John Ivison: Social conservatives determined to play big role in choosing next federal Tory leader

Whether we like it or not, minority voices exist in this country, and deserve a voice, no matter how much we might disagree with them. Or agree with them (as has been my case as a minority voice for environmental issues for close to 30 years.)

I'd rather people have a legitimate option to vote for candidates that closely represent their views, than try to guess which of the large parties do and ultimately feel unrepresented.

When it comes to how much power these voices will have, I'm not sure it will change much if their voices have MP's. As it is, major parties identify the cluster of minority views that will let them win elections when added to their base, and try to appeal to them in campaigns. This leads them to compromise at a party platform level.

With views represented in Parliament, the compromise happens at the formation of a coalition government. Minorities still get to play kingmaker, I guess, but the parties become more distinct, making the whole makeup of government easier to parse. You can see that pretty easily when you look at NZ or Germany.

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