Friday 24 October 2008

Canada Desperately Needs Proportional Representation

Dearest Canadians,
I know many of us are quite saddened by the Canadian Election process which is severely outdated. Here's an interesting piece that I found posted yesterday.

"Was the federal election just a bad dream? After five weeks of fearand loathing, disappointment and disbelief, Canadians woke up to election results that were hardly different than when the election started. Most of the commentary since has been about numbers and pro-Harper media spin. The man who is claiming a new "enhanced" mandate actually received 168,737 fewer votes than last time but garnered anadditional 19 seats. The turnout, at 59 per cent, was the lowest in our history, which means that the Harper Conservatives will govern the country with the support of fewer than 23 per cent of the eligible voters. Democracy in Canada has seldom seemed so corrupted or so unrepresentative."

I encourage you to check out www.fairvote.ca
-SIGN the PETITION for movement to a proportional representation
an affiliate of fairvote, orphanvoters.ca is also worth a look too.

BC will have the next referendum on proportional representation inMay 2009. Three years ago the BC vote gained 58% but missed the 60%mark needed to enact the change into law. We can elect a leading government with 37.6% of the popular vote, but we need to a 60% vote to make the system more democractic.

Motivation is the only way to change this. Tell your friends, tell your family, tell the Tim Horton's teller, whoever they vote for, we can all vote for this.

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