For immediate release

September 6, 2011

Fair Vote Canada (FVC), Canada's national citizens' movement for electoral reform heartily supports the United Nations’ designation of September 15 as International Day of Democracy but wants to expand this opportunity to review the state of democracy to get Canadians talking about our democracy here at home.

Fair Vote Canada has declared September 12th-18th the first annual Democracy Week in Canada, and is organizing events in communities across the nation to put Canadian democracy under the microscope.

“We need to get Canadians talking about the state of our democracy,” says Shoni Field, President of Fair Vote Canada. “Our local chapters are holding local events between September 12 and 18 ranging from informal discussion meetings to film nights, to debates, to pub nights, to a contest, to a rally.”

Fair Vote Canada's Web site at http://www.fairvote.ca/en/democracyweek lists over a dozen events in seven cities, including Victoria, Whitehorse, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal.

“Fair Vote Canada's focus is on changing our outmoded, winner-take-all voting system,” adds Wayne Smith, FVC Executive Director, “but Democracy Week is meant to broaden the discussion to include other issues of interest to all Canadians, and for these events we have reached out to partner with other organizations concerned with the state of democratic participation in Canada, such as the Council of Canadians and Canadians Advocating Political Participation.”

Fair Vote Canada, which this year celebrated its 10th anniversary, is a multi-partisan, citizen-based movement for electoral reform.

-30-

Contact:

Shoni Field, President
604-720-0541
Shoni.Field@FairVote.Ca

Wayne Smith, Executive Director
416-407-7009
Wayne.Smith@FairVote.Ca

Democracy Week Team
DemocracyWeek@FairVote.Ca