[fvc-wat-announce] Next Wed: "How to Win PR" talk and discussion

[Paul Nijjar]

Hello Fair Voting Friends, 

The Fair Vote Canada Waterloo Region executive kindly gave me
permission to advertise an upcoming talk on their mailing list, so I
am doing so now. Next Wednesday I will be giving a talk entitled "How
to Win Proportional Representation". You (and your neighbours and
friends who are sick of vote-splitting and would like to see things
change) are welcome to attend. Please invite them!

Note that although Fair Vote Canada is helping me publicize this
event, it is not an official Fair Vote Canada talk, and some of the
points I make might contravene FVC positions and policies. (I will try
to make these differences explicit, however.) 

Despite the title of the talk, it is not primarily about "How to force
Justin Trudeau's government to give us proportional representation".
(I would love to attend such a talk myself.) It is related, however.
We will look at some of the factors that influence change from
first-past-the-post to proportional systems, look at some case studies
of places that made the change successfully, and look at Canadian
electoral reform attempts. We will also try to draw lessons from these
case studies, some of which might be helpful in helping us move
towards electoral reform. 

This talk will contain introductory material for people new to
proportional representation, and information that may be unfamiliar
even to PR veterans.

The main page for the event is here: http://pnijjar.freeshell.org/2015/prtalk 

There is a Facebook event here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1512189192426905/

In addition to talk attendees, I could really use some helpers: 

- People to help set up the space before the talk begins
- Somebody who would be willing to set up and manage a Google Hangout
  for the talk (we have had a request to livestream, but I cannot set
  up and run this myself). 
- Somebody to help with the accessibility elevator in the space. 
- Some people who can help publicize the talk. There are some posters
  and leaflets available, but I have not been effective in getting
  them out. 

If you could help with any of these things please contact me offlist.
I would be very grateful for the help.

-----

WHAT: Public talk followed by a Q&A/discussion

WHEN: Wednesday, October 28 2015, 7:00pm.

WHERE: St John's Kitchen, 97 Victoria Street North, Kitchener (at the
corner of Victoria and Weber)

WHO: Anyone who is frustrated by vote-splitting and strategic voting.
Anyone who feels concerned about the first-past-the-post voting system
we use.  Anyone who is interested in proportional representation and
how we might achieve it.  Anybody who would like to understand how our
current system works (and fails to work).  Even those who are
skeptical of whether change can happen, or skeptical about whether
proportional representation is a good idea are welcome.

CONTACT: Paul Nijjar, pnijjar at alumni.uwaterloo.ca 

- Paul 


-- 
"How to Win Proportional Representation" talk: Oct 28, 7pm, St John's
Kitchen. All welcome. http://pnijjar.freeshell.org/2015/prtalk