Why proportional representation?

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Published on Tuesday, 31 May 2016 14:45

Written by editor

Proportional representation (PR) is a type of voting system that produces a result where the number of seats a party wins in the legislature is proportional to their share of the popular vote. So, if - say - the Conservative Party wins 39% of the vote, with a PR system, they would get 39% of the seats. PR is the only option that will produce a fair outcome in the House of Commons, and that’s why the Leadnow community is supporting it.

Over 90 countries around the world use a type of PR, including most Western democracies. Canada is an outlier for still using the outdated first-past-the-post system.

We know you want to change our broken voting system. If you agree that PR is the best way forward, there’s a quick way you can support this campaign. All you have to do is click here to send a quick message to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, telling him that you support PR.

Over 70% of you told us you support a PR option for Canada’s next voting system. Over 12000 of you have already written directly to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Minister of Democratic Institutions Maryam Monsef, letting them know you want PR.

There has been a lot of fear-mongering about PR over the last few months. Yet many economically and politically stable countries around the world use PR systems, and report better statistics on measures of income inequality, environmentalism, and satisfaction with government.[1][2]

We can’t let supporters of the status quo drown us out, and leave us stuck with a system that could reproduce the same exaggerated majority governments we’ve had election after election.

Send a message to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau today. Our movement is already thousands strong, and growing every day. Add your voice to the growing number of people who are ready for fair elections in 2019: http://www.leadnow.ca/votebetter/

We’re in this together,
Jamie, Lyndsay, Katelynn and Rachel

Sources:

[1] Lijphart, Arend. Patterns of democracy: Government forms and performance in in thirty-six countries.

[2] Birchfield, Vicki and Markus Crepaz. The impact of constitutional structures and collective and competitive veto points on income inequality in industrialized democracies: http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~iversen/PDFfiles/Birchfield&Crepaz1998.pdf

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