Electoral Reform: How to Help
The electoral reform train is rolling. By December 1 an all-party committee of federal MPs will recommend (or not) reforms to our electoral system. Personally, I am grumbly about several aspects of this process, but I will save that for other entries. In this entry I would like to provide information about how you can get involved, and some background information about what has happened so far.
If you have some interest in seeing electoral reform be successful then please consider getting involved to the extent you are willing and able.
I will attempt to keep this page updated, but I am not following the day-to-day news of the electoral reform process that closely.
Participate in the Process
Write to your member of parliament and ask him or her to hold a town hall in your riding. Let them know that you want to see proportional representation succeed. You can find contact information for your MP here: http://www.fairvotewrc.ca/contact/politician-contact-info/
Write to Minister Monsef and encourage her to keep the electoral process fair (that is, not biased in favour of the status quo or non-proportional voting systems). Minister Monsef's contact information is here: https://www.canada.ca/en/government/ministers/maryam-monsef.html My understanding is that notes sent to the Minister will also be forwarded to your home MP.
If there is a town hall meeting with your local MP, attend and make a statement. What kind of statement should you make? Angry rants are probably not effective. Advocating for your favourite electoral system may be necessary, but getting bogged down in details is probably unhelpful. Stating your values and how proportional representation reflects your values is probably helpful.
Similarly, once the parliamentary committee announces its public submission process, participate in that process. This might involve making a verbal presentation, or submitting written comment.
Work With an Advocacy Organization
There are a number of groups in town which have some interest in proportional representation. Even if you do not know much about proportional representation yourself, you can (and should!) participate. You will learn a lot along the way.
NDP
Apparently the NDP is canvassing houses and distributing literature in support of proportional representation. I do not know much more than this, but if you are interested then you can contact the local NDP on their website: http://www.kwndp.ca/contact/
Fair Vote Canada
The Waterloo Region Chapter of Fair Vote Canada is pretty active, and is working hard on influencing politicians and holding information sessions. Their main website is http://fairvotewrc.ca . (Disclaimer: I am not a member of FVC any more but I did help found this chapter, and I work with the group from time to time). The main contacts are Sharon Sommerville and Bob Jonkman.
They can use help with the following:
- Staffing booths during festivals. You can help with this even if you are not a voting nerd.
- Meeting with politicians and letting them know about your support for proportional representation. In addition, FVC is encouraging local politicians to hold town hall meetings around the electoral reform process.
- Finding organizations who would like to hold information sessions about proportional representation. If you belong to a co-op, social club, educational institution, church group, or any other group of people who might be interested in a presentation, then let them know.
The chapter has announcement and discussion email lists. Joining the announcement list is probably the easiest way to stay on top of local news and volunteer callouts.
The national chapter of Fair Vote Canada is also quite active. They would like your participation in the following ways:
- Sign their Declaration of Voters Rights . As I understand it, this may also get you signed up for their national mailing list.
- Join their letter-writing brigade. A dedicated group of people keeps tabs on proportional representation and electoral reform news stories and opinion columns. The brigade then writes responses to these articles as letters to the editor. I am not sure how to sign up for this, but you can probably find out by contacting them: http://www.fairvote.ca/contact/ . If that fails then contact me and I will get you in touch with somebody.
LeadNow
LeadNow has picked up proportional representation as one of their primary campaigns. They are also quite active locally.
Locally, they seem to be most interested in canvassing people door to door. They also hold some information sessions and staff booths at festivals.
To get on their local mailing list, go to their recruitment page and fill out the form. The main contact is Sylvie Spraakman.
Nationally, LeadNow is also active. They woul like you to do the following:
- Sign their VoteBetter petition, which (as usual) will get you added to an email list.
- Donate money to their cause: http://www.leadnow.ca/donate .
Educate Yourself
It is easy to get lost in the weeds when it comes to electoral reform. But if only voting nerds express an interest in this issue then we are sunk. If you drum up interest in the issue by educating yourself (and others!) then this initiative is more likely to succeed.
For an excellent overview of different voting systems, see Laurel Russwurm's article Electoral Systems Roundup
Attend some information sessions about electoral reform.
Read Minister Monsef's eight principles and see how they relate to your values. Prepare yourself to speak in terms of those values.
Several organizations are banding together to form the Every Voter Counts Alliance . This page has a FAQ about the process, and press releases. (Disclaimer: I do not feel that all of the arguments expressed on this website are accurate.)
Explain electoral reform to others. In doing so you will identify areas in which your understanding is weak.
Sidebar: The Story So Far
During last year's federal election the Liberals made the following promise:
We are committed to ensuring that 2015 will be the last federal election conducted under the first-past-the-post voting system.
We will convene an all-party Parliamentary committee to review a wide variety of reforms, such as ranked ballots, proportional representation, mandatory voting, and online voting.
The committee will deliver its recommendations to Parliament. Within 18 months of forming government, we will introduce legislation to enact electoral reform.
It appears that the Liberals are keeping this promise, in word if not in spirit. At this point:
The makeup of the committee has been announced. At first it was dominated by Liberals, but now it will be allocated (approximately) proportionally: five Liberal MPs, three Conservatives, two NDPs, one Bloc and one Green. All will hve voting rights on the committee, which is also an improvement. ref
The committee will (somehow) be holding public consultations on electoral reform.
In addition Minister of Democratic Institutions Maryam Monsef has advised individual MPs to hold town hall meetings about this issue.
Minister Monsef has released eight principles which should guide electoral reform.
The report to Parliament is due on December 1.
MPs are supposed to report back to Minister Monsef (about their town halls?) by Oct 14. ref
This means that the committee will be doing a lot of its work during the summer, when people are not paying attention.