I love Canada. Canada is beautiful. Its lands are breath-taking. Its waters are abundant. Its people are diverse and accepting. We have strong regulations that protect us, and many social services that are the envy of our southern neighbours. I generally feel very safe, and secure as a citizen of Canada.
But lately, I’ve been afraid for Canada. More specifically, I am really afraid of our voting system. Our faulty voting system keeps putting parties in power who didn’t really earn the right to be there. And the people who lead those parties seem to be wielding more and more power. Lately, some of them are tending to become more and more extreme, and that really scares me.
Every election, I hold my breath and hope for the best – that our voting system won’t fail us again. I pray that a slight shift in support doesn’t result in a huge shift in power to another side.
But time and time again it does fail us. First-Past-the-Post math gives easy majorities, unpredictable results, and leaves the actual majority of us with absolutely no say in how what we want our society to look like. That doesn’t sound democratic, does it?
I want proportional voting systems for Canada.
I want better voting systems – proportional voting systems – for Canada because I want to vote with confidence for who I want and know that I will always elect someone to represent my values. I am tired of having to choose between voting for who I want vs. who I think might win to prevent the party I don’t want from winning.
I want proportional voting systems for Canada because I want parties to work together to form policies that focus on the long-term, and that will, therefore, be more stable and can be improved upon over time. I am so tired of false majority governments with free reign to do they want without accountability to voters or even their own supporters.
I want proportional voting systems for Canada because I want more women, indigenous peoples, and people of diversity represented in government, as they are in our society.
I want proportional voting systems for Canada because 60% of Canadians consistently vote for parties that believe that conserving the environment and respecting indigenous rights are important to the country’s well-being and our policies badly need to reflect that.
I want proportional voting systems for Canada because I want more fiscal responsibility and economic stability. I want the government to stop wasting taxpayer money cutting programs, slashing and rebuilding legislation over and over again. I want stability for businesses, social services, and individual Canadians and an end to the huge policy swings that create chaos in people’s lives.
Most of all, I want proportional voting systems for Canada because I want to be excited to go to the polls at every election to vote for who I want knowing that I will be represented, and knowing that every Canadian will actually get to influence the direction our country takes.
And that direction, I know, will be for the better.
If changing the voting system is important to you, keep in touch. Sign my petition, take The Challenge, subscribe to my email updates, like me on Facebook, and take some small actions that make a big difference!