Ontario needs proportional representation!
Ontario needs proportional representation!
24 comments
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Join the conversation at !fairvote@lemmy.ca.
The only viable long term solution is proportional representation (PR). Some electoral systems meeting this criteria:
Canada needs to stop believing that PR requires a referendum. The only people pushing a referendum are those with ulterior motives or are misinformed.
- There is no constitutional requirement. For example, in 1924 Alberta substantially changed their electoral system, adopting some PR elements.
- In 2005, BC held a referendum with 57.69% in favour of a PR electoral system known as Single Transferable Vote (STV). No change whatsoever occurred.
- The electoral system has been modified many times without a referendum. For example, per-vote subsidies were removed by Conservatives in 2011 no less, which sparked the famous prorogation of parliament.
- Referendums, no matter how clear the question is, aren't an appropriate tool. Ordinary people just don't have the time to weigh the pros and cons of various electoral systems. Citizen's assemblies would be more appropriate, as this would require comprehensive analysis by ordinary citizens.
- There is something to be said that maintaining FPTP is compromising our national security. When a party with less than 50% of the vote, can wield the entire power of parliament, they may use it to unfairly gain advantage. We should not entertain political games, when national security is at stake.
- Why would we need a referendum to restore the fundamental rights of voters? The right to vote must necessarily include the right for the vote to have an effect. Literally millions of perfectly valid ballots are simply tossed out every single election. This would be an outrage had we not been conditioned to accept it.
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Its always the powerful rich few pushing for referendums so they can fear monger against a fairer electoral system to doom it. We deserve proportional representation without a referendum as most countries that got pr through multiparty support.
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I'd agree with referendums, if they were widely used in other issues. Like, what would the referendum on the Greenbelt look like? What about Ontario Place? What about the sneaking privatization of our public healthcare systems? What about Doug Ford himself?
Referendums for electoral reform are really just a way for the government/establishment to look like they are fulfilling a campaign promise, without actually improving the system. It's worse than virtue signalling, cause after a (failed) referendum, it harms the PR movement. Even though it can be demonstrated that PR is mathematically superior to FPP...
And also, why do we pay our representatives in the first place? It's their job to understand the policies and issues such as proportional representation, then act in the best interests of their constituents. Obviously, ensuring every vote counts, and no group holds disproportionate power is something that improves our democratic institutions, and improving democratic institutions benefits constituents.
Anyway, that's why I keep pushing. PR proponents are holding the torch until that fateful day comes where PR is enacted.
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He is…he thinks he’s premier of Toronto
You can see the map https://nationalpost.com/news/ontario-election/live-ontario-election-results-map
He wins in urban areas
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He is…he thinks he’s premier of Toronto
For anyone with an open mind. Ask yourself. Why is the Premier of Ontario making a priority to ensure municipalities are ensuring bike lanes aren't impacting drivers? Of all the issues that are larger or more pressing (healthcare, education) he is prioritizing bike lanes.
Like seriously WTF.
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He wins in urban areas
He wins in suburban areas, as do all conservatives: above a certain density across the country if not the entire world, urban spaces reject conservatism. That map you linked to pretty much tells that story.
Where do you think all the "urban elites want to make you gay, take away your pickup truck and make you drink plant-based beer" comments come from?
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What's the health care crisis?
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There aren't enough healthcare workers to meet the demand. Around 15% of Ontarians do not have a family doctor and use emergency rooms for their primary care. Emergency room wait times have become excessive with some hospitals reporting 20 hour wait times. Around 48% of nurses have reported they are considering switching careers, mostly citing excessive work hours and little pay to show for it. Ontario is the most populated province but spends the least on healthcare per capita.
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that it's in crisis. Took my GF to emergency last night in Newmarket to Southlake. It was standing room only. The system is overwhelmed.
Where I will not blame the government, these hospitals are not large enough for the increase in people living in the area.
Where I will blame the government, they staff their hospitals like absolute shit and the staff they have they're nickle and diming.
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24 comments
What's the call to action here? When I see content like this I think it's not enough to just say. "Fist past the post bad ranked voting good." Many of us agree already. Tell us what to do about it.
At very least toss us a website, but there's better we can do.
You need us to email someone? Who? What am I saying to them?
Need us to go somewhere? tell us when, where and what to bring
Maybe a link to some 3d-printable guillotines, am I right
See my comment here.
Hold a general strike to force the pc mpps to pass pr stv/mmp with the other parties without a referendum.
Though it's certainly effective. Unless somone very influential happens to be on lemmy looking at comments on memes I don't think that idea is going to get to them.
What I've seen is letter writing campaigns. The idea of getting a large volume of people tonwrite their MPs all at once makes it harder for them to just ignore everyone. Somone whould provide a template with not only the nature of our request but things the mp can actually do to advance the idea. They sometimes actually want to help but don't know how. This is why you need somone with some degree of knowledge to write the template.
A flyer/poster campaign can help as well. This is good for raising general awareness. Though its more effective if done during a specific time prior to an action like the letter writing campaign or a protest march. Even those who can't partake in the event can then at least promote it. Though I suggest providing guidelines around ethical flyer distribution. The advantage is that you can get your message to places like libraries and community centers where more civic minded people will see it.
Also there is protests, marches ect. But there are so many of those happening that I feel they often get ignored. The logistics are a pain, amd if not done right they can go bad.
Also is there a place organizing these things? Do they need donations or volunteers?
So with that in mind if anything like that is happening, link your memes to it in some way. It will turn a complaint into action.
That won't be happening for a while yet, if it ever does. Things have to get really, really bad before the average person will agree that a justified conflict is better for them than an unjust peace. We're not at that point yet—most people in Canada are still mostly squeaking by (although the current economic situation isn't really sustainable), and a given citizen's chances of dying by random violence are still pretty low. Maybe 5-10 years from now, if wages don't rise enough to ease the strain on food banks and other charities, we might see a general strike.