[fvc-wat-disc] Fw: UPDATE - BREAKING NEWS: Toronto Star endorses proportional representation

Fri Jun 10 10:43:13 EDT 2022

Apologies for any duplicate mailing; just wanted to ensure you saw this piece of great news!
David

Residing on the the Haldimand Tract promised to the Six Nations in 1784, the traditional lands of the Neutral, Anishinaabe, and Haudenosaunee peoples. 

   ----- Forwarded Message ----- From: Fair Vote Canada - Anita Nickerson <anita.nickerson at fairvote.ca>To: David Dirks <daviddirks at rogers.com>Sent: Thursday, June 9, 2022 at 11:22:35 PM EDTSubject: UPDATE - BREAKING NEWS: Toronto Star endorses proportional representation

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UPDATE - BREAKING NEWS: Toronto Star Editorial Board endorses proportional representation

Dear David,

We rarely send two emails back-to-back like this... but we wanted to share this breaking news with you!

The Toronto Star Editorial Board has just endorsed proportional representation.

"It’s time to put electoral reform — specifically proportional representation — back on the agenda. Ontario Liberals, as they figure out how to get their party out of the ditch itlanded in last week, should embrace that idea and stick with it. The NDP and Greens already support PR."

This news is a huge win for all PR advocates across Canada. Share it now:
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For decades, the Toronto Star has, in their words, "been skeptical of ditching first-past-the-post." 

Their prominent columnists on this issue have consistently opposed proportional representation, recycling tired myths and opponent talking points.

Mainstream media are public opinion leaders, and play a huge role in communicating information, shaping public opinion, and encouraging political leadership on important issues.

The Star'sofficial endorsement of proportional representation today as "the right thing to do" is a win for all of you who have been tireless advocates and supporters of PR.

Today, a vote that counts for Ontario voters and for all Canadians just came one step closer. 

Anita
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Tons of media for electoral reform this week! And… Justin Trudeau is still pushing winner-take-all ranked ballots in a blatant show of self-interest

Dear David,

Your voices for proportional representation are being heard in the media!

Doug Ford’s landslide “majority” with the support of just 18% of eligible voters has set off a tsunami of press coverage about our broken voting system. 

A new poll out today shows that a majority of Ontarians want proportional representation! 

Below we’ve highlighted just some of the recent media coverage that includes Fair Vote Canada. A full list of media so far can be found here.

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 From the article:

"Fair Vote Canada supports proportional representation, a system in which parties’ shares of seats in a legislature are closely aligned with their shares of the popular vote. While there are several different versions of proportional representation, they all more accurately reflect the will of voters, Cragg said.”

The Toronto Star also ran an article on how we voted and what we got, picking up directly from Fair Vote Canada's press release.

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This Canadian Press article was picked up by CBC, the National Post, CityNews and others. From the article:

"The Ontario election results were a gross misrepresentation of what voters said with their ballots," read a Twitter post from Fair Vote Canada, an organization that supports moving to a proportionalsystem. "Majority governments should have the consent of a majority of voters."

Ted Cragg of Fair Vote Canada was also interviewed on CBC’s All in a Day:

"It feels like a broken record, we’ve been through this so many times, federally and in other provinces. Why are some voters fortunate enough to live in swing ridings, while others live in safe seats where the same party wins most of the time, so they feel less inclined to vote… Every vote should have a direct outcome on theresult.”
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 From the article: 

"Fair Vote Canada has been pushing the powers that be to enact a wholly independent citizens’ assembly, saying that politicians themselves are in a “conflict of interest” when it comes to electoral reform.

“You need an impartial body,” says Ted Cragg, Fair Vote’s spokesperson for Ontario. “You need experts who have that distance and can really choose the best system for the jurisdiction.”
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>From the article:

"Fair Vote Canada describes PR as: Proportional representation is any voting system designed to produce a representative body where voters elect MPs in proportion to our votes. Think of it like this, if a party gets 40 per cent of the vote, they get 40 per cent of the seats. The benefits of having such a system are endless.”
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Justin Trudeau gets it wrong: Electoral reform should be about what’s fair for voters, not what’s best for your party
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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Chilean President Gabriel Boric just held a town hall for students in Ottawa. Trudeau was asked about his broken promise on electoral reform.

 Trudeau stated “I don’t believe in proportional representation” and doubled down on his position that he will only support a winner-take-all ranked ballot.

As if his personal opinion should decide the issue. 

As Trudeau told Canadians in 2017: “It was my choice to make”. 

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Winner-take-all ranked ballots (properly called Alternative Vote) was recommended by a meager 4% of the experts who testified to the federal electoral reform committee in 2016. (88% supported proportional representation). 

It is supported by no other party in the House of Commons.

The reasons are clear: winner-take-all ranked ballots reproduce the problems with first-past-the-post, and could even make them worse.

False majorities. Wrong winner elections. Regional divisions. Millions of unrepresented voters.  

Trudeau couldn’t have offered a more transparently self-serving explanation to students for how winner-take-all ranked ballots would work:

"Pick the red guy first, the orange girl second, the green person third, and then you never get the blue person, if that’s the way you choose to vote...”

Time and again, experts have demonstrated thatwinner-take-all ranked ballot only helps the Liberals―at the expense of other voters.

In the 2015 federal election, with first-past-the-post, the Liberals won 184 seats―that’s 54% of the seats and all the power with just 39.5% of the vote.

Had Trudeau’s preferred winner-take-all ranked ballot system been used instead, the Liberals would have won a whopping 224 seats (66%), shutting out the voices of even more voters!

Simulations of Ontario provincial elections going back for decades also show that winner-take-all ranked ballot just funnels more votes to the Liberal Party, while doing nothing to fix our adversarial, dysfunctional politics.

If a winner-take-all ranked ballot had been used in the recent Ontario provincial election, Doug Ford still would have won a “majority” government with a minority of the popular vote. But the Liberals would have picked up a handful more seats in the process.

Australia has used winner-take-all ranked ballot for a century. It’s produced nothing but unaccountable, false majority governments. The last time Australiahad a minority government―where the governing party actually had to listen to anyone else―was in 1940.

To tackle the long-term challenges ahead, we need an electoral system that will encourage our parties to work together for the common good.

Only proportional representation can deliver that.

Courageous political leadership on electoral reform is not for the faint of heart. And the turkeys aren’t in a hurry to planThanksgiving.

That’s why we need politicians to get out of the way and let informed citizens lead.

With your support, we’ll continue to build grassroots power to demand that our political leaders convene a non-partisan, independent National Citizens’ Assembly on Electoral Reform.

Fairness, voter equality and cooperative politics must be at the heart of any reform.

Together,we’ll keep fighting until we Make Every Vote Count. 

Sincerely,

Anita Nickerson
Executive Director, Fair Vote Canada

P.S.  Do you want to help Fair Vote Canada grow? 
Donate,
Volunteer, or 
Ask a friend to support us by signing the Declaration of Voters' Rights!
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Fair Vote Canada

88 North Drive
Kitchener, ON N2M 1K8
Canada

Opt out of all Fair Vote Canada updates

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