Fair Vote Canada is a broad coalition of people from all parts of the political spectrum who are focused on a narrow goal—improving our democracy by promoting proportional voting at every level of government and in civil society.

As such, we do not take sides. We do not endorse any politician or any political party. We take note, publicize, and encourage when any politician or other public figure endorses or promotes proportional representation, and we criticize them when they oppose our goals.

We take this approach because voting reform is not a partisan issue. Every political party, at some time and place, is screwed by the current system. But it is not about political parties—it is about giving voters the power to hold political parties accountable. All voters are badly served by the current system.

We call ourselves multi-partisan rather than non-partisan because many of our members are engaged in politics at all levels. Some of our members are disaffected with party politics, but many others are active party members, ranging literally from the Christian Heritage to the Marxist-Leninists, and everything in between.

Our members disagree on many things, but we agree on one thing—we need a new, modern, fair, proportional voting system.

The principle is that our members and officers are allowed to believe and promote whatever they want, as long as they are very clear about when they are speaking on behalf of Fair Vote Canada and when they are not.

At a deeper level, we are working to change the political culture of our nation. One of the reasons we support proportional representation is that it promotes a more consensual type of government and a more civilized style of politics. In order to promote civil discourse in politics, we must be the change we are seeking—we must walk the walk as well as talking the talk.

We understand that opportunities for political change happen unexpectedly, and can come from any corner. We also understand that cross-party support will be required to bring about the change we are seeking. And we understand that partisan smears detract from the credibility of our organization and add nothing to the case we are making for democratic reform. We discuss issues and not personalities.

And that's what we mean by "multi-partisan".