Fair Vote Canada
NEWSLETTER
Feb. 26, 2001
CONTENTS:
1) National Meeting Update
2) MPs Debate Electoral Reform
3) Toronto FVC Group Forms
4) St. Lawrence Forum on Electoral Reform
5) Technical Difficulties -- Please Stand By
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1) National Meeting Update
Plans for Fair Vote Canada's first national meeting, Making Votes Count, in Ottawa on March 30-31 are continuing to develop and registrations are rolling in.
Since the meeting was announced on Feb. 8, Jean-Pierre Kingsley, director general of Elections Canada, and Liberal MP Dan McTeague have been added to the list of confirmed speakers.
FVC's Interim Planning Council is currently finalizing the agenda and the conference papers, copies of which will be sent to registrants and FVC's discussion list and will also be posted on our website.
The two-day conference fee is $95, which includes lunches and support materials. Advance registration is required by mailing a cheque payable to Fair Vote Canada, c/o 105-438 Victoria Ave. E., Regina, SK S4N 0N7. Questions about Fair Vote Canada and the conference may be directed to: or 416-410-4034.
2) MPs Debate Electoral Reform
Alexa McDonough, leader of the New Democratic Party, introduced a motion in the House of Commons calling for a review of the electoral system, on February 20.
The motion read: "That this House strike a special all-party committee to examine the merits of various models of proportional representation and other electoral reforms, with a view to recommending reforms that would combat the increasing regionalization of Canadian politics, and the declining turnout of Canadians in federal elections."
Under the rules of the House for "Opposition days", it was the NDP's turn to introduce a motion for the day's debate. It was also the party's choice to make it a non-votable motion.
Don Boudria, House Leader for the government, referred to a pro-PR report released the same day by the Institute for Research on Public Policy (IRPP), quoting a portion of the IRPP press release which stated the chief downside of proportional representation is that large multi-member electoral districts "would be less suited to constituency work as Canadian MPs have traditionally practiced it".
Boudria neglected to mention that the rest of that sentence says that this downside "could largely be offset by adopting a German-style hybrid system, in which PR is mixed with single-member districts."
Bill Blaikie (NDP - Winnipeg-Transcona) said he was disappointed by the contribution of government members to the debate. "There are legitimate arguments to be made in favour of incorporating some element of proportional representation and there are legitimate criticisms of proportional representation as it has been implemented in many countries. It would have been nice to have had that kind of debate."
Overall support for the motion among opposition MPs was substantial.
For the complete transcript of the debate, look under Chamber Business at www.parl.gc.ca . For a copy of the IRPP paper, go to www.irpp.org.
3) Toronto FVC Group Forms
On February 12, fifteen FVC supporters met at Trinity-St. Paul's United Church in Toronto to discuss formation of a regional FVC chapter. The two- hour meeting was videotaped by a CPAC camera crew for use in a special program on electoral reform, likely to be broadcast sometime in March.
Hosted by FVC Interim Planning Council members Doris Anderson, Gail Turner, Richard Swift and Larry Gordon, the meeting included an update on FVC activities and a general discussion on local and national campaign strategy.
The group's first to priority is to help publicize and fill the hall at the upcoming St. Lawrence Forum on electoral reform (February 28). The group, most of whom plan to attend the national launch in Ottawa on March 30-31, will also be working to publicize that event and help coordinate transportation from the Toronto area.
The Toronto group will meet again at 7:30pm, March 20. Contact Larry Gordon or phone 416-410-4034.
4) St. Lawrence Forum on Electoral Reform
Just a reminder that the St. Lawrence Forum in Toronto will take on the topic of electoral reform on Wednesday, February 28. Fair Vote Canada is co-sponsoring the event along with the Centre for Social Justice.
Speaking at the event will be Lorne Nystrom, MP, Walter Robinson of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and Dennis Pilon of York University. The moderator will be Haroon Siddiqui, editorial page editor emeritus of the Toronto Star.
5) Technical Difficulties -- Please Stand By
We have been having difficulties with our server which has prevented us from updating our website for the past several weeks. This has also caused an interruption in our e-mail service.
We expect to have it all fixed within a few more days (after everything is moved to a different server). In the meantime, feel free to send any correspondence to .
We apologize for the difficulty in contacting us this may have caused anyone.
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