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Fair Vote Canada Newsletter
July 22, 2003
In this issue ...
-- Sign Our Online Petition
-- Next Quebec
Election Will Be Proportional
-- Study Shows Nova Scotia
Elections Waste a Majority of Votes Cast -- FVC Commends New
Brunswick Premier's Pledge
-- FVC Calls for Better PR Models in
PEI
-- More Campaign Endorsements
-- Sign Our
Online Petition The Make Every Vote Count petition is now online.
You can add your name to the list of Canadians from across the
country and across the political spectrum who support Fair Vote
Canada's campaign. With your support, we will make Canadian
elections more democratic and our representatives more accountable.
Sign the petition at http://www.fairvotecanada.org/petition.php
After adding your name, you can send a message through the website
to friends and colleagues whom you'd like to tell about the online
petition. Please help circulate the news and build our movement for
fair voting! -- Next Quebec Election Will Be Proportional Quebec
will abolish the current voting system in favour of proportional
elections in time for the next provincial election. Minister
responsible for Reform of Democratic Institutions, Jacques Dupuis,
said on July 9, "There is a big enough consensus in our society for
us to go ahead. That is the mandate I have received from the
Premier." Prior to last spring's provincial election, the Parti
Quebecois government announced its intention of adopting a
proportional voting system. The project has been taken up by the new
Liberal government. The third party in the National Assembly, Action
Démocratique du Quebec, also favours the move. At the
Estates-General, held in February, 90 per cent of the participants â
over 800 Quebecers from across the province â voted in support of
proportional representation. -- Study Shows Nova Scotia Elections
Waste a Majority of Votes Cast According to a study of provincial
elections between 1980 and 2000 conducted by Fair Vote Canada, more
than half of the votes cast (50.2%) by Nova Scotians did not produce
political representation for those voters. During the period of the
study, only Ontario voters were less likely than Nova Scotians to be
represented as they wished. Political scientists call these âwasted
votesâ, which are a result of our widely discredited winner-take-all
voting system,â explained Larry Gordon, executive director of Fair
Vote Canada. âUnder our current voting system, the only voters who
win political representation are those who support the most popular
candidate in their riding. Winner-take-all is just what it says.
One group of voters wins the right to representation, while the
others lose that right.â Nova Scotians go to the polls August 5 in
what appears to be a close competition between the governing Tories,
the Liberals and the NDP. The current voting system also frequently
creates phony majority governments, in which one party wins a
majority of seats without winning a majority of the popular vote.
The 54 provincial elections between 1980 and 2000 produced 33 phony
majority governments. The last Nova Scotia election was a classic
case, where the voting system allowed the PCs to win a majority of
seats with only 39% of the popular vote. -- FVC Commends New
Brunswick Premier's Pledge Fair Vote Canada commended Premier
Bernard Lord for his election promise to establish a commission to
study proportional representation for New Brunswick. The commitment
to an electoral reform study came partway through the provincial
election campaign in May, and two weeks after Fair Vote Canada
released a report identifying New Brunswick as the province with the
most distorted election outcomes. Premier Lordâs commitment is
included in the âReaching Higher, Going Furtherâ platform released
on May 26. The platform states:Â âBernard Lordâs plan will focus on
strengthening democracy by establishing a commission on legislative
democracy to study the concept of proportional representation, fixed
election dates and other mechanisms.â -- FVC Calls for Better PR
Models in PEI FVC Atlantic Canada coordinator J'Nan Brown made a
presentation at the public consultations of the Electoral Reform
Commission in PEI in June. Ms Brown commended the commission for its
focus on key issues, but called for the developments of several
voting system models for PEI that will deliver broadly proportional
election results. -- More Campaign Endorsements Fair Vote Canada
is proud to receive official endorsements for its campaign from the
Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) and
the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW). OPEIU has 11,500
members who work for large and small employers in both the public
and private industry sectors, including the utility industry,
tourism and travel, education, information technology, call centers,
research, manufacturing, insurance and transit industries. CUPW's
membership includes a variety of Canada Post workers plus new
members such as couriers, emergency medical dispatchers, and
warehouse workers. FVC has previously received endorsements from
various unions, including the Canadian Labour Congress, and other
organizations such as the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. -- Chapter
and Caucus News For information about activities
of the Fair Vote Canada chapter in your area check the Chapters page
in the About Us section of the website, www.fairvotecanada.org
. If you are interested in helping
start a local chapter in your area, please contact [email protected]
or phone 416-410-4034 |
