Make Every Vote Count 2015 Campaign Webinar

1. Make Every Vote Count 2015 Campaign Webinar

2. Presentation followed by question and answer Type your questions into the question box on your control panel and raise your hand We may not get to all the questions!

3. We will cover: • What is Fair Vote Canada? • Why do we need proportional representation? • A brief look the problems with winner-take-all voting • Why make votes count? A look at the research • Make Every Vote Count 2015 campaign • How can you get involved?

4. Fair Vote Canada is a national, multi-partisan, grassroots citizens campaign for proportional representation! We support proportional representation at all levels of government: federal, provincial, and municipal. We have over 30 local teams, 35,000 signers on our Declaration of Voters’ Rights.

5. Your vote should count towards electing a representative you want. Results should be proportional to the popular vote (if a party gets 30% of the vote, they should get roughly 30% of the seats).

7. A few problems with winner-take-all voting

8. An Electoral Math Lesson An Electoral Math Lesson

9. 2008 federal results: Bloc – 1.3 million votes = 49 seats Greens - 940,000 votes = 0 seats

10. 2008 Federal Election • 1.3 Million votes = 49 Seats • Greens 940,000 votes = 0 Seats

11. Saskatchewan Federal 2011 Results 56% voted Conservative Conservatives won 13 out of 14 seats 56% support = 92% seats

12. Alberta 2011 Federal Results 66% voted Conservative Conservatives won 26 out of 27 seats 66% support = 96% seats

13. Quebec 2011 Federal Results Orange Crush? NDP won 59 of the 75 seats in Quebec 43% popular vote = 78% seats

14. 2008 Federal Results First-past-the-post PR 23 49 28 117 37 143 57 77 81

16. A “mandate” for our government? • 2006: Elected on 36.27% of popular vote • 2008: Elected on 37.65% of popular vote • 2011: Majority government on 39.62% of the popular vote • 1.96 % more of the vote = 23 more seats = 100% power

18. Wasted votes 2011 = 7,280,599 Approx 50% each election Liberal 2,211,697 NDP 2,117,112 Green   540,205 Conservative 1,455,077 Bloc 826,805 Other:   129,703

19. Kitchener-Waterloo 2008 36.1% 63.9%

25. Problems with winner-take-all voting • Distorted results • Regional polarization • Wasted votes • Safe seats • Negative (strategic) voting • Campaigns aimed at a few swing votes in a few swing ridings • Adversarial politics • Low Voter Turnout • Suppression of minority views • Barrier to electing more women and minorities

27. Why proportional representation? A look at the evidence for making votes count

28. Arend Lijphart – 36 countries over 55 yrs • voter turnout 7.5% higher • government policies closer to the view of the median voter • citizens more satisfied with democracy • 8% more women were elected PR and Democracy

29. McDonald, Mendes and Budge (2004) looked at 254 elections producing 471 governments in 20 countries, with a major finding that: Proportional systems created governments which better reflected the views of the median voter

31. PR and Income Inequality • "Consensual political institutions tend to reduce income inequalities whereas majoritarian institutions have the opposite effect" (Birchfield and Crepaz, 1998, p. 192) • Countries with proportional systems had lower income inequality - a “strong and significant effect” (Lijphart, 2012 p. 282) www.fairvote.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/IncomeInequalityandPR-2.pdf

32. Countries with PR systems scored 6 points higher on the Yale Environmental Performance Index, which measures 10 policy areas, incl. environmental health, air quality, resource management, biodiversity and habitat, forestry, fisheries, agriculture, climate change (Lijphart, 2012) PR and Environment

33. PR and Environment • Countries with PR were faster to ratify the Kyoto protocol • the percentage of world total carbon emissions decreased in PR countries while it increased in other countries or remained static (Cohen, 2010)

34. Is this the face of Canada?

35. PR and Women • Almost any country with 30% • or more women in its upper • legislature uses a form of • PR • Countries with PR elect 8% • more women on average

38. PR and Economy Countries with moderately proportional systems were less likely to have deficits and more likely to have fiscal surpluses (Carey and Hix, London School of Economics, 2009)

39. PR and Economy Knutsen (2011) looked at 107 countries from 1820 to 2002 - 3710 “country years” and found that: Both proportional and semi-proportional systems produced higher economic growth than plurality-majoritarian - "a strong, significant effect" (p.86)

40. PR and Stability Between 1945 and 1998, countries using first-past-the-post averaged 16.7 elections, while countries using proportional systems averaged 16 elections (Pilon, 2007) Hugh Segal: Proportional Representation and Economic Policy www.fairvote.ca/economy

44. To determine the best model of Proportional Representationfor Canada, we call on federal parties and candidates to commit to: • 1. Conducting a citizen-led consultation process immediately following the next federal election. 2. Implementing the model in time for the following election.

45. We must elect a majority of MPs to the House of Commons in 2015 who are committed to making our votes count.

46. Where Do the Parties Stand Now?

47. Don’t support PR (last support for PR was a Progressive Conservative Party Resolution in 2002)

49. AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT immediately after the next election, an all-Party process be instituted, involving expert assistance and citizen participation, to report to Parliament within 12 months with recommendations for electoral reforms including, without limitation, a preferential ballot and/or a form of proportional representation, to represent Canadians more fairly and serve Canada better. http://www.liberal.ca/31-priority-resolution-restoring-trust-canadas-democracy/