The example of the 2002 presidential election that Mr. Côté used is very interesting to see the merits of a preferential vote. Le Pen got in just ahead of Jospin, the socialist candidate, because 25% of voters voted for other leftist parties.
If there had been a preferential vote instead of a two-round vote—two-round voting is partial preferential voting in which voters can give only two preferences, for which they must vote twice—from the early counting of the results, Jospin would have beat out Le Pen. Perhaps Jospin would have won the election, or Chirac would have won the election, but with a normal figure opposite Jospin.
The kind of drama that the French pretended to play in 2002 is entirely the result of a flawed electoral system. The French didn't know what a preferential system was.