Canadians demand a fair and local voting system

OTTAWA – Over 37,000 Canadians contributed to consultations on electoral reform held by NDP MPs over the last four months. A mix of public town hall meetings, online outreach and mailed surveys found that 84% of participants want an electoral system where a party’s seats in the House of Commons is a fair reflection of the share of votes they receive.

“After months of consultations across this vast country, we found Canadians are extremely engaged in modernizing our democracy,” said Nathan Cullen, the NDP’s critic for Democratic Reform. “The vast majority expressed a desire for a fair electoral system that maintains effective local representation, and is developed through parties working together.”

The consultations also found that 82% of participants felt it was important to keep a local representative and 79% expressed a desire to see collaborative and cross-party support in the creation of a new voting system.

“This provides important and valuable information to the Government and the Special Committee on Electoral Reform,” said Cullen. “It also sets clear benchmarks that a new voting system will need to achieve before receiving support from the NDP.”

The report showed a smaller majority of 66% felt that gender and ethnic diversity should be a priority of the new electoral system and only 34% of participants supported lowering the voting age, while 49% opposed.