‘Canadians Demand Fair and Local Voting System’ – NDP
Ottawa, ON – After four months of consulting Canadians on their views regarding our electoral system, the NDP has finally issued their findings.
Skeena-Bulkley Valley NDP MP Nathan Cullen, his party’s democratic reform critic and a member of the Canadian House of Commons Special Committee on Electoral Reform, presented the report in Ottawa Wednesday.
He says over 37,000 Canadians contributed to a mix of town hall meetings, teleconferences, online outreach and mailed surveys in the NDP’s 44 ridings and found the following:
- 84% of participants want an electoral system where a party’s seats in the House of Commons is a fair reflection of the share of votes they receive.
- 82% felt it was important to keep a local representative and 79% expressed a desire to see collaborative and cross-party support in the creation of a new voting system.
- 66% felt that gender and ethnic diversity should be a priority while only 34% supported lowering the voting age to 16 while a majority were against online voting (an exact percentage was not made available).
Cullen called the feedback they received “unprecedented for our party” and noted he was heartened by the support for proportional representation.
“That was overwhelming. When you tell people that 18 million people voted last time and a little less than half those votes actually counted, that’s something people want to see changed.”
Despite the NDP’s outreach with their constituents, Cullen says just two or three Conservative MPs bothered to do the same while he wasn’t sure how many Liberal MP’s canvassed their MPs.
He says the Conservatives lack of interest in the process (the party prefers a referendum on whether to change Canada’s electoral system) is unfortunate for their constituents.
“For the people they represent because this is happening and I really hoped their voices would get to be heard too. Not silence because they happen to live in a Conservative riding.”
Cullen says what happens next is the Committee on Electoral Reform will take all the input from the MPs that bothered to participate and come up with some legislation and have that ready by December 1, 2016. Following that he says the Trudeau government will craft a new voting law in Canada.
He says it’s a promise he expects them to keep.
“Yeah, I’m a bit of a radical – when someone makes a promise in an election I expect them to follow through on it.”
Earlier this year he federal government pledged that last year’s federal election under Canada’s first-past-the-post voting system would be its last.
Comments
This is quite scary, “66% felt that gender and ethnic diversity should be a priority…”
2/3rds of this country believe that you should be elected based on your gender and ethnicity? No wonder we’re in trouble.
Nice that Canadian Citizens, in NDP elected federal ridings anyway, get to have input into the electoral reform process. Too bad Conservative MPs decided not to solicit input from their constituents across this great country… so please don’t belly ache when federal changes on electoral reform reflect the political middle, and left of middle, values and interests!
You whiners and bellyachers, had your chance for input into electoral reform… and you blew it off, so live with the results and consequences!
They have no input don’t kid yourself, an exercise in futility, makes them think they are actually doing something. You forget it is a majority and whatever system the liberals think will benefit their party is the one that will be chosen pure and simple
Interesting that Nathan Cullen just happened to find that what Canadians seem to want is exactly what’s in the NDP policy book. That’s handy!
This gender and ethnic diversity thing is getting out of hand. I recall a few years back the Edmonton City Police were so focused on gender and ethnicity they basically said “white males need not apply”. If the fire dept, police, politicians whatever need 20 people then the top 20 should be selected no matter what race, color, creed etc. IMO
JGalt. Conservatives did not participate in the process because they are happy with the present system.
Only those losers **NDP** who will probably never form a Government, and who lurk in the shadow of the Liberals hoping they will throw them a few scraps, would support this type of system. Its pretty obvious that first past the post does not work for the NDP.
Why would the Conservatives be involved in a system that would mean that the Liberals, with support from the NDP, Bloc, Greens, etc; would basically form the Government for years to come.
Trudeau, now that he has a majority Government might decide to keep the old system.
Cullen is either stupid, or thinks he is fooling someone when he says that the Liberals will keep their election promises. He obviously forgets the HST, and the Red Book.
If anything the Liberals are famous for not keeping their election promises.
Our present system is among the best in the world, and only natural born losers would want to change it.
Palopu states: “Why would the Conservatives be involved in a system that would mean that the Liberals, with support from the NDP, Bloc, Greens, etc; would basically form the Government for years to come.”
Let’s see, why would the “majority” of Canadians want another form of electoral system rather than “first past the post” Palopu? Maybe it’s because, over the past ten (10) years, this country was run in a fascist / dictatorial manner by a government that received only 35-37 % of the popular vote. We had a Harper Conservative Government that looked at the official oppositions as its enemy and an obstacle of government, when in fact the opposition represented 65-63% of the citizens who voted in those past elections. The Harper Conservative government viewed those opposition parties, who the majority of us (65-63%) voted into parliament, with such disdain, that for the first time in Canada’s history it was a Conservative Harper government that was found to be “in contempt of parliament”!!!
There is no way the rest of us, as a majority, want to be treated with such loathing and contempt by a despicable and CONtemptable government, EVER AGAIN!!! So buck up and swallow what you, and your ilk deserve, a future government that reflects a “majority” of the electorate in Canada through some other “fairer” method of election and seat allocation. Will future governments in Canada be minority governments? Probably, and it’s a good thing too, as minority governments must learn to compromise and get along with the opposition parties in order to remain in government… something the Conservatives are obviously just not able to do!!!
I thought the Consevatives lost the leadership and role of representation of the people of Canada during the last election? They had the control and after the election lost it. Wouldn’t that make them the “loosers”
On and on you go JGalt. The situation you describe for the Conservatives, is the exact situation that the Liberals are now in. They have the majority, they have no concern about other parties, and certainly hold the Conservatives in distain. So do you think that they would treat the Conservatives any better under a proportional representation system. I think not.
As you are now fully aware, the Liberals are keeping most if not all of Harpers legislation, even though they railed against it during the election.
They will reduce transfer payments to Provinces to 3%, they will continue to deport immigrants who falsely fill out immigration forms, in fact they have deported more in the last year than Harper did in 10 years. They continue to use all aspects of Bill C-51, and on and on it goes.
So once again Canadians have been duped by the lying liberals, and you seem to be riding on their wagon.
Your perception of the Conservatives, their policy, and Harper, is totally out of touch with reality. In fact it sounds like you have been brain washed.
JGalt. People keep insinuating that a minority Government is a better Government because it forces people to compromise. This is nothing more than an urban legend and is not supported by any facts.
We cannot just assume that minority ideas somehow have merit, and therefore allow them to influence the majority. Minorities for the most part are made up of **also rans**. Those people who do not have the support of enough people to form any kind of Government under the Westminster system, fringe groups who at best would do nothing but make a cumbersome system ten times more cumbersome.
Proportional Representation in Canada, would in effect give us a left leaning socialist Government for years to come. In effect a left wing dictatorship that would make Harper look like an angel.
Unbelievable ! Minority party’s representing the majority of Canadians having to get along in order to be able to govern , would be worse than living in a canada run by parlimenty dictatorship . Most parlimenty coalitions in the world also elect right wing lunatic fringe parties that also get their say .
Run by a parlimenty dictatorship run by a small minority party . I meant to say . Maybe you’ll get it if Kevin decides to hijack the cons party . Harper took it from the PC party of canada .
Had we used the proportional representation model during the 2015 election we would have had the following results.
Liberals 135 Cons 108 NDP 68 Bloc 17 Greens 10. Total 338.
First past the post.
Liberals 184 Cons 99 NDP 44 Bloc 10 Greens 1
If the Conservatives opposed any Liberal legislation they would need the NDP, Bloc, and the Greens to stop it under Prop Rep. Not likely to happen.
Proportional Representation if used during the 2011 election would have had the following results.
Cons 127 NDP 97 Liberals 56 Bloc 17 Greens 11. So using the prop system, the Conservatives with a majority of seats would in effect not form the Government as the NDP could form a coalition with the Liberals, Bloc, and Greens and form the Government. So in effect the NDP under this system could form the Government with only 97 seats.
Would the Liberals join the Conservatives to form a Government??? You tell me.
Interesting to say the least.
So for many reasons proportional representation is a failed system.
I don’t think the goal of proportional representation is to make it easier for political parties to hold power, it’s about trying to have a government composition that more accurately reflects the wishes of the people.
I can think of many worse things than having a system which requires parties of different views and opinions to actually work together in a productive manner in order to get things done.
NMG. Political parties are all about power. Power is the essence of politics.
There is nothing to indicate that proportional representation produces a Government that more fairly represents the people. When you have coalitions, you have deal making, you also have give and take.
There are some 47 Countries that have first past the post systems, and some 80 that have Proportional Representation. I doubt if you could make a case showing that PR provides a better Government.
Most Governments that have proportional representation also have the highest taxes. France would be a good example with a tax rate of 57.53%.
Tax liberation day is July 28th, Belgium has something like 59.47% in taxes and a liberation day of Aug 6th.
Proportional Representation only adds more people to the Government and to the Civil Service, I sincerely doubt that it provides better Government.
Palopu states (without stating sources of course); “Most Governments that have proportional representation also have the highest taxes. France would be a good example with a tax rate of 57.53%.”
Most governments with proportional representation also have lower poverty rates, and better health care. I personally do not know if that is the case, or even if there is a correlation between a system of election and taxation rates, poverty rates, or health levels, but hey why not, in Palopu’s world anything is possible.
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