Demand proportional representation from opposition party leaders

January 26, 2010

Dear warriors….

Both Jack Layton of the NDP and Michel Ignatieff of the Liberals are taking advantage of the new democracy movement by making proposals to curb the power of the prime minister – any prime minister - to shut down Parliament.

While this is a good start it clearly not enough. Without proportional representation (PR) the abuse of power in Parliament will continue.

At the root of Harper’s ability to abuse the power of the executive branch is the first-past-the-post system of electing MPs. Under such a system, and with multiple parties as we have in Canada, you need only 38 percent of the vote to govern. And when only 60% of eligible voters cast a ballot it means that fewer than 23% of Canadian elected Stephen Harper and his government. If PR had been in place in 2006, Harper would never have been prime minister because he could not have found another party in the house to support him.

In the 2008 election Harper ended up with 143 seats – more than the Libs (77) and the NDP (37) combined. With proportional representation the Cons would have had 117 – fewer than the combined total of the Libs and NDP (80 + 55= 135).

We should be supporting both the Libs and the NDP in their calls for limits on the power to prorogue. There are other reforms that need to be enacted to make our system more democratic but the key one is proportional representation as it would put pressure on the parties to enact other reforms.

WRITE A SHORT LETTER… calling on Jack Layton and Michael Ignatieff to support proportional representation in federal elections.

FRAMING…as above –   the only real solution to democratizing Parliament, preventing the abuse of executive power and having House of Commons that actually reflects the voting desires of Canadians is to implement proportional representation.

Some points to make in your letters:

• Canadians should support both the NDP and the Liberals in their efforts to end the abuse of  prorogation – this outrageous/appalling/unacceptable abuse of power must never happen again
  
• But this is not enough – only when the seats in the House of Commons exactly reflect the percentage of votes that the parties receive from Canadians, will our Parliament be truly democratic. We need proportional representation and the NDP and the Liberals should make this part of their next election platform.
  
• With PR we never again have a government given absolute power with just 38% of the vote.
  
• The Liberals and the NDP – if they are serious about ending the autocratic rule of Stephen Harper and renewing democracy – should begin now to talk about a possible accord after the next election and jointly commit to implementing PR.
  
• Call on the democracy movement which had such huge success last Saturday, to continue its mobilizing of Canadians and to move from criticizing Harper to proposing positive reforms – like PR.
  
• With PR, the percentage of Canadians voting would increase as people would not feel that their votes are wasted – another way that democracy would be enhanced.
  

 

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