Ontario's Citizen's Assembly: A rare exercise in democracy indeed...

There's a great editorial by Pauline Tam in today's Ottawa Citizen. She describes Ontario's Citizen Assembly process for examining our election system and gives a brief run down on what happened with BC's Citizens Assembly. Take a look at the article on Fireweed Democracy Project's website.

PR Down Under?

I came across an interesting article today which argued for the introduction of proportional representation into the Australian Parliament. One step ahead of us, Australia has already implemented a PR electoral system in Tasmania and the federal senate - but not in it's federal parliament.

The PR elections system used currently in parts of Australia is called the Hare-Clark system. It's a variation on STV (Single Transferable Vote). British Columbia's failed electoral reform referendum in 2005 also proposed a STV like system (BC-STV).

FVC & PR Primer

Feel like you don't know enough about Fair Vote Canada or how Proportional Representation would effect Canada? Check out this interview with Larry Gordon, Executive Director of Fair Vote Canada, by Susan Thompson - published by The Dominion.

Some thoughts from the other side of the pond...

I came across an interesting article about UK reform in their House of Lords (second house, which seems to be roughly equivalent to our Senate). It appears they're having some difficulty deciding how to proceed...

The details of how such a system would work are unclear, and Ms Blears made clear she was "torn" on the idea of using proportional representation.

"The bit that I really dislike about PR is if you lose your constituency link," she said.

"I know people have got some models where you can still have a constituency link. But if you look at a lot of PR systems, particularly in Europe, you end up again with a political elite who all live in London or Madrid or Paris because you are dependent for your place on the party list."

She said she wanted to avoid a system where politicians were "dependent on patronage" rather than on their constituents.

"The last thing I want is a group of politicians who are dependent on a political party rather than the people 'out there' in their constituency who come and support them."

This argument does present a real potential problem with PR - members need to be responsible to the people (their constituency) and not rely on party patronage. It'll be interesting to see how this particular aspect of electoral reform is handled here in Canada.

Meet me at the Pub for a Chat!

To all those in the Ottawa / National Capital Region area: We've just set up a form on Meetup.com to promote our upcoming Fair Vote Canada social / pub nights. We'll be having these fun filled nights one per month. This will give an opportunity to anyone who's interested in discussing or learning about electoral reform a chance to kick back in a relaxed atmosphere and chat.

For more details check out our Meetup.com site and sign up! Click here: electionreform.meetup.com/155/

See you at the pub!

Fair Vote Canada 2006 Annual General Meeting and Conference

This is my public service announcment to inform you of an exciting event happening this month!

Fair Vote Canada

2006 Annual General Meeting

April 21-22, 2006 Parliament Building, West Block, Rm. 308

This event is open to anyone who wishes to attend!

Fair Vote Canada (FVC) is a multi-partisan citizens’ campaign for voting system reform. Join us for our 5th annual meeting and conference for an exciting array of speakers, presentations and discussions on electoral reform, proportional representation and the federal and provincial reform campaigns. Among the featured speakers are:

* Rick Anderson, Director, Fireweed Democracy Project; former advisor to Preston Manning

* Carolyn Bennett, MP, Social Development Critic, Liberal Party

* Bill Blaikie, MP, Democratic and Electoral Reform Critic, NDP

* Stephen Broscoe, Fair Voting BC

* Mark Greenan, Coordinator, Yes on MMP Coalition, PEI

* Jim Harris, Leader, Green Party of Canada

* Tom Kent, former principal secretary to Prime Minister Pearson; founding editor, Policy Options

* June Macdonald, Chair, Women for Fair Voting

* Heather MacIvor, political scientist, Univ. of Windsor

* Joe Murray, Chair, Fair Vote Ontario

* Scott Reid, MP, House Deputy Leader, Conservative Party

* Mercédez Roberge, Présidente, Mouvement pour une démocratie nouvelle (Quebec)

Advanced Registration Required.

To register, please go to: http://www.votepr.org/2006_agm_flyer.pdf
For more an the agenda, please see: http://www.votepr.org/pdf/2006_AGM_agenda.pdf

For more information contact: info@fairvotecanada.org

Costs:
___ Full conference fee: $80 includes Friday evening dessert and drinks; Saturday morning refreshments, Saturday lunch, coffee/juice service throughout.
___ Basic conference fee: $50 with no refreshments, lunch, coffee/juices.
___ Student/limited income: $45 with food/beverages, or $15 without food/beverages.

Electoral Reform Update: Quebec

With the new Harper-Conservative government in power it's unlikely that we'll see any quick action on the topic of modernizing our outdated electoral system. However, we can look to some of the provinces to act a little sooner. Ontario is currently in the process of forming a Citizens' Assembly which will endevour to examine alternate electoral systems. If all goes as planned, a referendum to ask Ontarians if they want a new system will be held alongside the 2007 provincial election. As for Quebec, the government has just finished touring the province to hear the public's opinion on it's proposed revamped Election Act. An informative article by Montreal's "The Chronicle" details the new proposals.

Some highlights of the article:

• The bill calls for 77 riding seats and 50 seats assigned to reflect proportionality, forming a total of 127 seats (as opposed to the current 125).
• In the 1998 provincial election, the Liberals recieved 43.55% of the votes and 48 seats, while the PQ recieved 42.37% of the votes and 76 seats.
• Under the proposed system (a variation of Mixed Member Plurality - MMP), voters will only be able to cast one ballot, meaning that they would vote as they do now: for one candidate from one party. In most other regions that use MMP, voters are given two ballots, one for the local candidate and one for the party of choice. In New Zealand this allowed 39% of voters to change parties on their second vote, something that is not possible under this proposed Quebec system.
• The article states that a party would need about 13% of the vote to be able to win a seat. Unfortunately, why this is the case is not fully explained and remains unclear.
• If the bill is adobted, the voting structure change would not take effect until 2011. Far too long a wait in my opinion...