Women’s vote Centennial...sort of.

Many of us celebrating the 100th anniversary of voter equality for women in Manitoba this month are painfully aware that true voter equality still does not exist for about half of us: If you don’t support the most popular party in your riding, then your vote has zero effect on how many seats your chosen party gets in the House of Commons. Our “winner-take-all” voting system suddenly makes that effectiveness of your vote disappear. That usually happens to about half of us.

But if we finally get a voting system based on Proportional Representation, that will finally change in 2019, just in time to also celebrate the 100th anniversary of voter equality for women in all of Canada. If that happens, it won’t be a painfully bittersweet celebration.

Let's Make Votes Equal in Canada

When you vote in Canada, can you be sure that your vote will have the same equal effect on election results that all other votes have?

No. If you don’t support the most popular party in your riding, then your vote suddenly has zero effect on how many seats your chosen party gets in the House of Commons. Our flawed "winner-take-all" voting system suddenly makes the effectiveness of your vote disappear.

Some people say, “Oh well, with 338 ridings, the total votes will average themselves out so that we can all still be satisfied with the overall outcome."

Is this perception based on fact?

No: With only 40% of the people's vote, a party can get 60% of the seats in Parliament, and 100% of the power.  Since WWI, Canada has had 16 of those so-called “majority” Governments.  But only 4 of those actually won a majority of the people's vote. The other 12 elections allowed the minority to rule the majority.

That is only one example - among many - of how our current voting system  doesn't treat votes equally.

Our "winner-take-all" voting system does NOT make votes equal in their effect on election results.

 Approximately 90 countries have voting systems where that distortion doesn’t happen. They have Proportional Representation voting systems where the number of seats won by a party matches the proportion of votes received.

 

If we had that in Canada then you could be sure that your vote would be represented properly and proportionately in Parliament – even if your party doesn’t win a candidate in your riding.

You could then be sure that your vote is treated equally.

Sounds good?

Then please help the growing movement in Canada to “Make Votes Equal” in their effect on election results.

To see how to help, click here to go the Fair Vote Canada action page. 

This non-partisan blog contains resources that you can use: It will contain a growing body of ....

--...perspectives that you can use as we convince others that this situation is intolerable.

--... perspectives that you can use as we mutually educate and inform each other, and as we discuss with others.

Here's two great links (more later):

Fair Vote Canada Homepage

Accountable MPs and Open Lists: the key to a Canadian proportional representation model