Toronto Meeting Draws 200

Nearly 200 electoral reform supporters will pack the University of Toronto Law Faculty, Flavelle House, 78 Queen’s Park Cres. West, from 9am-5pm, Saturday for the “Moving Forward on Voting Reform” forum, sponsored by Fair Vote Ontario.

“We’re absolutely delighted with the post-election surge of support for federal electoral reform,” said Linda Sheppard, president, Fair Vote Ontario. “We’re also excited that much of the new interest is coming from young people, perhaps energized in part by the Obama victory in the US.”

Sheppard also pointed to the timely nature of the forum, coming just 12 weeks before the British Columbia electoral reform referendum. In the 2005 BC referendum, nearly 58% voted for the proportional BC-STV system proposed by the BC Citizens’ Assembly on Electoral Reform. Electoral reformers are hoping to surpass the 60% threshold set by the current BC Liberal government and supported by the opposition BC NDP.

The featured speakers at the Saturday forum in Toronto are:

• Marie Bountrogianni, former Ontario Minister for Democratic Renewal
• Andrew Coyne, National Editor, Maclean’s
• Jim Harris, former leader, Green Party of Canada
• Patrick Boyer, former MP, Progressive Conservative
• Bruce Cox, Executive Director, Greenpeace Canada
• Larry Gordon, Executive Director, Fair Vote Canada
• Dr. Jonathan Rose, former Education Director, Ontario Citizens’ Assembly on Electoral Reform
• Stuart Parker, former leader, BC Green Party
• Dr. Henry Milner, author, Making Every Vote Count

Fair Vote Ontario is the provincial arm of Fair Vote Canada (FVC), a national multi-partisan citizens’ campaign to promote voting system reform. FVC was founded in 2001 and has a National Advisory Board of distinguished Canadians from all points on the political spectrum.