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ELECTORAL REFORM: Guelph All Votes Count strategy workshop

PostPosted: Mon Apr 17, 2017 11:58 am
by Oscar
Guelph chapter at All Votes Count strategy workshop

[ https://canadians.org/blog/guelph-chapt ... y-workshop ]

April 17, 2017 - 9:44 am

The Council of Canadians Guelph chapter attended an All Votes Count vision, strategy and tactics workshop on April 15.

The chapter is supporting their campaign for Local Proportional Representation.

Guelph chapter activist Norah Chaloner says, "The Council of Canadians Guelph chapter does support this project. We've given it great consideration and it's a step forward. We're proud to be promoting it."

And chapter activist Lin Grist highlights, "The idea of actually voting for someone I thought would do a good job is very attractive."

As noted on the campaign's website, "Local Proportional Representation takes an important part of our current voting system – having a representative from every riding in the country – and adds proportional representation."

That website explains, "It is regionally proportional and locally representative. Neighbouring ridings are grouped into regions of 4-7 ridings. Voters can rank the candidates from across their region or just in their home riding. They can vote by party or for the individual candidates most closely aligned with their own values. Votes are counted as in leadership contests: by dropping the least popular candidate until enough people are elected. Voters’ 2nd and later preferences are used when appropriate. The result is reasonably proportional across the region and quite proportional across the country."

The campaign is calling on the Trudeau government to:

• Keep its promise to make the 2015 federal election the last under first-past-the-post.
• Introduce legislation to implement local proportional representation.
• Present a timeline for the implementation of local proportional representation in time for the 2019 federal election.

Both Jean-Pierre Kingsley (the Chief Electoral Officer of Elections Canada from 1990 to 2007) and Peter H. Russell (a Professor Emeritus of political science at the University of Toronto and a renowned scholar in a number of areas, including constitutional conventions relating to parliamentary democracy) have endorsed Local Proportional Representation as a strong proposal for reform of Canada's voting system.

You can read more about the campaign here:
[ http://allvotescount.ca/ ]

Tags: chapters
[ http://canadians.org/tags/chapters ]


Brent Patterson's blog
Political Director of the Council of Canadians
[ http://canadians.org/blogs/brent-patterson ]