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Fair Vote Canada News Release: Our Broken Voting System - February 7, 2006

News Release from Fair Vote Canada - February 7, 2006


MEET THE NEW BOSS, SAME AS THE OLD BOSS:

DEMOCRACY SCRAPPED IN CABINET PATCH JOB



Stephen Harper’s cabinet-building contortions are undemocratic, according to Fair Vote Canada, and make a mockery of voters’ rights and representative democracy.

“Our broken voting system has failed to provide representation for almost half a million Conservative voters in our largest cities,” said Wayne Smith, president of the multi-partisan citizens’ movement for voting reform, “so Stephen Harper has scrapped democracy and fallen back on partisan deal making to build his cabinet. It’s already ‘meet the new boss, same as the old boss’ and that’s after only one day of new government.”

With not one Conservative elected in Toronto, Montreal, or Vancouver, Mr. Harper used the lack of government MPs from those cities to justify Cabinet appointments for Michael Fortier, a Montreal-based party operative whose name did not appear on any ballot, and David Emerson, a Vancouver-based MP who just two weeks ago presented himself to voters as champion of a different party and political agenda. Toronto will have to make do with Jim Flaherty, the member from nearby Oshawa.

With a fair voting system, according to Smith, Harper would have had lots of urban lumber with which to build his cabinet.

“Almost half a million Canadians voted Conservative in these three cities” said Smith. “They should all have Conservative MPs in the new Parliament.”

“In Vancouver 22% of voters voted Conservative. They deserve to have elected one of Vancouver's 5 MPs. One who had faced the voters.

“In Montreal 15% of voters voted Conservative. They deserve to have elected three of Montreal's 18 MPs. Ones who had faced the voters.

“In Toronto 24% of voters voted Conservative. They should have elected five of Toronto's 22 MPs.“

“Had the same votes been cast in a fair voting system, Conservative voters would have elected approximately nine MPs in Montreal, Vancouver and Toronto,” said Smith. “creating a pool of legitimately elected representatives for cabinet consideration. But our dysfunctional voting system failed us again, and so our new government is built on backroom brokerage.”

“This is exactly the political behaviour that sickens Canadians,” said Larry Gordon, Executive Director of Fair Vote Canada. “Mr. Harper had a choice. He could have acknowledged our voting system denies fair representation for millions of voters from all parties. He could have chosen to launch a reform process to give every Canadian an equal vote. Instead, on day one of his new government, he resorts to backroom deals that do a complete end run around voters.”

Contact: Wayne Smith, 416-407-7009

or Larry Gordon, 647-519-7585

Fair Vote Canada

posted by Annamarie at 4:23 PM