million votes and the Liberal party winning 1.1 million votes. In fact, Ford won Ontario with a net margin of victory of -991,722 votes. That is to say, he lost the popular vote by almost a million votes, and still win the majority of seats. Here's a few highlights
8 ridings went for the Progressive Conservatives in a margin narrower than 1000. These are:
Had less than 1000 people in each of these ridings from the smaller left wing party given their votes to the larger left-wing party, 8 seats would have been taken from the Progressive Conservatives (leaving them with 68 seats), and the NDP would have gained 7 seats (47) and the Libs would have gained 1 (going up to 8).
This is the same for another 23 ridings, but with a larger margin of victory. These ridings were nevertheless won by fewer votes than were sent to the smaller left-wing party. If we subtract these 23 seats, the PCs would have been down to 45 seats, enough for the NDP to have more seats before we allocate these 23 seats between the Libs, NDP, and Greens.
I like a lot of things about Canada, but I don't like this fact about your country, and I don't want it imported into the United States. Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania went to Trump in 2016 not because more people voted for Trump's policies than against them, but because enough people bought the bullshit that Clinton was corrupt and no better than Trump and voted third party or stayed home. Had the Stein voters used a bit of common sense and rethought their votes, we could have avoided 4 years of utter shitshow here. Canadian politics won't help us here. All we need to do is look at your province of Ontario and see that clear as day.
An interesting thought exercise. What if Ontario used Proportional Representation. Ford would have gotten 76 seats, but he'd have seen an Ontario Parliament that was 187 or 188 seats. Of these:
We'd have to amend the US constitution to make this happen here, but I think you guys could just do it with a law there. But this is what ifs and coulda-bens. The as-is shows clearly why we don't want to import your political system here. Democrats would never win an election again if we split our votes like Ontarians split theirs...
strategic voting consolidates parties. values voting is the only way to elect someone with your own values.