Yes, yes, yes!!!! Thank you Fair Vote Canada!!!!!
Danielle
Yukon
Date: Tue, 15 Nov 2011 11:23:42 -0500
Hello all:
Please distribute widely.
Wayne Smith
Executive Director
Fair Vote Canada
(ENGLISH (copy appended)) http://www.fairvote.ca/en/press-release/2011-11-15/fair-vote-canada-donates-10000-to-support-charter-challenge-against-current
Fair Vote Canada donates $10,000 to support charter challenge against current voting system
For immediate release
November 15, 2011
Canada’s national citizens’ movement for electoral reform today announced they would contribute $10,000 in matching funding to support a challenge in the Supreme Court of Canada against Canada’s current first-past-the-post voting system.
“Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees us the right to vote,” said Wayne Smith, Executive Director of Fair Vote Canada (FVC), “and the Supreme Court has ruled in previous decisions that this doesn’t just mean the right to put a piece of paper in a box. We are guaranteed the right to effective representation.
“But under the current, Single Member Plurality or first-past-the-post voting system used for all federal and provincial elections, most of us are ‘represented’ by somebody we voted against. We currently have a so-called ‘majority’ government that received less than 40% of the votes cast in the last election, and this is a perfectly normal situation under this voting system. Our election results are always horribly distorted, sometimes to the extent that the party with the most votes loses the election.
“Furthermore,” Smith added, “the Charter also guarantees the equality of men and women. But our current voting system throws up barriers to the election of women and minorities. This can be easily seen by looking at other countries around the world. Every democracy that has at least 30% women in its legislature uses a proportional voting system. Canada now has 25% women in the House of Commons. It’s more than we have ever had before, and it’s about as good as it gets with this type of voting system, but it’s still a national disgrace.
“Mounting a challenge in the courts is an expensive and time-consuming process, and we salute the courage and self-sacrifice of the individuals who make up the L’Association pour la revendication des droits démocratiques (ARDD). They have been paying for this initiative to improve Canadian democracy for years out of their own pockets. Now, finally, they are asking for donations, and Fair Vote Canada is proud to announce that we will provide matching funding for the first $10,000 of donations received.
“It is a small price to pay if it means that every Canadian can be represented in Parliament by somebody they actually voted for, that our parliament will accurately reflect the diversity of our society, and that Canadian voters will finally have the power to hold politicians and political parties accountable, a power promised to us in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.”
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Contact:
Shoni Field, President
604 720 0541
Shoni.Field _AT_ FairVote.Ca
Wayne Smith, Executive Director
Wayne.Smith _AT_FairVote.Ca
416 407 7009