What if your vote had more impact?

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/09/2021 (1677 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A parliament formed using our current “first-past-the-post” (FPTP) electoral system does not reflect the way Canadians vote. Some have referred to it as “phony democracy”.

Under the winner-takes-all-system, votes are tied to a single riding or constituency and only count when they pick the winning candidate. Otherwise, a vote is wasted,  if you will.

Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. still use this antiquated system. Politicians and their leaders are in a conflict of interest, refusing to change a system that keeps them in power. 

The first line on Fair Vote Canada’s website states: “No party with 39 (per cent) of the vote should get 100 per cent of the power.”

FVC spokesperson Réal Lavergne says the proportional representation electoral system, or PR, uses a multi-member approach to elections. If 20 per cent of voters choose party X in a 10-member district, Party X will win 2 seats. Every vote would count to help determine how many seats Party X would win. 

According to Lavergne, 94 countries use some form of PR. FVC has developed a made-in-Canada proposal called Rural-Urban PR. For more information and diagrams on proportional representation, go to: www.fairvote.ca/a-look-at-the-evidence/ 

We’ve heard a lot about New Zealand’s successful pandemic response. That country, now led by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, switched in 1996 from a FPTP to a mixed-member proportional representation (MMP) system.  

Since then, all New Zealand governments have been minority governments or coalitions of two or more political parties. Many more countries, such as Germany, Scotland and Wales use some form of proportional representation. 

Proportional representation helps keep governments accountable and more efficient with less mismanagement. Instead of old boys’ clubs thriving on competition and partisanship, PR usually results in a coalition or alliance of parties.   

I asked four federal parties (the Liberals, the Conservative party of Canada, the NDP and the Greens) the following question:

“Will you implement electoral reform if you are in power?”  

The NDP responded the same day saying: “A New Democrat government will bring in MMP that works for Canada.” 

The Greens responded the next day, saying: “The Green party unequivocally supports moving to a system of proportional representation,”  

A few days later, the Liberals were evasive in their response saying they were “working every day to engage and involve Canadians from all walks of life in our electoral process and democratic institutions.”

I’m going to take that as a “no.” The Conservative Party did not respond. 

“The appetite for change is growing every day among citizens. They are fed up with a noxiously divisive, hyper-partisan form of politics, ” Lavergne said.

FVC has undertaken massive non-partisan campaign across the country to encourage citizens to put pressure on candidates to commit to a citizens’ assembly on electoral reform.

“FVC is calling on politicians who are in obvious conflict of interest on electoral reform to acknowledge that unethical dilemma and recuse themselves, at least partially, from such a citizens’ assembly,” Lavergne said.

The Conservative or Liberal parties have exclusively and alternately held power federally during all of Canada’s history. Our country is overdue for real change. First, we need to alter the system that installs political parties and dictates how their leaders govern. Your vote for a party that supports PR would be a move in that direction.