It’s a Green Party policy to lobby for (and eventually institute) proportional representation in Canada.
Many of you might have heard about this idea, but there’s little explanation in the news meda to tell you what it’s all about and why we consider it a vast improvement over the current system.
This article from CTV, in which NDP leader Jack Layton promised us that “holding a national referendum on proportional representation voting will be a key condition of New Democratic support of a minority government”, provides a great summary explanation of what proportional representation is all about.
“Our voting system is broken. When arrogant Liberal majorities can break promises with absolute impunity and give our tax dollars to their friends, it’s time for a new voting system,” Layton said.
Sorry to remind you, Jack, but here we come on a 2006 election, after many months of the Liberal minority government being kept in power through NDP support, and I don’t recall a referendum. Do you?
I’m not sure what proportional representation means to the NDP, but I know what it means as a Green, since one of our fundamental principles, Participatory Democracy, requires us to offer a system of government that reflects the values of the Canadian people as expressed in the democratic act of voting.
There are many forms that proportional representation could take and each of the examples from around the world offers different pros and cons. But the basic idea is to have a system where the seats in the legislature are divied up somewhat in line with the popularity of each party at election time. In other words, if a party gets 25% of the vote, they will have 25% of the seats.
This seems logical to me (as does our entire Green platform) but then again, who am I? Just a guy representing a party that regularly polls at 5 to 10% support, and yet and has no seats and did not get invited to the 2004 national televised leaders debate.
Canada is one of only three countries in the world still using the old First Past The Post sytem that we inherited from the British. That’s the UK, the United States, and us. Every other democratic nation has evolved.
So, do you want to invest your vote?
Do you want to have a system that is democratic and represents Canadian voters?
Vote for Proportional Representation.
Vote Green.
