Fair Vote Canada urges the federal government not to push through significant changes to Elections Canada without building consensus with other political parties.“We’re saying hands off Elections Canada,” says Doug Bailie, president of Fair Vote Canada.“Officers responsible to Parliament, such as the Chief Electoral Officer, should not have their powers and responsibilities significantly changed, as the Fair Elections Act does, without a reasonable level of consensus in Parliament.”“The government’s current attempt to interfere with Elections Canada without opposition support and without consulting the Chief Electoral Officer is more proof of why Canada needs a proportional voting system.”
Proportional systems require politicians to build consensus before change can happen and to respect the will of all voters.
Fair Vote Canada finds several aspects of the bill objectionable. In particular, the limits the bill would place on the ability of the CEO to promote voter participation should be deleted.
“Fair Vote Canada urges the government to allow Bill C-23 to be debated thoroughly and to consider amendments that will lead to broad support for the bill,” says Kelly Carmichael, Executive Director of Fair Vote Canada. “As the bill goes to the heart of the democratic system, broad public consultation is essential.”
“This is not the first time we’ve seen this high-handed behavior. We’ve seen it from previous federal governments, as well,” Carmichael says. “This isn’t a Conservative problem or a Liberal problem. It’s a systemic problem and it won’t improve until we change the voting system.”
Fair Vote Canada is a grassroots, multi-partisan citizens’ campaign for proportional representation. FVC’s Declaration of Voters Rights currently has signatures from over 30,000 Canadians.
-30-
contact:
Doug Bailie, President
Fair Vote Canada
780-‐224-‐3438
doug [dot] bailie [at] fairvote[dot]ca
or, Kelly Carmichael, Executive Director
Fair Vote Canada
705-559-9657
[email protected]