The membership process for Fair Vote Canada was quick and straightforward, and will cost less than my lunch today.
– Mike Soron

Are you tired of the many elections? Would you like your vote to count without having to vote strategically? Would you like to have a greater diversity of men, women and ethnicities? Would you like parties to co-operate rather than insult each other? So do we.

I am a volunteer with Fair Vote Canada. Our mission is to get rid of the current electoral system which is unrepresentative, doesn’t give a voice to visible minorities and women and encourages instability and conflict. Here’s why:

• It’s unstable: In 5 years we’ve had 3 elections, almost 4. A minute swing in votes can lead to a large swing in seats. For example, a 7% share increase in vote lead to 15% increase in seats for the conservatives in 2006. A few seats can mean the difference between being the opposition and in government; between minority and majority. That’s why there’s a huge incentive to call an election as soon as there is a small change in votes.
• It’s unrepresentative because it doesn’t take into account a large proportion of votes. In fact, in the 2008 federal election, 51% of all votes did not go to a winning candidates. A candidate can win with as little as 30% of the vote, like in Gatineau for the same election. That candidate doesn’t need to represent everyone in the riding to win the election again. Liberals out west, Conservatives in Toronto, Greens across Canada. They all go under-represented. Meanwhile, while the NDP gets more votes than the Bloc, the NDP gets fewer seats.
• Little diversity: “western” countries that use our current electoral system have lower representation of women and minorities. Canada is 48th behind Pakistan in women representation.

We want to replace it with another type of electoral system. Something more proportional which would give Canadian voters better representation and a government that works. Want to help us?

• Consider signing our Declaration of Voters Rights
• If so, consider becoming a member of Fair Vote Canada .
• If you don’t want to be a member but would like to receive event announcements (once a month or less) from your local Ottawa chapter, e-mail me at julien.lamarche@gmail.com. If you don’t live in Ottawa, contact info@fairvote.ca and let them know you would like to be in touch with your local chapter.
• If you have any questions, e-mail me at julien.lamarche@gmail.com.
• If you want to know more about electoral systems, see this video called the 4 families of electoral systems. You can also learn about BC-STV and MMP, the two most considered alternatives to our current electoral system.

A number of columnists and editors have proclaimed that the election of British National Party (BNP) candidates (a racist & homophobic party) to the European Parliament proves that Canada should stick with our current electoral system known as “First-Past the Post”, or “Single Member Plurality” rather than switch to a more representative, proportional electoral system. Brian Jones of the Newfoundland telegram wrote on the 9th of June that “due to proportional representation, [the BNP] will send two new parliamentarians to sit at the EU” while Kelly McParland of the National Post dedicated an entire column to the matter on June 10th.

Unfortunately, the argument is moot. In 2008, the BBC estimated the BNP had about 56 councillors in local, municipal elections, all of which run under First-Past-the-Post.

What’s next, proportional representation brings about instability? Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Germany, New Zealand, Netherlands, Norway, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland. They all have proportional representation and they are doing fine. Canada, on the other hand, has had 3 elections (perhaps 4 at the time of this writing) in the last 5 years.

I’d just like to take a moment to thank my employer, The Pythian Group, for buying bike parking for the new office location we will be moving into later in the year.

The rack in question is a Bike Up Six Ring Rack, similar to the model bellow. I’m especially pleased that the company agreed to buy the Ring Rack model, which is much better than racks that lock at the base of the wheel (also known as “wheel benders”). The rack purchased is also the largest of the ring racks available! Bicycle parking is a critical part of cyclo-commuting infrastructure. Thanks to this purchase, Pythian employees will have one less obstacle to get to work by bike. Ottawa cyclo-commuting maps can be purchased at Ottawa City Hall and various stores.

On a more sober note, I noticed while writing this blog post that the urban cyclo-commuting coursed offered by the EnviroCenter have been discontinued due to lack of funding. I encourage every Ottawa cyclist to write to their councillor to protest this.

Good (The Ring Rack) - What Pythian purchased:

Bad (the Executive Rack, also known as “wheel benders”):

If the news story for the media outlet after each referendum has been so far that MMP or STV has failed to be adopted, the story for us is “Voters decide to keep undemocratic electoral system”.

Yet in Ontario there has been no majority government with a majority of the votes since 1937. The weird results of the 1996 and 2001 election in British-Columbia precipitated the 2005 referendum. But this travesty, still called democracy, goes underreported in our media. The Winnipeg Free Press even reported us as a “fringe movement”; a movement that has managed to put 4 referendums in the last 4 years: one in Ontario, one in PEI, two in BC.

When it comes to politics the colours of the rainbow are with us in this movement. (more…)