Its Time for Fair Voting in Canada

Proportional Representation vs. First Past the Post
By Larry Gordon
From About.com

Have Canada’s political leaders finally realized it’s time to address our nation’s appalling democracy deficit? After 136 years, will Canadians finally get a fair political system, where every citizen’s vote is equal and parliaments truly reflect the views of the electorate? It may be too early to sing the hallelujah chorus, but the first rays of light are now poking through the clouds. In fact, the clouds are rolling back faster than anyone could have imagined.

In April 2001, electoral reform activists gathered in Ottawa to launch Fair Vote Canada, a citizens’ campaign to bring fair voting and fair democratic representation to Canada. Many veteran political observers greeted the development with amusement. Great idea, folks, but Canada’s political leaders will never let it happen.

Many of the cynics didn’t disagree with the need for reform.

Canada’s first-past-the-post voting system is notoriously unfair. The system is based on the winner-take-all principle, which means votes and voters are not treated equally. The only voters who win political representation are those who share the most popular partisan viewpoint in their riding, as expressed at the ballot box. The other voters lose their right to political representation.

Because the voting system disregards so many votes, the overall results are distorted. In most federal and provincial elections, the system produces phony majority governments, where a party wins a majority of seats without winning a majority of the votes cast. Canadians have only enjoyed true majority governments, elected by a majority of voters, four times since World War I.

The first-past-the-post system is so bad, most major democracies scrapped it between fifty and one hundred years ago. Not one of the new Eastern European democracies chose a first-past-the-post system. Today, seventy-five nations, including most of Europe and almost all major industrial democracies, use voting systems based on the principle of proportional representation.

Under proportional representation systems, every citizen can cast a sincere and effective vote for the party or candidates they truly support. Parliaments become just what they should be in a democracy – representative of the political views of the voters. A party winning 40% of the votes will gain 40% of the seats. A smaller party winning 20% of the votes will gain 20% of the seats, and so on. If no single party wins a majority of votes, then two or more like-minded parties have to compromise and share power in a coalition government. Yes, share rather than hoard power. That’s the way most major democracies operate and studies show that the resulting governments are very effective, more in tune with the views of the electorate, and citizens are happier with the way democracy works.

Is fair voting a pipe dream for Canadians? Not at all.

Electoral reform is now on the political agendas of half the provinces in Canada. The new Quebec government has announced it will table legislation this spring for a proportional voting system. British Columbia is convening a citizens’ assembly on voting system reform. The BC assembly will be considering a new provincial voting system and their recommendation will go to a referendum in May 2005. Prince Edward Island is looking into alternative voting systems and New Brunswick will soon join them. In Ontario, with an election underway as this article is written, both the Liberals and NDP are committed to a referendum on a new voting system sometime before the next election.

With these and other opportunities emerging, Canadians who want a stronger democracy will have to make their voices heard. Every major democratic reform of the past two centuries has faced vigorous opposition. As the calls for fair voting grow, so will the maneuvering by powerful and well-resourced opponents.

Fair Vote Canada was formed in April 2001 as multi-partisan citizens’ campaign to press for a national referendum on a more proportional voting system. Those who are rallying to the campaign are from all backgrounds, all points on the political spectrum, and supporters of all parties. Why the unusual coalition? Because this isn’t about left vs. right, or east vs. west, or anglophone vs. francophone. It’s about one citizen, one vote, one value. It’s about building a level playing field in our political arena.

The Fair Vote Canada campaign has been endorsed by groups as diverse as the Canadian Labour Congress and the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. The campaign has an advisory board of thirty-three prominent Canadians from a wide variety of backgrounds, including notables such as Pierre Berton, Ed Broadbent, Hugh Segal, Claude Ryan, David Suzuki, Karen Kain, Maude Barlow, Tom Kent, Walter Robinson, Lincoln Alexander and current and former MPs from the Liberals, Progressive Conservatives, Alliance and NDP.

Further information about this important issue and the Fair Vote Canada campaign are available at www.fairvotecanada.org writing to Fair Vote Canada, 26 Maryland Blvd., Toronto, ON M4C 5C9, or calling 416-410-4034.