Fair Vote Canada
NEWSLETTER

Sept. 9, 2003

In this issue ...

-- Fair Vote Ontario Campaign Is Rolling
-- 100 Prominent Ontarians Call for Voting Reform
-- But Will It Be On the Exam?
-- Nova Scotia Election Illustrates the Need for Reform

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-- Fair Vote Ontario Campaign is Rolling

Fair Vote Canada members in Ontario are pressing candidates on their
personal and party positions on provincial voting system reform. Activists in
the Greater Toronto Area and the National Capital, London, Kitchener-
Waterloo, Halton, Northumberland regions, and other areas, have begun
their Fair Vote Ontario campaign activities.

Media coverage is growing. As one Globe reporter noted, "our provincial and
federal politicians are about to be confronted with a serious debate over the
prospect of radically changing the way we hold elections."


-- 100 Prominent Ontarians Call For Voting Reform

Fair Vote Ontario (FVO), a project of Fair Vote Canada, has released the
names of more than 100 prominent Ontarians who are petitioning the
provincial political parties to support a public process that will lead to the
adoption of a fair voting system for Ontario.

Among those supporting the petition are former Ontario Lieutenant Governor
Lincoln Alexander, former Premier Bob Rae, former Tory MP Patrick Boyer,
former Canadian Alliance advisor Rick Anderson, and former Liberal advisor
and Royal Commission chair Tom Kent.

"The current winner-take-all voting system distorts election results and
almost always produces phony majority governments in Ontario," said Fair
Vote Ontario director Wayne Smith. "The voting system routinely gives a
majority of seats in the Ontario legislature to a single party, even when that
party fails to win a majority of votes cast. The last time Ontario was governed
by a legitimate majority government, put in place by a majority of voters, was
1929-1934."

Other petition supporters include business leader Avie Bennett, noted
authors Pierre Berton, Farley Mowat and Alice Munro, taxpayers' advocate
Walter Robinson, former Olympic athlete Bruce Kidd, economist Sylvia
Ostry, Toronto mayoral candidates Barbara Hall, John Nunziata and David
Miller, and entertainers Gordon Pinsent, Karen Kain, Bruce Cockburn,
Stompin' Tom Connors and the cast of the Royal Canadian Air Farce. Also
included are scientist Ursula Franklin, former church leader and Senator
Lois Wilson, and former Canadian Political Science Association presidents
Sylvia Bashevkin and Peter Russell.

Visit our website to see the full list of promninent supporters.


-- But Will It Be On the Exam?

You know a citizens' campaign is making headway when it gains recognition
in textbooks. Several new and widely used political science textbooks make
reference to Fair Vote Canada, the fight for proportional representation, and
provide the FVC web site address. (Note to students: FVC membership
costs less than a new CD and is at least twice the fun. Join us!)


-- Nova Scotia Election Illustrates the Need for Reform

While Nova Scotians gave relatively similar portions of the popular vote to
each of the three political parties, the voting system produced a very
different picture. "Once again, we can see the divergence between what
voters say at the ballot box and what our voting system gives us," said Larry
Gordon, executive director of Fair Vote Canada.

As usual, the distortions are striking. The popular vote for the Conservatives
was only four and a half percentage points higher than the Liberals, yet the
Conservatives won more than twice as many seats. The Liberals attracted
more votes than the NDP, but the NDP won three more seats than the
Liberals.

"It's hard to accept this type of election outcome if you believe in democracy
and that every citizen's vote should be equal," said Gordon, who placed the
blame on our winner-take-all voting system.