[fvc-wat-disc] Fwd: Proportional Representation Raises Your Voice

[Cathy Scott]

I am forwarding this email from Marc Gasparotto, which, I think, has an
interesting viewpoint on the relation of our non-inclusive FPTP voting
system to democracy and freedom of speech.
Cathy

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Marc Gasparotto <mdgaspar at lakeheadu.ca>
Date: Sun, Feb 7, 2021 at 4:17 PM
Subject: Proportional Representation Raises Your Voice
To: Fair Vote Canada Chapters <fair-vote-canada-chapters at googlegroups.com>


In many ways, electoral reform is actually a fight for *freedom of speech.*
First Past the Post censors most voters from having their views expressed
in parliament. It de-platforms them.

“Deplatforming is a form of political activism or prior restraint by an
individual, group, or organization with the goal of shutting down speakers
or speech, or *denying them access to a venue in which to express their
opinion.*”

Representatives are speakers through which their constituents’ views are
expressed. Since MPs effectively only speak for one group of voters, that
means most voters’ voices are not being heard in parliament.

As political freedom is the right to share, fully and equally, in
representation, this means *democratic freedom is the right to be heard in
parliament.*

Concerning Section 3 – Democratic rights:

*Supreme Court jurisprudence also indicates that section 3 protects the
right to “effective representation” (Reference re Provincial Electoral
Boundaries (Sask.), [1991] 2 S.C.R. 158 (“ Saskatchewan Reference”) at 183;
Harper, supra at paragraph 68). This right includes the idea of having a
voice in the deliberations of government as well as the right to bring
one’s grievances and concerns to the attention of one’s government
representative (Saskatchewan Reference, supra, at 183).*

It then follows that FPTP deprives Canadians of their right to a voice in
the deliberations of government. Another way of saying this is *First Past
the Post robs you of your voice at the decision-making table.*

Thus, the equality of effective representation (democratic equality) leads
to democratic freedom. And the only way to ensure this equality is through
PR.

Hence,* Proportional Representation raises your voice in parliament.*

#RaiseYourVoice

[image: PR Power Mask (20).png]

[image: Right to be Heard (1).png]

It’s quite similar to the pro-democracy slogan “Make Your Voice Heard”
which is used in terms of freedom of expression with regards to voting. Now
we just need to present it as freedom of expression via representation.

Additionally, this was a good paper
<https://www-jstor-org.ezproxy.torontopubliclibrary.ca/stable/3312581?Search=yes&resultItemClick=true&searchText=C.P.R.+%28Change+through+Proportional+Representation%29+Resuscitating+a+Federal+Electoral+System&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3DC.P.R.%2B%2528Change%2Bthrough%2BProportional%2BRepresentation%2529%253A%2BResuscitating%2Ba%2BFederal%2BElectoral%2BSystem%26acc%3Don%26wc%3Don%26fc%3Doff%26group%3Dnone%26refreqid%3Dsearch%253A838cc44948d2447e54cd630423278371&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_search_solr_cloud%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3Abdacc902402c350604c02b8c8380f497&seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents>
hinting at democtaic freedom:

*Forcing "persons who are not associated by any pervading harmony of mind
or feeling, but are gathered together by the mere accident of living in the
same district or town ... always to agree in the choice of their
representatives [is] inconsistent with the free exercise of individual
will. *

*Under the current system, a significant number of individuals can be
caught in a constituency with a representative whom they do not support.
This is true because constituencies are currently formed by law based on
the geography of single-member districts rather than by the electorate
themselves based on shared interests. *

*Liberated from fixed territorial constituencies, voters in a proportional
representation system may define their own constituencies based on
self-identified communities of interest.*

*49 See, e.g., Garza v. County of Los Angeles Bd. of Supervisors, 918 F.2d
763, 783 (9th Cir. 1990) (Kozinski,J., concurring in part and dissenting in
part) (claiming that of the two strands in the Court's jurisprudence, the
Court's concern for the formal right to electoral equality is "akin to
protecting freedom of speech" while its support for the substantive right
of equal representation has been "far more conditional.” *


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