(This press release comes from Kanata-Carleton Citizens Advocacy. The Kanata-Carleton riding is north of Stittsville.)
When the Conservatives won the election in 2011 with 39% of the popular vote, it was generally agreed that something was wrong with our electoral system.
When the Liberals won the election in 2015 with 39% of the popular vote, it was almost universally agreed that something had to be done.
Fortunately electoral reform was part of the Liberal platform and it is equally fortunate that plans are now underway for the legislation necessary for electoral reform.
is preparing to mail out a questionnaire asking our opinion about what kind of election system that would best suit Canada. Canada Post will deliver the questionnaire to every household in her riding of Kanata-Carleton.
McCrimmon’s objective is to collect as much feedback as possible from her constituents, prepare a report, and share it with her caucus colleagues, who might follow her lead, engage their constituents, and collect some hard data.
You can expect to receive the questionnaire via Canada Post in early April. Please answer it and mail it back. It will be followed by a Town Hall meeting later in the spring where we will be able to engage directly with McCrimmon on electoral reform.
The Kanata-Carleton Citizens Advocacy Group is planning an event to help inform, educate, and increase public engagement and awareness about electoral reform. It will be held on April 12, at 7 pm at the Richcraft Recreation Complex, 4101 Innovation Drive, and is organized in partnership with Fair Vote Canada. The purpose is to provide information about democratic reform, so that our responses to the questionnaire will be more considered, and we will be able to better contribute to McCrimmon’s Town Hall.
We are living in the first riding in Canada whose MP is actually asking for our opinions on electoral reform. Let’s all respond – it is amazing to be asked what we think.
To further your knowledge of electoral options, check out: http://campaign2015.fairvote.
The best place to start on electoral reform is the BC Citizens Assembly report, which recommended, in common-sense terms, the Single Transferable Vote/Scrutin Transferable.
STV is proportional representation, that allows the voters to order a good choice of candidates, in multi-member constituencies.
Other systems of PR so-called don’t allow the voters this choice: party list systems leave it to the parties to list their choice of party candidates.
The system giving most publicity by politicians and the media combines the existing first past the post system with a party list system. This hybrid is called Mixed Member Proportional (MMP).
But two wrongs don’t make a right. Politicians especially like this MMP system, because it is a doubly safe seat system, that, with few exceptions, incumbents cannot be removed from. If an MP loses his safe seat in a single-member constituency, he still may be elected from his place on a party list.
These few remarks only give a hint as to how specialist and tricky a subject election method really is. I have followed electoral reform and research for over forty years. Please consult my two free Smashwords e-books:
Peace-making Power-sharing.
Scientific Method Of Elections.