[fvc-wat-disc] Discussion Night Wed, 26 June 2019 at 7pm in Bread&Roses Community Room

Sun Aug 4 21:39:03 EDT 2019

Hi again -- A quick update: Sharon Sommerville kindly sent electronic 
versions of the handouts from the June Discussion Night, which are now 
posted on the website:

http://www.fairvotewrc.ca/resources/things-fair-vote-volunteers-need-to-know-about-elections-canada-rules/

http://www.fairvotewrc.ca/resources/liberal-mps-excuses-you-may-hear-about-the-erre-failure/

It seems I've broken the Internet. Messages I've been sending to the 
Fair Vote Discussion and Announcement mailing lists have not been 
received by subscribers. Not only have people missed out on reading the 
meeting notes, but the last announcement wasn't received either.

Today I'm sending from a different address; please let me know if you 
don't get this message either.

--Bob, who should know better.

====

Hi everyone: Sorry to be so late in sending out the Meeting Notes from 
the June Discussion Night. At least they're done before this month's 
Discussion Night!  Which is:

*What*: FairvoteWRC Discussion Night: Citizens Assemblies
*When*: Wednesday, 31 July 2019 from 7:00pm to 9:00pm
*Where*: Civic Hub of Waterloo Region
*Location*: 23 Water Street North, Kitchener
*Map*: https://osm.org/go/ZXnwWMMp?m=

Civic Hub WR is in the lower parish hall of the Church of St. John The 
Evangelist; go to the doors on Duke Street and ring the buzzer for the 
Social Development Centre Waterloo Region (SDCWR).

If you drive, do not park in the lot beside the church at the corner of 
Duke and College. It is not for the Civic Hub, SDCWR, or the church. You 
will almost certainly get a ticket!

===== Start of 26 June 2019 Meeting Notes =====

Also available online at 
http://www.fairvotewrc.ca/meetings/2019-june-discussion-night/

= Discussion Night =
; Date: Wednesday, 26 June 2019
; Location: Community Room, Bread and Roses Co-op

== Reports and Action Items ==
The Fair Vote Canada Annual General Meeting was held Saturday, 8 June 2019.
Sharon Sommerville gave a report:

=== Citizen's Assembly ===
* Fair Vote Canada's National Strategy for the 2019 Federal Election is 
to set up a Citizens' Assembly
* See the video on the Citizens' Assembly in Ireland 
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjpuDk9_BWI When Citizens Assemble]
* There is no "Nuts'n'Bolts" info on Citizens' Assemblies yet
* A delegation is needed to visit Raj Saini (Kitchener Centre) and 
Bardish Chagger (Waterloo) to introduce the idea
* Pick people who live in the riding to form the delegation
** Terry Henderson will visit Bardish Chagger in Waterloo
** Jim Sannes will visit Raj Saini in Kitchener

=== Third Pary Rules for election ===
* Fair Vote Canada has registered as a Third Party
* Rules for Third Parties will be posted on the Fair Vote Waterloo's website
** 
[https://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=pol&dir=thi&document=index&lang=e 
Elections Canada: Tools For Third Parties]
** "Things Fair Vote Volunteers Need to Know about Elections Canada"

=== ERRE comments ===
* Post online: "Visiting Liberal MPs: Excuses you may hear about the 
ERRE failure"

== Upcoming Events ==
* BBQ for Fair Vote Waterloo -- Date to be determined
** Location is Cathy Scott's back yard

== Other News ==
* Terry Henderson to do data entry for National Office database
** (this is from petitions gathered at festival events)

* Sharon Sommerville and Byron Weber Becker to meet with Karina Gould

* We need to count flyers &c. for Kultrun, Nonviolence DITP
** Bundle flyers in groups of 25, paperclip, then submit numbers to 
Elections Canada

* Door knocking teams:
** Taking place starting Labour Day
** To be organized at a future meeting (not necessarily Discussion Night)
** Be careful about third-party rules!

* Candidate meetings
** with Greens, NDP and Liberals only

== Festivals ==
* Myron doing the WR Nonviolence Day In The Park
* Peter, Jim, Sharon, Dave Arthut will do Kultrun

Meeting notes taken by Bob Jonkman.

===== End of 26 June 2019 Meeting Notes =====

On 2019-06-24 2:29 a.m., Bob Jonkman wrote:
> Hi all: It's time for another Discussion Night, since there is much to 
> discuss.
> 
> First, there's some business from Fair Vote Canada:
> 
> * Report from the Fair Vote Canada Annual General Meeing held in Ottawa 
> last weekend
> * overpass sign
> * meeting with Karina Gould
> * Citizen's Assembly visits to Liberal MPs. Anita (Fair Vote Canada 
> Executive Director) has asked us to ask Bardish Chagger & Raj Saini to 
> introduce the idea of a CA as a non-partisan, legitimate way forward for 
> electoral reform.  We need to ask for volunteers to make a friendly visit.
> 
> And there's some business for the Waterloo Region Chapter:
> 
> * door knocking campaign & federal election strategy
> * meetings with NDP & Green Party candidates in Waterloo Region
> * Volunteers needed to staff info tables for Kultrun (13-14 July) and 
> Nonviolence Day In The Park (20 July); perhaps other events
> 
> 
> Finally, some discussion: There have been four by-elections in Canada in 
> the past few months:
> 
> * Three on 25 February 2019, including Burnaby South won by NDP leader 
> Jagmeet Singh with 39% of the vote.
> 
> * One on 6 May 2019 won by Green Party candidate Paul Manly with 37% of 
> the vote.
> 
> In total, there have been 21 by-elections since the general election in 
> 2015.
> 
> Provincially, there were two elections:
> 
> * Alberta on 16 April 2019, won by the United Conservative Party with 
> 55% of the vote and 52% of the seats (30/87).
> 
> * Prince Edward Island on 23 April 2019, won by the Progressive 
> Conservative party with 37% of the vote and 44% of the seats (12/27). 
> This election was notable for electing eight Green members, who form the 
> Opposition.
> 
> * Newfoundland and Labrador on 16 May 2019, won by the Liberals with 44% 
> of the vote and 50% of the seats (20/40).
> 
> 
> Internationally, there were also some elections of interest:
> 
> * 17 April 2019: Indonesian general election, won by the Indonesian 
> Democratic Party of Struggle with 19% of the vote and 22% of the seats 
> (128/575), using an open-list, multi-member system. There is a threshold 
> of 4% for representation. Interestingly, Indonesia has a gender quota 
> for 30% female candidates. Wikipedia: 
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Indonesian_general_election#Electoral_system 
> 
> 
> * 28 April 2019: Spanish general election, resulting in an upset of the 
> previous Congress of Deputies. Spain has a mixture of single member 
> ridings, and multi-member ridings with two to four members, elected with 
> a full block vote, closed list, proportional system. The election was 
> won by the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Worker's Party) with 29% of the vote 
> and 35% of the seats (123/350). A total of 64 parties participated in 
> the election. There is a threshold of 3% for representation. Electoral 
> system details are at 
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Spanish_general_election#Overview
> 
> * 19 May 2019: Indian general election, won by the Bharatiya Janata 
> Party with 37% of the vote and 55% of the seats (303/543). India uses a 
> First-Past-The-Post system: 
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Indian_general_election#Electoral_system
> 
> * 26 May 2019: Belgian general election, using a method of party-list 
> proportional representation, won by the New Flemish Alliance with 16% of 
> the vote and 17% of the seats (25/150). A ruling coalition has not yet 
> been formed, with an extension to 1 July from the original date of 6 
> June, extended to 17 June. There is a 5% threshold for representation. 
> Electoral system details: 
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Belgian_federal_election#Electoral_system 
> 
> 
> * 26 May 2019: European Parliament election, won by the European 
> People's Party Group with 21% of the vote and 24% of the seats 
> (179/751). Voting systems differ in various countries, but all must use 
> a proportional system with either Single Transferable Vote or a 
> party-list system. Representation thresholds also vary from country to 
> country. Wikipedia: 
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elections_to_the_European_Parliament#Voting_system 
> 
> 
> * 5 June 2019: Danish general election, using a party-list proportional 
> system, won by the Social Democrats with 26% of the votes and 27% of the 
> seats (47/129). The ruling coalition "Red Bloc" gained a total of 49% of 
> the vote (slightly more when including Greenland and the Faroe Islands) 
> and 52% of the seats (93/179). There is a 2% threshold for 
> representation. Electoral system details: 
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Danish_general_election#Electoral_system
> 
> 
> If anyone has lots of spare time, it would be interesting to see the 
> Gallagher Index for each of these elections.
> 
> 
> *What*: Fair Vote Waterloo Discussion Night
> *When*: Wednesday, 26 June 2019 from 7:00pm to 9:00pm
> *Where*: Community Room, Bread and Roses Co-op
> *Location*: 307 Queen Street South, Kitchener
> *Map*: https://osm.org/go/ZXnwTLMg--?m=
> 
> 
> As always, if you're driving please park in the north lot, and place a 
> note in your window:
> 
> *Meeting in Community Room re Apt 107 from 7-9pm*
> 
> North Parking Lot Map: https://osm.org/go/ZXnwTL0rw--?m=
> 
> 
> See you all on Wednesday!
> 
> --Bob Jonkman
> Fair Vote Waterloo Secretary and Discussion Night Organizer
> 
> Mail to: info at fairvotewrc.ca
> Phone: +1–519–279–2990
> 
> 

-- 
Bob Jonkman <bjonkman at sobac.com>          Phone: +1-519-635-9413
SOBAC Microcomputer Services             http://sobac.com/sobac/
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-- 
Bob Jonkman  bobjonkman at kwpeace.ca
http://kwpeace.ca/
Newsletters, articles and events for Kitchener-Waterloo's Peace and 
Social Justice activists