Proportional representation makes “every vote count”

February 12, 2014 · 0 Comments

This January and February, Canadians from coast to coast are visiting their MPs about proportional representation.
Over 400 volunteers from 161 ridings, from PEI to Northwest Territories, have signed up to visit their MPs about making our votes count. Many people who have signed up have never visited an MP before but have determined this is an important move to bring representative democracy to Canadians.
The purpose of the MP visits is to educate MPs, clear up myths, and share solid research showing that proportional voting systems outperform winner-take-all systems on every measure of democracy.
The main aspect of a representative democracy is to have the MPs in the House of Commons proportional to the popular vote.
Many other areas, such as inequality, economy and environmental performance also demonstrate improvement when a proportional system voting system is in effect.
A group of Fair Vote Canada constituents met with Newmarket-Aurora MP Lois Brown to discuss proportional representation. Ms. Brown was asked about supporting representative democracy via a proportional representative voting system.
She felt Canadians were already served by a good system that the Conservatives support. Lois said she has only done a little reading on the proportional representational system, but promised to read the information presented to her.
Ms. Brown was also presented with a petition from constituents for MPs to read in the House of Commons.
In the end, the visits will help identify which MPs are committed to a more proportional voting system heading into the 2015 election campaign.

Dan Desson
Fair Vote Canada – York Region Chapter