Spring 2015 Refresh of Executive

Two individuals committed to proportional representation stepped up offering to serve on our executive.  Lee Ward is now co-spokesperson with me releasing Rick Sawa to be a member-at-large.

I teach political science at Campion College at the University of Regina.  My research and teaching interests include the history of political thought and democratic theory.  I have long been concerned by the inequities in Canada’s First-Past-the-Post or Single-Member Plurality (SMP) electoral system, which tends to greatly over represent parties that win a bare plurality of votes and effectively marginalizes, even disenfranchises, the majority of Canadian voters who typically do not vote for the party that forms government and often not for the winning candidate in their own riding.

Like many Canadians, I am alarmed to see how prevalent political apathy has become in this country as voter turnout in federal and provincial elections has plummeted to levels below any other advanced democracy.  This signifies a crisis of legitimacy in Canadian government and I am convinced that serious electoral reform is the single most important measure that we can take in order to revive Canadian democracy.  I have watched with interest, and disappointment, as major electoral reform initiatives in Ontario and British Columbia emerged and finally stalled in recent years.  With a general election scheduled for later in 2015, now is the time to reignite the movement for electoral reform at the federal level.

My preferred options for electoral reform are a proportional representation (PR) model, or alternatively a mixed PR-SMP model, either of which would ensure that representation in Parliament reflects as accurately as possible the real choice of Canadian voters.

The second change is Mike Bray contacted us suggesting that we would benefit from a Facebook page.  We agreed and after a short email discussion Mike is now on the executive as Social Media.  Stealing from another advertisement, "You don't have to love us, just like us" at https://www.facebook.com/fairvotesask.

I would like to recognize and thank Rick Sawa for his years of support and wisdom and thank him for remaining on the executive to continue his commitment to proportional representation. 
Nancy Carswell, Co-spokesperson Fair Vote Canada Saskatchewan Chapter
Shellbrook, Saskatchewan