For immediate release
June 23, 2011

Harper government “modernizes” Senate – into the 11th Century

Minister of State for Democratic Reforms Tim Uppal Tuesday introduced legislation into the House to provide a “voluntary framework” for provinces to elect nominees to the Senate. The nominees named by the provinces would then be appointed to the Senate by the Prime Minister.

Astonishingly, the legislation specifies the same antiquated voting system that has a history of delivering false majority governments, including the current one. Although the Conservatives received less than forty percent of the votes cast in the recent election, Minister Uppal describes this as a “strong mandate” for Senate reform.

“We are stuck with first-past-the-post voting in the House of Commons through an accident of history,” said Shoni Field, newly-elected President of Fair Vote Canada (FVC), Canada’s citizens’ movement for electoral reform. “In recent history, no country designing a voting system from scratch has chosen the winner-take-all system that we use.”

“Fair Vote Canada has no policy on whether the Senate should be elected, appointed, or abolished,” she added. “The first and most urgent priority at the federal level is to give Canadians a truly representative House of Commons. Consideration of Senate reform or abolition should be addressed after citizens have chosen a fair and modern system to elect their MPs.

“But if the Senate is to be elected, then surely it must be elected using a modern, fair, proportional system. Choosing this antiquated system cannot be considered progress. What a missed opportunity to move Canadian democracy forward!”

“It used to be Conservative policy to that the Senate should be elected by proportional representation,” said FVC Executive Director Wayne Smith. “It is extremely disappointing that they have abandoned fairness in favour of winner-take-all.

“Canada has been described as an elected dictatorship,” he added, “and we could use more checks and balances on the unlimited power of a majority government. But a winner-take-all Senate will not provide that. It will be just an expensive rubber stamp for the Government, and that’s what we already have now. This bill must be amended to specify that provinces have to use a proportional voting system to elect their Senate nominees.”

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Contact:

Wayne Smith
416-407-7009
Wayne.Smith@FairVote.Ca

Shoni Field
604-720-0541
shoni.field@fairvote.ca