Hon Stéphane Dion, and Justin Trudeau, députés House of Commons
November 17, 2012
Dear M Dion and Mr Trudeau,
We are writing you as two major Liberal MPs concerned about electoral reform. We urge members of the Liberal Party to adopt proportional representation (PR), instead of alternative voting (AV) as is the current position, but very recently adopted, of the party. You, M Dion, have since been floating yet another approach, a five-member list system, which raises problems of a different nature, we believe, however good it might be as an abstract system.
Proportional representation has numerous benefits Canada could use: countries which use it elect a higher proportion of women and ethnic minorities; have a higher voter turnout and greater satisfaction with the democratic system. What you may not expect, countries with PR also have stronger laws on environmental protection, and use energy more efficiently.
Some of us who work on electoral reform have decided to do so largely because of our concerns about climate change. We do not see that we will get the much needed serious approach to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions without a change in government, and a change that has some chance on not being promptly reversed. The majority Conservative government has been a disaster on climate change, we need not say to you, and generally bad on environmental protection, etc. Another Harper majority would continue this, and a minority government would be bad enough.
Liberals and New Democrats are vying to replace them, with majorities. Whether either forms a majority in the 2015 election, or the result is no majority, we want action on PR. We seek a commitment to bring in PR in time for the next federal election after 2015. The NDP is already committed to PR as a matter of policy, but which system and when has not been determined.
We invite you to consider the mixed member proportional (MMP) proposal of the Law Commission of Canada’s 2004 report, Voting Counts. MMP maintains regular constituency MPs for two thirds of the House, to elect list MPs for the other one third, using the popular vote to even out the numbers. With MMP the distribution of MPs by party in the House of Commons would reflect their popular vote.
What we fear about the 5-member list system is its difference from the status quo. Canadians are accustomed to having their own MP. We think there would be massive opposition to a PR proposal that completely eliminated them. (Perhaps sometime later a pure list system could be adopted, on the basis of experience with the mixed approach.)
Would you consider this? You, M Trudeau, as a candidate for the leadership seeking dialogue with Canadians on what they want, you, M Dion, with your credibility as a national leader and environmentalist. Can we talk?
Finally, we alert you to the “Liberal Petition for Democratic Voting” now circulating within the Liberal Party, which recommends the adoption of a mixed member proportional system as recommended by the 2004 Law Commission of Canada Report.
Yours sincerely,
John Bessai, Lynn McDonald, Anne Venton, Peter Venton, Wing Ki Wo
