The Council of Canadians Fredericton chapter is taking part in an “ER Tweetstorm and call-blitz” today. They are using both Twitter and Facebook to push the government on its promise of electoral reform.
The Facebook promotion for this broad-based action highlights, “We will be conducting a tweetstorm and call-blitz to [Prime Minister Justin] Trudeau, [Minister of Democratic Institutions Karina] Gould and Liberal MPs to build momentum for Saturday. Tweet ’em, email ’em, call ’em, tell ’em what you think! Always use #cdnpoli or #ReformeElectorale, then pick one or two from: #SeeYouSaturday, #NotFineWith39, #ElectoralReform, #PerformOnReform, #ChaqueVoteCompte, #PromesseBrisée”
As noted above, this Electoral Reform Tweetstorm is intended to build momentum for the protests that are now scheduled to take place in fifteen communities on Saturday February 11. A list of those protests can be found here. So far, our Nelson, Northumberland and Fredericton chapters have indicated they’ll take part in this day of action.
During the last federal election, the Liberals promised that the 2015 election would be the last held until the first-past-the-post voting system and set a deadline of May 2017 to introduce legislation on electoral reform. Undoubtedly many people voted for Trudeau because of this pledge to make our voting system more democratic. Now, just 15 months after the election, Trudeau has abandoned that promise. We strongly condemn Trudeau’s decision to not make every vote count.
We believe it is wrong that the current electoral system means that the Liberals with only 39.47 per cent of the popular vote hold 54.48 per cent of the seats in the House of Commons and basically 100 per cent of political decision-making power.
Following Trudeau’s announcement on February 1 that he was abandoning his promise on electoral reform, the Montreal chapter rallied for proportional representation outside his constituency office (February 2), the Saint John chapter has written the prime minister and the local Liberal Member of Parliament to express their disappointment (February 3), the Montreal and Ottawa chapters protested on Parliament Hill (February 5), and the London chapter has been attending rush hour rallies in front of the constituency offices of two local Liberal MPs this week.
More than 77,000 people have also signed this House of Commons e-petition calling on the Government of Canada to “immediately, declare its on-going commitment to ensuring the 2015 election be the last Federal Canadian election under the First Past The Post system.” The petition is open for signature until March 2, 2017, at 11:20 am EDT.
Since the last federal election, 28 chapters have called for proportional representation 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.
