Team

Partner Organizations

The Charter Challenge project was initiated by Fair Voting BC in early 2017. Fair Voting BC is a non-partisan non-profit society that works for fair voting systems for all elections held in British Columbia - including federal, provincial, and municipal elections. In the 2009 referendum on electoral reform in BC, Fair Voting BC (FVBC) served as the official proponent of the BC’s Citizens’ Assembly on Electoral Reform’s recommendation that BC adopt the Single Transferable Vote (BC-STV) electoral system. The project-lead from FVBC is Dr. Antony Hodgson, president of the FVBC board. 

In May of 2017, Springtide accepted an invitation from Fair Voting BC to partner on this project, to provide operational leadership, oversight and support for the Challenge. Springtide is a Nova Scotia-based charity dedicated to non-partisan research, teaching and public engagement about democracy and politics in Canada. Springtide has published two papers on electoral reform - modelling four alternative electoral systems for Canada and Nova Scotia - and conducted public engagement and education workshops on electoral reform throughout Nova Scotia. The project-leads from Springtide are Jesse Hitchcock and Matt Risser. 

Advisory Board

The following individuals served on the advisory board for the Charter Challenge during initial stages of the project. 

  • Dr. J. Patrick Boyer, QC - Lawyer, professor, writer, former Progressive Conservative MP, expert on Electoral Law in Canada, ON
  • Annette Demers - Associate Dean, Law Library and Legal Research Services, University of Windsor, ON
  • Caitlin Urquhart - Associate Lawyer at Smyth Woodland Del Rizzo & Barrett, St. John's, NL
  • Dr. Fred Cutler - Political Scientist, University of British Columbia, BC
  • Réal Lavergne - Former President, Fair Vote Canada, ON
  • Matt Risser - Co-author of Springtide's discussion papers Better Choices: Voting System Alternative for Nova Scotia and Canada, NS

 


Like and Follow

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Key Events in the Case:

  • We're currently waiting for our appeal to be heard (scheduled for Nov 2024)
  • We submitted our appeal factum in late April 2024.
  • We filed our Notice of Appeal on Dec 29, 2023.
  • Justice Ed Morgan issued his ruling on Nov 30, 2023 and unfortunately dismissed our application.
  • The case was heard September 26-28, 2023 in the Ontario Superior Court.
  • We received the government's affidavits in late Fall 2022.
  • We served the government with our affidavit and evidence package in May 2021.
  • We filed the case with the Ontario Superior Court in October 2019.

How you can help

The main way you can help is to support the case financially. We are now raising $30,000 to support our preparations for filing a leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada (spring 2025). You can support the case for as little as a dollar a month.

What to expect

At each step, we set a donation goal based on our estimate of the costs for the next stage of the process, and invite our supporters to contribute towards that goal to ensure the case can continue to move forward.