Teen Brain Would Vote for Proportional Representation

Imagine you are living in the age of cavepersons with a constant supply of water and food in your cave. Would you ever risk venturing outside? Brain research reveals there is a demographic in our cave that has a brain designed to venture outside—teens. Ironically, it is our teens' drive for reward that has become the foundation of our existence as they enthusiastically ignore consequences. Sometimes they take themselves out of the gene pool and sometimes they succeed in a "better way" that benefits all of us.

Our government has promised to replace our first-past-the-post (FPTP) electoral system with a better way. While some think keeping FPTP is keeping us safe, among other severe problems, it favours survival of the richest.

The Electoral Reform Committee (ERRE) is reporting in December on two options; ranked ballots and proportional representation (PR). Ranked ballots would not meet the requirements of effectiveness and legitimacy, engagement, accessibility and inclusiveness, and integrity. PR meets all of these plus we can customize it for the requirement of local representation. No constitutional changes needed.

The "teen" brain found PR is a better way in 35 other robust democracies including Denmark, Finland, Germany, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland. In our Canadian cave, let's replace adversarial first-past-the-post with consensual proportional representation. Tell your MP and/or tell the Committee (http://tinyurl.com/tellerre) that PR is the better way to make every vote count.

Nancy Carswell, Co-spokesperson Fair Vote Canada Saskatchewan Chapter

Meeting No. 24 Special Committee on Electoral Reform
Evening Addition http://tinyurl.com/erreRegina 20:36:30

Dear Electoral Reform Committee,

Your mandate and my vision need proportional representation which makes this the most important two minutes in my life.

I've had fierce conversations about why civilizations rise and fall.  Author Chris Harman says civilizations rise when citizens "remold society around the values of solidarity, mutual support, egalitarianism, collective cooperation and democratically planned use of resources." 



Civilizations fall when citizens fail to maintain these values.

Let's focus on the value of "democratically planned use of resources."  As an environmentalist, I was frustrated when a wage slave would step between me and the tree I wanted to hug.  Then I realized that the tree wouldn't need hugging if the wage slave’s owners did not undemocratically use resources in ways that externalize costs on the poor and the environment and then use the profits to amplify their voices.

As citizens, we can best maintain our values if our voices have proportional representation in our House of Commons.  This gives a foundation of consensus rather than majority rule.  Countries using proportional representation have risen to the top for voter turnout, women and visible minorities in government, income equality and strong economies, and, my priority, environmental protection.

Give Canadians the opportunity to remold our society around our values.  On December 1, identify proportional representation as the electoral reform that offers effectiveness and legitimacy, engagement, accessibility and inclusiveness, integrity, and can offer Canadian-made local representation. 

Thank you.

Nancy Carswell
Senior Researcher into Happiness

Dorito Democracy

The book The Dorito Effect proposes that the cause of our obesity epidemic lies in the food industry's fixation on mouth taste. Why do I specify mouth taste? Apparently other parts of our digestion system have "tastes" too. If these other tastes are not satisfied, we experience the Dorito effect and one Dorito becomes countless Doritos.

There is a parallel here to voting When we vote, we get a taste of power. Sadly, first-past-the-post voting is the equivalent of "mouth taste. It does not satisfy the needs of our democratic system. We can vote countless times and never count.

In 2016, the Electoral Reform Committee heard 88% of its expert witnesses and 87% of the people who stepped up to the mic say they believed a system of proportional representation would satisfy our democratic system.

In 2017, let's give our democratic system the proportional representation it needs to be healthy. Connect with our new Minister of Democratic Reform Karina Gould and tell her you want to experience how democracy tastes with a Canadian-made system of proportional representation. Email Karina.Gould@parl.gc.ca or phone 613-995-0881.

After experiencing a healthy democracy for a few elections, we could ask ourselves then if we wanted to return to a Dorito democracy.

Nancy Carswell, Saskatchewan Chapter Fair Vote Canada Co-spokesperson
Shellbrook, Saskatchewan