The candidate that gets the most votes wins the riding. How is that not democratic?
There might be a candidate that is more preferred overall than the one that wins. FPTP allows relatively thin slices of the population to have total control over policy.
"The voting system has little to do with how people vote. And besides, strategic voting exists in all forms of balloting."
Bad argument... we should move toward systems that have lower degrees of strategic voting. And I call bullshit on your claim that the system has little to do with how people vote. I voted Liberal in this past election because my first choice, Green, hadn't a hope in hell of being elected. Strategic voting, baby. Under a preferential voting scheme, I wouldn't have to vote strategically.
"I would also have to say that, as a voter and as a citizen, I didn't get to choose the present electoral system, and I certainly did not get to pick what some appointed committee selected as the best replacement. I did get to say no to it, and did so - as did many other people."
Incorrect. If you voted for FPTP, then it wasn't imposed on you--YOU CHOSE IT.
"I we're going to make any change, here it is. In any one riding, all the candidates run. Afterward, another election is run between only the top two candidates. In this fashion, every riding will have 51% or more representation.
This would also stop most of the loser candidates/parties that never expect to win, but run only to make a point or to dilute the vote. We'd certainly never have to hear about the Family Coalition Party, Communist Party, Green Party, and all those hacks who'll never win. Instead, those of Communist, Green or Religious/Family leanings will have to push their "realistically plausible chance of winning" candidates to represent their issues."
What you propose is basically what they use to elect Presidents in France. It's fine, I guess, but it would be more efficient than having two ballots cast to just have electors rank candidates in order of preference, dropping the lowest and reallocating those votes by next preference until someone has 50%+1. Also known as alternative vote. It was basically my preferred option for the referendum, but when life hands you lemons (CA picking MMP), you might as well make lemonade.
Now we continue to be stuck with the system that gave us such wonderful governments as those of Rae and Harris. I used that argument to convince people to vote for MMP, actually: under MMP, Rae would probably never have been Premier.