Canadians want electoral reform
We would like to thank The Record for responding to the need to engage Canadians in the discussion about electoral reform by devoting a considerable amount of space to the issue this past year. We would also like to comment on the Feb. 3 editorial, “A Welcome Flip Flop On Voting Reform.”
The editorial states that electoral reform was an important plank in the platform which brought the Liberals to power. Electoral reform was also an important platform for the NDP and the Green party. Fully 63 per cent of Canadians who voted, voted for a party that supports electoral reform. Many Canadians are ready to move to a fairer electoral system precisely because our current system does not serve the majority of Canadians.
Harper’s 2011 majority and Trudeau’s 2015 majority share one thing in common; both majorities were achieved with less than 25 per cent of the eligible vote. In any representative democracy that is unacceptable. What it also means is that in 2015, nine million Canadians cast a vote which didn’t elect anyone, and so they have no effective representation. As a result of this, we disagree with your editorial’s statement that this week’s decision serves Canada well. It does not serve those nine million Canadians that don’t have effective representation in Parliament but it does serve those Canadians that benefit by the status quo; economic and political elites. We can certainly count Prime Minister Trudeau’s Liberals in the latter group.
It is the case that Canada is number six (we tied Ireland for sixth place) on the Economist Intelligence Unit’s 2016 Democracy Index. What your editorial failed to say was that 17 of the 20 nations on the Full Democracy list use some form of proportional representation (PR). This includes the top 15 spots: Norway, Iceland, Sweden, New Zealand and Denmark, Ireland, Switzerland, Finland, Australia (Australia uses Alternative Vote to elect its Lower House and Proportional Representation to elect its Upper House), Luxembourg, Netherlands, Germany, Austria, and Malta. The other two PR holdouts are the U.K. at number 16 and Mauritius at number 18. Clearly, proportional representation is a stable and effective way to elect legislators.
A made-in-Canada solution to our electoral inequality could and should ensure that MPs are directly elected by the voters they represent. Your editorial suggested that this would not be the case. Accountability would be built into a Canadian proportional system. To suggest otherwise muddies the waters of what PR offers.
Your editorial states that there is no widespread desire for change in this country. This is also a misrepresentation. Despite its flaws, the mydemocracy.ca survey overwhelmingly shows that Canadians want parties to share power in government. This is how legislatures elected by proportional representation work.
The failure of the Liberal government to lead on this important policy initiative resulted in the failure of the process and a lost opportunity to usher in an electoral system based on fairness and equality. Fairness and equality is the bedrock of any democracy and the reason that Fair Vote Canada will continue to work to ensure that electoral reform is an election issue in 2019. Every voter deserves effective representation in Parliament.