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.