Speech to Fair Vote Canada - Democracy

September 19th, 2013 Parliament Hill

Make Every Vote Count

• I give thanks to Fair Vote Canada for giving me the opportunity to speak today on behalf of the Canadian Untiarians For Social Justice and for ClimateFast.  I give thanks to the Algonquin people who have shared this land with us on which we stand.  It is a privilege to speak to you today.

• I have voted all my life in Federal, Provincial and Municipal elections.  I try to take the time to look at the candidates, weigh the issues, and see the political dynamics of the day.   A few times I have actually voted for the candidate that won.  Sometimes I voted for candidates I didn’t like as better than the alternative.  I often don’t feel represented by my government.
• Do you feel represented by your government?

• But today, this feeling of alienation I have is much stronger.  In the past, there was very little difference between the two leading parties, but they didn’t do that much.  They just tinkered with right and left policies.  A change such as the introduction of Medicare was a rare event.  Today, Stephen Harper is trying to change the very face and identity of Canada and I’m afraid of losing the country I love.

• This government is strongly committed to the status quo – a consumer society with low political involvement, where people sleep as the government quietly cedes the ability to control our own destiny to the private sector --through multiple free trade and investment agreements.  Stephen Harper has no interest in reducing our greenhouse emissions or our consumption of oil.  His only goal is to make Alberta and Canada an oil kingdom by tripling the production of the tar sands.

• For the next 12 days I will be fasting on parliament hill with a half dozen other people, in the hope that people all over Canada, and the world, will wake up and realize we must start making the transition to a new, renewable energy economy, and we must focus all our creativity and energy on this right now.  I believe the future of our children and grandchildren and of life on this planet as we know it is at stake.  I believe we cannot wait until 2020 to find solutions. 

• I believe it is essential we put in place a coalition of powers that will bring about this change in 2015.  2015 is a critical election for the well-being of Canada and the world. 

• But our main obstacle is First Past the Post. 

• As long as we maintain this competitive voting system, we maintain the illusion that one party can have absolute power if they can gather between 35 and 39% of the vote and win a majority.  When parties believe they can have that kind of power, they won’t cooperate.  They won’t take the risk of offending their base.  Instead they plan general policies that can mean almost anything in order to avoid offending some group of voters or another.

• There are only three ways to win government.  The first is to win a majority government.  The second is to create a majority through coalitions. The third is to have a proportional voting system that will give no-one absolute power and ensure that parties must talk with each other in an atmosphere of respect.

• Have you seen Justin Trudeau and Thomas Mulcaire preening their images, dreaming of power?  Each strategizing to knock the other out and grab that elusive majority?  Do you see opportunity for cooperation there?
• Do you think either of them would put proportional representation in place to ensure fair voting if they did win?  Do you think they would make any serious change in either energy policy or our relations with First Nations?

• This is not good news for us.  The 2015 election is our best opportunity to work together, in a loose coalition, with the objective of putting in place a system of proportional representation in the first term of whatever government is elected.

• Our current system gives our young people no reason to get involved to shape their own future.

• Our current system generates Santa Clause politics with every party trying to design the best goodie package to get the most votes.

• According to my brother, John Deverell, in his book, Democracy Eh?  a system based on proportional representation will allow parties to take positions and defend them with integrity, trying to attract voters to good policies. 
• A real democracy is based on an educated public, --familiar with the issues, --and able to discuss them because of good information --(based on sound research), --freedom of speech, and freedom of the press.  Instead, we seem to be heading towards a world of decisions made in secret, --based on little or no scientific evidence, --or pushed through parliament without reflection, or discussion, through omnibus budget bills.

• It is time for the Canadian public to get off the fence and take the plunge for a new voting system.  This is essential if we are going to have the public discussions we need to set new policies and strategies for our society.  We need to be in respectful discussion with one another – not win-lose cut-throat battles.  We have to change the culture of politics.

• Who are we as a people?  How will we establish a society that lives in mutual respect with our First Nations?  How will we establish a sustainable life style --that supports a quality of life on this planet for humanity --and for all beings?  What kind of a legacy will we leave our children and grandchildren --if we continue down the same old path, ignoring the terrible warnings we see every year about climate change.
• How will we put the politic into place to make this change in culture?  I believe we have to act our way into being.  We have to form the coalition now.  We have to decide how to work together.  And we have to vote it into being.  If the Liberals and NDP won’t cooperate, we either have to find a way to force them, or we have to do an end run around them.  But whatever strategy we pick, Proportional Representation is one of the fundamental building blocks of a truly democratic society.

• We need to nurture the “will to mutuality” in society and the concern for the common welfare.  If we want a respectful dialogue, If we want every vote to count, it is time for proportional representation.

• Thank you for allowing me to share my thoughts with you.  Please, join us for our opening ritual for ClimateFast, September 21 at 7pm on the hill.  Check out our website at climatefast.ca for other events.  And join up with Common Causes, and Fair Vote Canada, to win a new kind of politics in 2015.
• All Our Relations.