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A small change, as I say — and yet the change in outcomes it portends is potentially vast. The first difference has already been stated: whereas under first past the post the winner in a field of, say, five candidates can take as little as 20 per cent of the vote, under a ranked ballot system a majority is always required.

But it’s the changes in incentives, for candidates and voters alike, that really marks this as a revolution. Under first past the post, the advantage goes to the candidate with the most solid core of supporters. You don’t need a majority: what you need is a devoted 20 per cent that you know will turn out to vote.

It would be the first time a system of proportional representation had been seen anywhere in Canada in decades

So the incentive for the candidate is to do everything he can to divide people: to unite and motivate his supporters to turn out, in part by emphasizing how much they are despised by the others, and how much they despise them in their turn. Torontonians, in particular, will be familiar with this as the electoral modus operandi of Rob Ford, but it has ample parallels in provincial and federal politics.

Under a ranked ballot system, by contrast, victory goes to the candidate who can assemble a broad base of support. That’s rarely possible just with voters’ first choices. So that means reaching out to the supporters of other candidates for their second- and third-choices. You’re unlikely to succeed at that if you’ve been busy telling your supporters that the other candidates, or their supporters, bear the mark of the Antichrist, or sip foam lattes, or whatever other terms of abuse you prefer.