For immediate release: October 9th, 2019

(Halifax, Toronto, Vancouver) - With the financial support of over 800 Canadians from all provinces and two territories, a pair of non-profit organizations will file a court challenge this morning to contest the constitutionality of the voting system used in Canadian federal elections. 

When Antony from Fair Voting BC first approached me about collaborating on this charter challenge I was intrigued, but hesitant. Would the courts really entertain a challenge that would take them into the politically charged territory of voting system reform? What does a win look like for our case?

In this post, I’d like to share some of the answers to that question, which led to the organization I run, Springtide, agreeing to collaborate with Fair Voting BC on this project.

Many Canadians were disappointed when Justin Trudeau decided not to honour his commitment to get rid of Canada’s first-past-the-post voting system. We were too.

History has taught us that we can’t always depend on elected politicians to stand up for civil rights. When politicians don’t stand up for civil rights, it’s up to citizens to fight for those rights in court. Nobody else can do it for us.⁣⁣ That's why we began organizing a court challenge against our broken voting system.⁣⠀

The results of the BC referendum on electoral reform are in, and BC voters have chosen to keep first-past-the-post. For anyone who has been working for electoral reform across Canada, these results are disappointing. But, it’s important to recognize that, despite last week’s referendum results, the movement for electoral reform has never had more potential than it has right now.

As you’ve likely heard, the results of the BC referendum on electoral reform are in, and British Columbians have voted to keep first-past-the-post. I was disappointed to hear the results, as I’m sure you were. I’m heartened, however, by the energy and momentum that has been harnessed by pro-reform organizers in BC, and hopeful that we can channel that energy into a stronger movement for proportional representation in Canada. 

One of the goals of the Charter Challenge for Fair Voting is to have the Supreme Court of Canada order the government to develop a voting system that is compliant with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. 

This post introduces the types of voting systems that exist around the world, including the systems that would be strong candidates to replace the first-past-the-post voting system, if the Court were to call for its replacement. 

There are nearly as many voting systems as there are countries in the world, all with their own strengths and weaknesses. In this post, I’ll share some of the basics about what each system looks like in one spot. 

Here's the latest update on the Charter Challenge for Fair Voting. 

In our last update to you we shared: 
- that we'd raised just under $43,000 to support the Charter Challenge for Fair Voting 
- that we would share another update once once we'd retained legal counsel for the case 

Here's where things are at now: 

It's been two-and-a-half months since the House of Commons last met. Electoral reform is officially no-longer part of the Trudeau government's agenda, but there have been some quiet developments on the electoral reform file nonetheless. 

At the time of writing, 426 Canadians have donated $42,998 to bring this case to court! 

Update: the vote described below failed. On May 31st, 159 MPs voted against the motion supporting the recommendations of the special committee on electoral reform, and just 146 MPs voted in favour of it.   

On May 31st, members of parliament (MPs) will have one more chance to move forward on electoral reform. On Wednesday, MPs will vote on whether to accept the recommendations of the report from the House of Commons special committee on electoral reform. If that doesn't happen there is only one logical option for supporters of voter-right's.