Larry Gordon Responds to Gagnon

Larry Gordon, Fair Vote Canada's Executive Director wrote to the Globe & Mail refuting Lysiane Gagnon's recent opinion piece which was critical of electoral reform. His letter is below.

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Lysiane Gagnon is too hasty to bury the electoral reform movement because of the recent B.C. referendum loss (Thank B.C. For Winning Its PR War - May 25). Voter rejection of one alternative to first-past-the-post does not mean Canadians have rejected the principles of voter equality and true majority rule. What it means is the search for the best Canadian approach to fair voting in the 21st century will continue.

Unstable minority governments in Ottawa are a direct result of our current system. The large parties know an increase in voter support from 35 per cent to 40 per cent may be enough to give them an undeserved majority of seats. That motivates mindless partisan bickering, obsession with wedge issues and relatively frequent elections.

With proportional systems and fair election results, governing parties have to form stable and effective majority partnerships.

Fair Vote Canada,

Meetings Postponed

There had been some discussion about Fair Vote Saskatchewan setting up some events during the summer. Unfortunately as a result of other pressing commitments it has been impossible to follow through and those events have been postponed until we get the chance to regroup, most likely in the fall.

Plans are under way for an Annual General Meeting in early November. As this event if finalized we will post details on this website..

FVC Survey Underway

All Fair Vote Canada members received an e-mail recently with the heading, Future Directions Conference. There is a link to a member survey near the bottom of the page. If you missed it, The survey can he found here.

Please take the time to fill it out. The responses will be a great help to FVC as we plot our future.

John Baglow answers Lysiane Gagnon's column in the Globe

There is a great response to Ms. Gagnon's Globe and Mail piece on Dawg's Blawg by John Baglow. He takes on Gagnon's article and much of the misinformation being spread in today's media about proportional representation.

It is worth reading.