Fairvote Canada

Fair Vote Canada on Bluesky

Germany under PR: Far-right gets 20% but is shut out by democratic parties.

USA under FPTP: Far-right takes over the GOP, erodes democracy, and works to economically weaken us for annexation.

FPTP doesn’t protect democracy—it endangers it.

#cdnpoli

Link to article.

While the federal government is prorogued and most of the country focuses on the ongoing trade disputes with the USA, one group is preparing itself to make its voice heard ahead of the possible upcoming federal election.

As anti-trans bills continue to be rolled out across the United States, the LGBTQ+ community in Canada is gearing up to make sure that something similar does not happen in Canada.

A Queer Mass Organizing Call connected to the group Momentum Canada has been posted all over social media.

The Supreme Court of Canada ruled Friday that a key provision of Ontario’s Election Finances Act — hurriedly passed by the Ford government prior to the 2022 election — unconstitutionally breaches the right to vote and is of no force and effect. The act imposed a spending limit on third parties (that is, everyone except for political parties) for 12 months prior to an election call, as determined by Ontario’s fixed election date law. A five-justice majority found that violated the Charter of Rights and Freedoms’ guarantee to a right to vote and to meaningful participation in the electoral process under Section 3 of the Charter, even though similar laws are usually challenged as restrictions on freedom of speech.

That decision is critical in this case since Section 33 of the Charter, the so-called notwithstanding clause, can be used to override the guarantee of free expression but not voting rights. So even though the legislature invoked Section 33 to pass the government’s bill, the Supreme Court’s decision in Ontario v. Working Families renders it null and void.

Fair Vote Canada on Bluesky

How is this democratic?

It's time for proportional representation.

#cdnpoli #onpoli

A political infographic titled 'Ontario votes 2025' compares the popular vote and seat distribution in the Ontario election. On the left, a pie chart labeled 'How we voted (popular vote)' shows: PC (43%), Liberal (29.9%), NDP (18.6%), Green (4.8%), and Other (3.8%). On the right, a pie chart labeled 'What we got (seats)' shows: PC (64.5%), NDP (21.8%), Liberal (11.3%), Green (1.6%), and Other (0.8%). The infographic highlights the discrepancy between votes cast and seats won under the first-past-the-post system.

Typical Republican argues that polarizing governance is actually a good thing.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/40228347

The Supreme Court of Canada has struck down a Ford government law that restricted political advertising by third parties, such as unions, in the year ahead of a scheduled election campaign.

The top court ruled in a 5-4 decision that the law allowed for political parties’ ads to “drown out” those of third-party groups, infringing on citizens' right to meaningfully participate in the democratic process.

“The information available to voters in Ontario in the year before an election must include the interests, voices and views of different citizens and parties,” reads the majority decision written by Justice Andromache Karakatsanis.

Green Party of Canada🟢 on Bluesky

The Green Party of Canada is calling on progressive Canadian parties to set aside partisan differences and unite in addressing the issues that matter most to Canadians. We're ready to discuss building a more democratic future, let's make it happen. #CommonGround

[Elizabeth May] Hey it's Elizabeth May. Co-leader of the Green Party of Canada. Here with Jonathan Pedneault, co-leader of the Green Party of Canada.

We've just come from a press conference where we have made a public challenge to the other leaders of the parties that call themselves progressives.

If you want to cooperate before the next election, we're ready. We wanna sit down and talk about it.

We need to give Canadians a parliament that speaks to your values and your concerns.

[Jonathan Pedneault] The answer to what's happening in the US is not less democracy, it's more democracy.

We've been asking for electoral reform for so many years. Trudeau let us down, but quite frankly, this election we need to collaborate strong progressive voices, and more democracy in Ottawa would do us wonders.

Fair Vote Canada on Bluesky

What’s more chilling than Trump’s presidency? The fact that we use the same system that just handed him total control.

First-past-the-post fuels a hyper-partisan two-party system.

If we want to protect democracy in Canada, we need proportional representation.

#cdnpoli

Steve Boots talks about electoral reform and uses a Fairvote graph but unfortunately he does not bring up proportional representation. It disappoints me how little people know about the topic not realizing how much it holds back our democracy.

Link to article.

We live in an era of eroding democracy where polarization is increasingly fracturing our sense of a shared reality.

With another federal election approaching, there's a growing sense that our political system prioritizes short-term gains over the long-term health of our democracy.

All events are free and open to the public.

Burlington, Charlottetown, Edmonton, Nanaimo

With Duverger's Law (i.e., in non-PR electoral systems, a trend towards a two-parties), we are running out of time to act. Canada's 2021 effective number of parties is 2.76 - this number will decrease over time, and will eventually end Canadian democracy as we know it today.

1. Look at the Fairvote sidebar for starter information.
2. See our 2025Q1 Fairvote Community goals (will be locked by the end of Q1).
3. Let's keep building the movement and growing this community. We need more regular posters and from more diverse sources.

...and PR is coming

In fact, implementing proportional representation designed for Canada—whether Mixed Member Proportional, Single Transferable Vote, or a hybrid of those—requires just an act of legislation.

The only model of proportional representation that would be unconstitutional in Canada is one where ridings cross provincial boundaries. For example, implementing a nation-wide, party list system like Israel. Such a system is highly unsuited for Canada and nobody has ever proposed it.

It’s clear that FPTP is far from being a fair and democratic system. That’s why we need a better solution. A proportional representation-based (PR) electoral system is one where election results reflect who each individual voted for, ensuring everyone has representation that matches their beliefs. Coalitions of parties can help establish a consensus, and can make it far less likely that a new policy will immediately be thrown out by the next government.