Democracy Watch: Help make voting fair and democratic

Dear Canadians,

Democracy Watch is a supporter of Fair Vote Canada’s Make Every Vote Count campaign.

We have joined together, and with many other citizen groups, because we need to work together – and we need your help now – to make Canada’s voting system more fair and democratic.

The federal Special Committee on Electoral Reform, made up of politicians from all the parties that have MPs in the House of Commons, is right now travelling the country hearing Canadians’ proposals for change. They have invited all MPs to hold town halls and invited everyone to hold their own community events on voting reform.

As Fair Vote Canada has revealed for years, because elections across Canada use the first-past-the-post voting system, they often result in parties electing more or fewer politicians than they deserve. In the last federal election, three parties, representing 63% of voters, campaigned on a promise that 2015 would be the last first-past-the-post election and that they would make every vote count in the next election in 2019.

As well, as Democracy Watch has pointed out for years, it’s legal for federal political party leaders to bait voters with false election promises, and for leaders to appoint whomever they want as election candidates for their parties – and federal voters are not allowed to vote “none of the above” and enforcement of fair election rules is much too weak to stop serious violations.

The Committee will report later this year to Maryam Monsef, Minister of Democratic Institutions, and the federal Liberal government will then decide what changes to make.

The MPs on the Committee, and Minister Monsef, need to hear from you what changes you want to ensure fair, democratic federal elections.

You can make your voice heard by:

1. Signing Fair Vote Canada’s Declaration of Voters’ Rights that calls for Canada’s voting system to be changed to a proportional representation system;

and

• Clicking here to send Democracy Watch’s Action Letter to Minister Monself, to MPs on the Special Committee, and to other key politicians calling for voting system reform, an honesty-in-politics law to stop false promises, a “none-of-the-above” option on the ballot, actual fixed election dates and other key reforms needed to make Canada’s elections fully fair anddemocratic.

And if you want to follow the Special Committee, attend a voting reform event, or organize your own event, click here for details.

Your time to be heard and counted is now!

Thank you for your support,

Anita Nickerson, Fair Vote Canada Action Coordinator

and

Duff, Josephine, David and everyone at Democracy Watch

P.S. Please click here to help keep this campaign keep going until we win key changes to stop unfair, undemocratic elections across Canada.