The Council of Canadians Fredericton chapter, along with allies (including Santa and Mrs. Claus), visited Liberal MP Matt DeCourcey’s riding office to express their support for electoral reform.
Chapter activist Joan Green tells us, “About 30 of us gathered outside DeCourcey’s office then went inside to make it known we want proportional representation! We want fair elections where every votes count. We need a collaborative democracy that can make real progress on the challenges of our times.”
The Peterborough-Kawarthas, Hamilton and Northwest Territories chapters also took part in this day of action on December 13 coordinated by our ally Fair Vote Canada.
Over the past year, 28 chapters have been calling for electoral reform by attending consultations with the federal minister of democratic institutions, attending MP town halls, meeting with their MPs, organizing their own public events, handing out leaflets, publishing articles in local newspapers, and holding workshops.
The Fredericton, Northwest Territories, Prince Albert, and Prince Edward Island chapters presented to the Special Committee on Electoral Reform. That committee reported on December 1 and recommended “that the government should, as it develops a new electoral system … minimize the level of distortion between the popular will of the electorate and the resultant seat allocations in Parliament.” In contrast, the Liberal members of the committee stated, “The recommendations posed in the majority report regarding alternative electoral systems are rushed and are too radical to impose at this time as Canadians must be more engaged.”
Then on December 5, the Liberal government launched a survey at MyDemocracy.ca. That survey has been widely criticized as vague in that people are not asked to respond to specific electoral systems or descriptions of those systems. To help you complete the survey, Unifor has condensed an analysis provided by Fair Vote Canada. When you fill out the survey, please use this summary to show the Trudeau government you want proportional representation. The deadline is December 30, 2016.
During the last federal election, the Liberals set a deadline of May 2017 to introduce legislation on electoral reform.
The next federal election is scheduled to take place on October 21, 2019.
