ANTIGONISH: They want their voices heard now and on Election Day.
Around 15 residents took part in Antigonish’s version of Canada’s National Day of Action for Electoral Reform on February 11.
Carrying signs and chanting in favour of a new electoral system, participants marched down Main Street and gathered in front of Central Nova MP Sean Fraser’s office.
Organizer and Fair Vote coordinator for Central Nova, Patrick Yancy, said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau indicated he will not change the current system for awarding governments, known as “first past the post.”
Yancy said Trudeau’s decision to shelve electoral reform caused a lot of concern and upset, particularly among those who voted for Trudeau’s Liberal Party based on promises of changes to the electoral system.
“We’re here to help inspire him and his MPs to keep working on this,” said Yancy.
“We think the future of Canada really depends on it. By raising our voices on this issue, we hope to put pressure on the MPs to put pressure on our Prime Minister and we hope to keep this issue in the media.”
In the current “first past the post” system in Canada, said Yancy, parties can earn over 50 per cent of the parliamentary seats with less than 40 per cent of the vote. He also said the Green Party received four per cent of the vote in the last federal election, but only won one seat.
“It distorts the electorate greatly and it hands 100 per cent of the power over to a party didn’t get a majority of the vote,” he said.
“The stakes are particularly high here. We’ve seen firs- past-the-post hand Britain over to Brexit-ers. We’ve seen it hand the White House over to Donald Trump. These are all winner-take-all systems. That would not have happened under proportional representation where every vote counts equally.”
Similar demonstrations took place across Canada on February 11.
