This January and February, Canadians from coast to coast are visiting their MPs about proportional representation.“The response to the original request for Canadians to visit their MPs in their home ridings was so overwhelming, we decided to extend the campaign to accommodate everyone” says Anita Nickerson, Fair Vote Canada’s Action Coordinator. “We had originally hoped for 15-20 volunteers but now understand, Canadians want change and will go to the top to get it.”
Fair Vote’s originally plan was to send volunteers out between January 2nd to 26th, while MPs are in their home ridings. But the response was so great, we have extended the campaign to include the February 17th to 26th home break.
Over 400 volunteers from 161 ridings, from Bonavista-Gander-Grand Falls-Windsor in Newfoundland to Western Arctic-Northwest Territories to Victoria, British Columbia, have signed up to visit their MPs about making our votes count. Many people who have signed up have never visited an MP before. Small groups are gathering in coffee shops to learn from each other and strategize how best to approach their MP.
Many of those visiting MPs will be presenting petitions from constituents for MPs to read in the House of Commons.
“It’s been amazing and inspiring to see how many Canadians care so much about our democracy, and are passionate about pushing our elected representatives to adopt a fair voting system”, says Kelly Carmichael, Fair Vote Canada’s Executive Director.
“For the past 13 years, polls have consistently shown that a strong majority of Canadians – 70% in the most recent poll – support a switch to proportional representation. Now we’re delivering a loud message from Canadians that this needs to be a major issue in the next election.”
The purpose of the MP visits is to educate MPs, clear up myths, and share solid research showing that proportional systems outperform winner-take-all systems on every measure of democracy as well as many other areas such as inequality, economy and environmental performance. In the end, the visits will help identify which MPs are committed to a more proportional system heading into the 2015 election campaign.
Fair Vote Canada has just surpassed 30,000 signers on its’ Declaration of Voters’ Rights, a leap of almost a third since last summer, and supports a rapidly a growing number of local teams. Prominent Canadians, including Hugh Segal, Bob Rae, Maude Barlow and David Suzuki support Fair Vote Canada as members of its National Advisory Board.
Pictures from the MP visits can be found here.
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Fair Vote Canada is a national, multi-partisan citizens’ campaign for a more proportional voting system. For more information on the Visit Your MP action, or to contact volunteers visiting MPs in ridings
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contact:
Anita Nickerson, Fair Vote Action Coordinator
[email protected] 519-568-7655
or
Kelly Carmichael, Fair Vote Canada Executive Director
[email protected] 705-799-2644