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<p>Thanks Paul.</p>
<p>If we attempt to be impartial, it shouldn't be difficult to have PR pros vastly outnumber FPTP and AV pros.</p>
<p>The only pro for FPTP that I am aware of is that it is simple. Are there any others?</p>
<p>The only advantage of AV is that the winning candidate accumulates 50% support when you include enough second place and third place supporters who don't really favour the winning candidate. </p>
<p>PR has by far the most pros.</p>
<p>Dave</p>
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<p>---------- Original Message ----------<br />From: Paul Nijjar <paul_nijjar@yahoo.ca><br />Date: July 29, 2016 at 3:18 AM<br /><br /><br /><br />(CCing to fvc-wat-disc. I do not know whether it will get through<br />because I do not know if the mailing list has been configured to work<br />with Yahoo. But I will try.)<br /><br />Okay, we are booked for a presentation at the Kitchener Public<br />Library.<br /><br />I talked with the programming manager at the KPL over the phone today.<br />She said that if I got a blurb to her by tomorrow then it could be<br />included in the In Touch magazine. I just sent that blurb to her now<br />(unfortunately in addition to being lazy my stomach started acting up<br />this evening, and I have spent a lot of time lying low). Here is the<br />blurb: <br /><br />----<br /><br />Prime Minister Trudeau has promised to make "every vote count" in<br />future elections, and the process of electoral reform is currently<br />underway. Why might the current electoral system benefit from reform?<br />What electoral reforms are being considered? What are their advantages<br />and disadvantages? How is this electoral reform process structured?<br />How can we participate in this process? Representatives from Fair<br />Vote Canada will address these issues and take your questions.<br /><br />----<br /><br />I also made a bunch of other promises and decisions that the Executive<br />might not like. Here is a summary: <br /><br />- The event will be held at the central branch of the library on<br /> Thursday, Sept 8, from 7:00pm-8:30pm. (We also had the option of<br /> Sept 1 or Sept 22, and I may have made the wrong choice.) <br /><br />- We were originally booked for Meeting Room A, which holds 60 people.<br /> I implied that we could get over 60 people to the event, so we are<br /> rebooked for a bigger room (maybe the auditorium? It is not clear).<br /> Now we have to keep that promise. If only 20 people show up we will<br /> look pretty bad.<br /><br />- It sounds as if the KPL is more interested in a discussion of<br /> different electoral systems, as well as non-electoral system options<br /> including mandatory voting and electronic voting. However, we should<br /> still cover the electoral reform process (the committee, Monsef's<br /> five principles, etc)<br /><br />- This is a part that will be contentious: the KPL wants this<br /> presentation to lean towards impartiality, with an honest discussion<br /> of pros in cons. They are not interested in having us advocate for<br /> one electoral system in particular, because they do not want to come<br /> across as being partisan in this issue. I warned the KPL that FVC tends<br /> to be unkind to FPTP and AV, but promised that I would try to steer<br /> the direction of the presentation more towards public information<br /> (Here is what is happening! Here are our options! Here are the<br /> advantages and disadvantages of each!) and less towards sermonizing<br /> (Proportional Representation is amazing and you are a stupidhead if<br /> you don't support it!). I have not seen Byron's presentation in a<br /> while, but I think that it is reasonably close to something that<br /> will make the KPL happy. <br /><br />- The current format is looking like a 45-minute presentation followed<br /> by abundant Q&A. This format is not set in stone. In particular, if<br /> we wanted to put together a panel (with some representatives from<br /> Keep Voting Simple?) then that would be okay with the KPL too.<br /><br /> Managing Q&A is going to be tricky, because events like this attract<br /> people who like to ramble instead of asking questions. Maybe written<br /> questions are the way to go?<br /><br />- The KPL can provide a projector. We will provide laptops and other<br /> equipment.<br /><br />- We are allowed to have a booth outside the presentation if we want.<br /> (The KPL told us they will not give us their registration list, but<br /> that's fine and we were not expecting that anyways.) I am guessing<br /> we could invite LeadNow and other groups (Keep Voting Simple?) to<br /> have booths as well, but I do not know for sure.<br /><br /><br />Next Steps<br />----------<br /><br />- Figure out what format the presentation will take. It seems to me<br /> that Byron's presentation is adaptable if we use a presentation. If<br /> we want to put together a panel then FVC can be less even-handed,<br /> but the other panellists might be better at convincing people than<br /> we are.<br /><br />- Figure out who will present. My guess is that the natural choice is<br /> Byron or Sean, since they have done this presentation before. There<br /> might be other good presenters available as well. I am also open to<br /> doing the presenting in the worst case. (Really? I am too anxious to<br /> staff a booth but I can present to a big audience? I guess my ego is<br /> really that huge.) <br /><br />- Work towards getting a good turnout, especially amongst people who<br /> are not already voting nerds. KPL marketing will definitely help but<br /> we have work to do as well: <br /><br /> + If FVC makes some tweets or Facebook posts, can the rest of us<br /> retweet/like/promote those items? (Sean says that Anita has a good<br /> social network, so maybe we can exploit that.) <br /> + Can we personally invite friends, family and enemies to attend the<br /> presentation?<br /> + We should let LeadNow know that this presentation is happening. I<br /> can probably email Sylvie if she is not already on this list.<br /> + We can let people know this is happening via the announcement<br /> list.<br /><br /> I am sure there are other promotional ideas as well. We should not<br /> rest on our laurels about this.<br /><br />- We should not stop here. Having one prominent organization agree to<br /> host a talk is good leverage for convincing others. We should reach<br /> out to the libraries again. It would also be great to hit up service<br /> clubs (Rotarians, Lions Club), co-ops (we have had good success with<br /> housing co-ops in the past), church groups, and maybe even the<br /> remaining electoral district associations (even the Conservatives!). <br /><br /><br /><br /><br />_______________________________________________<br />This is the fvc-wat-disc mailing list<br />Post a message: fvc-wat-disc@listserv.thinkers.org<br />Unsubscribe: http://listserv.thinkers.org/mailman/listinfo/fvc-wat-disc_listserv.thinkers.org<br /></p>
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