What is Reddit's opinion of Patterns of Democracy: Government Forms and Performance in Thirty-Six Countries?

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No, honestly knowing many of the Liberal apparatchik they don't really care about these one way or the other. They are looking for a wedge issue to drive voters and they believe they have founds one. Probably their internal polling is telling them this.

I believe they are wrong (they are going too far now, and will lose more votes ont heir current path than what they gain) but the bigger question is why they need the wedge issues to start with. The answer is the winner-take-all voting system we all know called First Past the Post, where they will get rewarded by polarizing the electorate and dividing people. They politicize issues unnecessary - every party is rewarded for doing this under our system - and this leads directly to worse policy. It has been studied for decades and proven that - in this case security and public safety policy - is measurably poorer under majoritarian (winner-take-all) systems than under consensus-style (proportional) systems.

You can expect more of this type of stuff until we change our voting system.

>It’s not about banning hunting. It’s about driving a wedge between the conservatives and moderate swing voters in the 905

It is true that this is not even about hunting riles or guns at all. You are right that it is about finding a wedge issue to drive voters. But the bigger question is: why do they need to find these wedge issues to divide the electorate and pit groups of people against one another?

The answer is a winner-take-all voting system: First past the post. Because we have FPTP, parties will always look for wedge issues, look to unnecessarily politicize issues, and be much more partisan than they need to be. Look at Legault in Quebec, at Trudeau in Ottawa, heck look south of the border (they also use a FPTP voting system).

It has been studied and proven that winner-take-all systems like FPTP produce worse government policy, in particular the area of security and public safety policies. These systems certainly don't reflect the will of the people in election results - both in terms of # of sets a party gets, as well as the policies enacted ...this latest rifle ban is a great example (most Canadians are against it, even non-firearms owners).

But most people in this sub and this country generally will not connect the dots, or refuse to admit our outdated electoral system needs updating, and continue to grumble and complain about the symptoms rather than cure the disease (and No: the "disease" is not Trudeau ...it could just as well be anyone else in power you don't agree with. Getting rid of Trudeau is jut putting a temporary band-aid on a chronic sickness; even if Pierre Polievere got in and reversed the hunting rifle ban, it is only a matter of time before someone else gets in to reverse the reversal yet again. For God's sake get off this unstable roller-coaster).

Want good policy? We need to add an element of proportional representation to our voting system. Yes we can still have local representatives just like today, and yes we can vote directly for "regional" or "party" representatives instead of allowing parties to elect them off lists (called open list). No, it will be nothing like "Italy or Israel" - these are not the same systems at all.

I've said my bit, now r/Canada readers can downvote away as usual, and continue suffering.

You're missing the forest for the trees.

Even if you suppose more real issue dimensions (which is another way in which FPTP restricts voter choice), the Democratic Party will move toward policy n-dimensional policy positions that appeal to greater densities of voters. Given how voters are distributed, there are more voters available by moving away from the Greens than moving toward them in this n-dimensional policy space.