“Proportional representation will ensure that a minority will never rule. It also will ensure that no considerable minority will ever be excluded from having a voice Is that not democracy?
"What have the self- appointed protagonists of democracy and majority rule in this House to say about that?
“Now to think that democracy is properly represented when you have elections under a system which gives you a majority of the members from a minority of the electorate is, of course, too absurd for further argument.”
Over the past several years I’ve been more involved in Canadian politics because we are facing challenges we can no longer afford to ignore— from the existential threat of climate change to Canada’s human rights violations at home and abroad, festering social justice issues of colonization, systemic racism and the need to defund the police, our entrenched inequities, Victorian attitudes toward…
Over the past several years I’ve been more involved in Canadian politics because we are facing challenges we can no longer afford to ignore— from the existential threat of climate change to Canada’s human rights violations at home and abroad, festering social justice issues of colonization, systemic racism and the need to defund the police, our entrenched inequities, Victorian attitudes toward work, economic inequities and presumed “worthiness” for survival, the rape culture spotlighted by the #metoo movement, the ever expanding incursions into our cultural freedom being made by the voracious “intellectual property” regime (which prompted my creation of this blog), and our government’s abject failure to put aside partisanship and deal with the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent failure to even try to “build back better”— all of these things highlight our desperate need for real real change (not the phony real change Mr Trudeau promised in 2015) more than ever before.
The thing that sucked me into politics was my belief in democracy, and my realization that the reason everything has been getting worse throughout my entire adulthood because we don’t actually have the representative democracy they tell us we have.
When a lifetime of voting in every election without ever electing a representative almost made me give up hope of things ever getting better, I discovered it didn’t have to be this way. There is a means to transform this country into an actual Representative Democracy.
The way to upend the status quo so we can actually start fixing the things that are so badly wrong so we can work toward the future we need is by changing the way we elect our gover ments. Much to my surprise I discovered there have been Canadians trying to make this happen pretty much for all of Canadian History.
Andrew Ross McMaster, 1923 Liberal MP, Brome
Now is the time to stop trying. As Yoda would tell us, we must do.
And what we must do is implement Proportional Representation.
At this point I understand that I am only one person, and it’s time to realize I only have the time to write one blog. And this is it.
And right now my focus has to be on Proportional Representation.
“The present situation [First Past the Post Plurality voting] appears to me to be one which does not appeal to logical or righteous minds, it does not give us proper representation of the thought and the political sympathies of the people; therefore, we should strive to find out something that will.” — Andrew Ross McMaster
Every billionaire is a policy failure. Nearly every millionaire is a policy failure (selling a million books is not a policy failure). Every casino industry millionaire, though?
Definitely a policy failure.
Take Rodney Baker, who made $10.6m in 2019 as the CEO of the Great Canadian Gaming Corporation, a national racetrack and casino operator. Baker resigned on Sunday, because he did something despicable even by the standards of the casino industry.
Baker and his wife, the actor Ekaterina Baker, chartered a small plane and flew to Beaver Creek, a tiny First Nations community, where they defrauded their way into getting covid vaccinations intended for elders in the White River First Nation.
The Bakers did not quarantine on arrival. Rather, they presented themselves at the remote Yukon community - a community whose isolation has offered some protection from the pandemic - as workers at a local motel. In so doing, they recklessly endangered the whole community.
Then they asked for a ride to the airport, which tipped off clinic workers. Officials caught them in Whitehorse and charged them under the Yukon’s Civil Emergency Measures Act. They were fined $1150 each.
The White River First Nation has asked Yukon authorities to “pursue a more just punishment” (the Act provides for prison sentences of up to six months for violations); they fear that without meaningful penalties, other wealthy sociopaths will follow the Bakers’ example.
I’ve been thinking about this all day, looking for a bright side. There is none. These millionaires will not go to jail. They won’t face social sanction. They’ll be invited to private islands and exclusive parties, wooed by charities and flattered by university fundraisers.
They are part of a long Canadian tradition of depraved, inhuman conduct towards First Nations people. The nation’s money is slathered in pictures of people who did far worse, after all.
These evil, irredeemable people were just upholding a long Canadian tradition.
Canada doesn’t have to be like this.
Vote. But don’t vote “strategically” for what someone else wants.
Vote for what you want.
What I want is Proportional Representation. People think this isn’t a “sexy” thing to be concerned about. I disagree. It will be the change that allows real Real Change to happen.
Greens are the only party I trust to bring it about. And they have policy I can get behind.
And Greens have the best policy on every issue I care about…
Universal Guaranteed Livable Income.
Universal Pharmacare and Healthcare above the neck.
An end to student debt and Post Secondary Education for every student who wants it Gratis.
An end to homelessness and affordable housing for all.
Repudiation of the racist Doctrine of Discovery and decolonization.
And of course the best Climate Action plan.
Because I think this all is necessary, I don’t just vote, I work to help get candidates I want elected. You can too.
Because the voting system Mr Trudeau promised to replace with a system that makes votes count never happened. Mr Trudeau chose the status quo that gave him majority power with a minority of the vote.
Which means the system is still stacked against fairness. So we have to work harder. I’m sick to death of terrible problems like this that will never change if we keep empowering the status quo by alternately giving Liberals and Conservatives a blank cheque.
The pandemic has left many people with time on their hands. This is s great chance to find out what we could do and do it.
Don’t take my word for who to vote for— find out about the different political parties so you can at least cast an informed vote. And did you know: more eligible Canadian voters don’t vote than vote for our faux majority governments?
Decide for yourself how to vote.
Then do it. Vote for what *you* want.
Because things can change. But only if we make it happen.
We need to stop this nonsense and vote *for* the representation we want. How is it Representative Democracy if we aren’t voting for Representative?
Proportional Representation is not a partisan issue, it is about providing voters with the representation they voted for. PR is much better for voters because we can not only vote for the representation we want, most of us will actually get it. It is not a partisan issue because there is support for PR across the spectrum.
If you support Liberal ideals and policy, you might support Proportional Representation because although it can be hard work to achieve cross party consensus (almost always necessary in PR), the policy that gets made is policy most people can live with, it’s policy that will stand the test of time. That’s not true on our current Winner-Take-All politics. When the party that passed the good policy gets kicked out (which *always* happens sooner or later) the party that replaces them is likely to dump that good policy.
That’s call Policy Lurch, and we’re seeing a lot of that in Ontario now, as the new Progressive Conservative Government is working to overturn everything their Liberal Predecessors did. Even policy like campaign finance reform and the #BasicIncome pilot that had been supported by all parties in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario (including the PCs). Mr Ford’s PCs are doing this, not because it is good policy. They’re doing this because they can.
Because our First Past The Post Voting system gives the winning party disproportional power (at the expense of the other parties & the voters who vote for them). This is why we need #ProportionalRepresentation.
And why neither Liberal or Conservative governments will give it to us. Vote for candidates who will deliver PR so we can stop this nonsense.
Film maker Joel Ashton McCarthy has turned his talents toward promoting Proportional Representation in the BC Referendum.
Joel crowd sourced his excellent video, again demonstrating ordinary people think Proportional Representation and democracy are important.
How can they call a system that routinely gives 100% power to candidates & parties who’ve won less than a majority of the votes a democracy?
Instead of providing representation to as many voters as possible, our “First Past the Post” system disfranchises most of us.
The only real majority government (elected with 50+% of the votes) elected in BC was the BC Liberals who were elected on a promise of electoral reform in 2001. But once they had 100% power in hand, they lost interest in adopting fairer elections. In fact, the idea that Proportional Representation would limit their future power to what they earn in votes lost all its charm. They designed the 2005 Referendum to fail.
Even with 57.7% of the voters voting to adopt Single Transferable Vote Proportional Representation in the 1st BC Referendum, it failed. Nothing changed. Even so, it was a little too close for comfort, so they worked even harder to keep it from being adopted in the second referendum. And so nothing changed and the BC Liberals enjoyed nearly 2 decades of majority power without ever winning a majority of votes again.
Politicians across Canada and around the world stack the deck against meaningful electoral reform. In the UK they promised electoral reform but managed to keep a Proportional Representation option off the referendum ballot. The status quo serves them unfair advantage they just can’t resist.
In spite of the mind numbing voter apathy that arises from votes that don’t count, enough ordinary people have begun to understand the issue– and care– that it has never gone away. The push for electoral reform is growing stronger every day.
Mr Trudeau’s promise of voting reform resonated so strongly with Canadian voters because we knew our system was not working well. Mr Trudeau’s broken campaign promise So instead of killing off the idea of voting reform forever, the net effect of has been to galvanize Canadians. The genie is out of the bottle, and is not going back.
PEI voters voted to adopt Proportional Representation, but their government refused to go through with it so they’re going to have a second referendum. And the ruling party has bent over backward trying to design an iron-clad-can’t-possibly-pass referendum process for the next one.
All the Quebec opposition parties got together and made a pact that whichever formed government would just go ahead and implement Proportional Representation.
And right now BC is having its 3rd Referendum. Votes must be in by December 7th, 2018.
Looks like we’re at a tipping point, folks. Something is going to give. And when it does, it will be clear that the fearmongers defending the status quo have been dishonest with Canadians. Voters will discover what representative democracy is supposed to be like. And the sky won’t fall.
Once that happens, the dominoes will fall. Which province will be first?
If you’re in BC, make sure to vote. Maybe your province will lead the way!
When Conservative MP Michael Chong was first elected to the House of Commons in 2004, he was surprised to find out that he was the first-ever MP from Ontario of Chinese background.
Chinese-Canadians have lived in Ontario for more than a century, with almost half-a-million people of Chinese descent living in the province by 2001, and almost 850,000 people as of the 2016 federal census. Before Mr. Chong, there had been only four Chinese-Canadians ever elected to the House—the first, former British Columbia Progressive Conservative MP Douglas Jung, in 1957.
Film maker Joel Ashton McCarthy has turned his talents toward promoting Proportional Representation in the BC Referendum.
Instead of providing representation to as many voters as possible, our “First Past the Post” system disfranchises most of us.
In spite of the mind numbing voter apathy that arises from votes that don’t count, enough ordinary people have begun to understand the issue– and care– that it has never gone away. The push for electoral reform is growing stronger every day.
PEI voters voted to adopt Proportional Representation, but their government refused to go through with it so they’re going to have a second referendum. And the ruling party has bent over backward trying to design an iron-clad-can’t-possibly-pass referendum process for the next one.
And right now BC is having its 3rd Referendum. Votes must be in by December 7th, 2018.
