Re:Beirut Port Explosion
by jeromegv on Thursday November 19, 2020 @09:16PM
(#25156713)
The typical third party in Canada is NDP, which has had support between 15-25% of the vote within the last decade depending on the election. Which is quite different and quite more than the Libertarian party in the USA which has a very negligible influence. They also have been in power within a few provinces quite frequently. I don't think Canada was your best pick to make your point.
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Canada has only ever been ruled by the liberal or conservative parties
NDP won fewer seats than Bloc Québécois in the last election. And it’s worth pointing out, I think, that the most prominent US politician who would be aligned with the NDP ideologically, Bernie Sanders, is actually an independent rather than a Democrat.
> NDP won fewer seats than Bloc Québécois
That's mostly because Bloc Québécois is concentrated in a specific province, and often specific parts of that province, while the NDP's support is spread across all the provinces.
It's the same in the UK, where the Lib Dems got triple the vote of the SNP, but less than a quarter of the seats.
Yes, as I pointed out, this is an artifact of how Duverger’s Law guarantees that first-past-the-post voting systems lead to two-party systems. BQ is one of the two parties in Quebec just as SNP is one of the two parties in Scotland.
Re:Beirut Port Explosion
by fingerlocks on Thursday November 19, 2020 @09:42PM
(#25156873)
Independents won almost 20% of the popular vote in the 1992 U.S. general election. Also hold more seats in Congress. That’s a more apt comparison, not the Libertarian Party.