Petition drive advocating for electoral reform

Times-Herald photo by Lisa Goudy

Moose Jaw co-manager of the Fair Vote Canada (FVC) petition campaign David Walther (left), Kai Charette and newborn Winter Rose Charette look on as Larissa Shasko signs the petition for electoral reform.

Published on January 14, 2013

Published on January 12, 2013

Lisa Goudy

Some locals are circulating a petition advocating for a new system of government.

“Canadian democracy is working less and less. What we want to do is to guarantee that Canada has a real democracy (so that) people’s voices are being heard,” said David Walther, Moose Jaw co-manager of the Fair Vote Canada (FVC) petition campaign for electoral reform. “We have a very tough road ahead of us … (but) we ask people to be patient.”

He said the FVC campaign is advocating for a system of proportional representation in the federal government instead of the current first-past-the-post system. He said proportional representation would give every voter an equal voice and Parliament would represent all voters, including minorities that are currently underrepresented such as women.

The Moose Jaw petition drive was officially launched on Saturday. He said the goal is to gather as many signatures as possible to have a commitment from politicians to institute proportional representation in the next federal election in 2015. The MPs will then put the system forward and have the new system in place for the next federal election in 2019.

“There are so many reasons why we need to change our electoral system. The biggest one I think is summed up by democracy (and) the idea that every vote should count,” said Larissa Shasko, who was the first to sign the petition. She has been involved with the Saskatchewan branch of FVC since 2009. Kai Charette was the second to sign.

“In the current electoral system, if your vote doesn’t go toward someone who’s elected your vote’s thrown away and we end up having majority governments elected by a minority of the voters,” she said. “It discourages people from voting. Voter turnout continues to go down.”

For more information, see Monday's edition of the Times-Herald.

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