Fair Vote Canada

British Columbians urged to continue consideration of other electoral reform alternatives

National electoral reform movement turns its attention to the next federal election

Fair Vote Canada urged British Columbians to continue their consideration of electoral reform alternatives, following the May 12 electoral reform referendum in which the BC-STV proposal failed to gain majority support from voters. The BC-STV voting system was recommended by the BC Citizens’ Assembly on Electoral Reform.

“Electoral reformers across the country hoped for a victory in the BC-STV referendum, but we will have to wait a while longer for that first breakthrough,” said Andy Blair, Vice President of Fair Vote Canada, the national citizens’ organization for electoral reform. “We do encourage British Columbians to keep discussing electoral reform alternatives, particularly since the opposition campaign stressed that many of its supporters wanted electoral reform, but not this particular model.”

Meanwhile, the national movement for electoral reform will turn its full attention to the federal arena and preparing for the next federal election.

“The October 2008 federal election and its aftermath created a huge public awakening on the problems with our electoral system,” said Larry Gordon, Executive Director, Fair Vote Canada. “The proliferation of strategic voting and vote-swapping web sites during the last election provoked a national discussion on our dysfunctional first-past-the-post voting system and how the majority usually cast votes that elect no one.”

“Last Fall we saw a significant surge of public interest in electoral reform. Fair Vote Canada experienced an unprecedented increase in web site traffic, Facebook members and people joining our organization,” said Gordon. “In the coming months, we will begin mobilizing this expanded support base to help ensure that the electoral reform debate continues during and after the next federal election. The most important democratic advancements in Canadian history took many years to achieve – the fight for fair voting will continue until all Canadians can cast equal and effective votes in every election in the country.”

Fair Vote Canada (FVC) is a national multi-partisan citizens’ campaign to promote voting system reform. FVC was founded in 2001 and has a National Advisory Board of distinguished Canadians from all points on the political spectrum