La réalisatrice Franco-Ontarienne Andréanne Germain amène deux Québécois à Québec le jour de la St-Jean pour porter de grands drapeaux Franco-Ontariens afin qu’ils comprennent mieux notre situation dans “Pis nous autre dans tout ça?”

What: Fair Vote Canada National AGM (open to non-members)
Date: Saturday 29th of May 2010
Time: 8:30-5:00 pm
Location: University of Ottawa, Desmarais Building, 55 Laurier Ave East, 12th floor - Room 12102
Wheelchair access: Yes

Price: 10$-60$, depending on income type and food
Registration & agenda: http://fairvotecanada2010.eventbrite.com/

More info: 416-410-4034 or email office@fairvote.ca

Join us to learn about and discuss the issues, strategy and tactics for advancing the fight for fair voting and proportional representation at all levels of government.

Featured speakers include…

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Yesterday I was having a chat with an employee at a Subway in Ottawa. I noticed the sign about vegies being unavailable because of weird weather. I commented on it, asking if this is a first. She said it had come up years ago, but she was surprised how long it had been up there.

Climate change? Maybe Subway shareholders should start donating to the Green Party of Canada so we can catch up on the rest of the world with real action on climate change.

Call it “risk mitigation”. Or job creation in a green economy.

And if Subway could instruct their employees to ask “Do you want a bag?” instead of “Is it to go?”, maybe they’d start saving on plastic.

Date: Tuesday 27th of April
Time: 7 pm
Location: Sandy Hill Community Centre, 250 Sommerset St.
Wheelchair access: Yes
Transit routes:
- #16 brings you at the door
- #5 brings you within walking distance
- Campus transitway station within walking distance

Elizabeth May, electoral reform supporter and leader of the federal Green Party will provide a keynote address at our annual general meeting. We are pleased to welcome Ms. May, author of “Losing Confidence: Power, Politics and the Crisis in Canadian Democracy” to address the democratic deficit in Canada and the pressing need for electoral reform. The meeting will be held Tuesday April 27th at the Sandy Hill Community Center (Somerset E./Nelson) at 7 pm. Elections for positions on the executive will be held.

Open to the public at large. Free entrance. Donations are appreciated and will go to the Ottawa chapter of Fair Vote Canada. (http://ottawa.fairvote.ca)

A $10 first-year membership or a $25 membership renewal, available at the meeting, is necessary to vote in elections or on motions.

You may RSVP
- On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=106513656046126
- On Meetup.com: http://www.meetup.com/fvc-ottawa/calendar/13218170/

My volunteer efforts with Fair Vote Canada were recognized just recently. Needless to say, I feel good about it.

“Julien Lamarche: executive committee member National Capital Region Chapter, for his ongoing contributions to Fair Vote campaigns over the past year. He organized a phone bank in Ottawa to help raise money and support for the BC referendum campaign, organized phone banks for the membership renewal drive, and is coordinating a webcast* of the upcoming AGM.”
– http://www.fairvote.ca/en/we-salute-these-distinguished-volunteers

*Note: the webcasting is turning out to be more expensive than we expected, so it may not happen. I’ll take credit for the other things that I made happen though

“Religious freedom was first put in the human rights code to protect the right to worship without interference from the government,” said Hawkes [Rev. Brent Hawkes of the Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto]. “It was not meant to protect people who use religion to attack others.”

– http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/788900–does-god-care-if-i-m-gay-ads-pulled-from-ttc

Provincial seat inequities pale in comparison to voting system distortions

Today the Harper government moved to add 30 seats to the House of Commons to reflect the growing populations of Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia – but failed to address a more egregious problem: the partisan inequities created by the electoral system.
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Join us for the 9th annual meeting and conference of Fair Vote Canada at the University of Ottawa campus on Saturday, May 29.

Confirmed speakers include Dr. Peter Russell, professor emeritus, minority government expert; Judy Rebick, author, Transforming Power; Dr. Robert Macdermid, campaign finance reform expert; Walter Robinson, Principal, Tactix Government Relations and Public Affairs; Dr. Carolyn Bennett, MP, Liberal Party; and Vanessa Gordon, CAPP Montreal activist. Details on the agenda and additional speakers will be available soon.

Wilf Day made a very good blog post about how electoral reform would actually help the Liberals, not diminish their power. Although the post finishes with matters only of interest for electoral system geeks, he gets a point across of why Liberals should care, but Liberal leadership isn’t.

However, others think 12 fewer Liberal MPs from the GTA are more important than 17 more federalist MPs from Quebec. They think 12 fewer Liberal MPs from the GTA are more important than 18 or 26 more Liberal MPs from regions like Alberta where Liberal voters were unrepresented or under-represented.

Read more here.

I didn’t have a chance to speak at the rally because I contacted the rally organizers too late. But our mission is so connected to prorogation issue and the lack of cooperation we see in parliament. So here’s my speech for your consideration.

My name is Julien Lamarche and I’m with the Ottawa chapter of Fair Vote Canada. I joined Fair Vote because I think allot of the problems we see in Canadian politics is a consequence of our electoral system, known as first past the post or winner take all.

It has this funny trait called plurality. Plurality means that you only need 1 more vote than any other candidate to win an election. For example, across the river, in Gatineau, the wining candidate got 29% support of all the voters who took the time to cast a ballot. The remaining 70% go unrepresented.

But the lack of representation goes beyond a few ridings. Across Canada in that same election, 51% of all votes didn’t go to a winning candidate. Our electoral system produced more unrepresented voters than represented ones!
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