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Before we get to comparisons with Canada, let’s recap Australia’s recent leadership history. Kevin Rudd, leader of the Labor party, became Prime Minister in 2007. He was ousted by his deputy, Julia Gillard, in 2010, who was in turn ousted by Rudd three years later. Fed up with Labor’s shenanigans, Australians dumped Rudd three months after his return and replaced him with a Liberal coalition under Tony Abbott. One peculiarity of Australian politics is that “Liberal” means “Conservative.” When Abbott proved too Conservative — and outright goofy at times —his party dumped him for Malcolm Turnbull, a former chairman of Goldman Sachs Australia, who was seen as a safe pair of hands.

Turnbull called Saturday’s vote because he felt his agenda was being blocked by the Senate. Usually, Australians vote separately for the Senate and the lower house, but Turnbull gambled on taking both to the polls at the same time. He evidently lost the bet: his solid majority disappeared and, as of Monday, the two major parties were in a virtual tie. If Labor emerges on top, Australians could have their sixth prime minister in six years.

So much for the stability of ranked voting systems. Australians are required to vote by law, a feature Trudeau’s Liberals are considering. Its employs a ranked ballot, which Trudeau is also said to favour. Australians mark their preferences in order: voters mark a “1” beside their top pick, a “2” beside their second favourite, and so on through the list of candidates. If no candidate gets a majority on the first go-round, the bottom candidate is dropped and the votes re-allocated until someone tops 50%. So the candidate in second place (or even third) could win if he/she has more support from the bottom of the list. Confusing as it sounds, Canada’s Liberals like the idea because they figure they’ll usually be picked #2 by NDP supporters, making it easy to regularly beat both the NDP and Conservatives.