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election this year, the number of women in the lower House rose to 29%, up from 23%.
Meanwhile, in the elected Senate, using STV, the percentage of women was 39%.
No doubt, a focus on other barriers to women and other under-represented groups will
make the impact of a change in our voting system more robust - its clear that strong
barriers exist at the nomination level.
Therefore, we are very happy that the committee has recommended that the
government create financial incentives for political parties to nominate more women
candidates. Canada currently ranks 64th in the world in terms of gender parity in
government. If parties are given stronger incentives to nominate more women, then we
will greatly increase our chances of electing a more representative Parliament.
There is clear evidence that proportional systems enhance the voters sense of
empowerment. Voters have more choice. And this government has many viable choices
to replace the current electoral system.
System recommendations
While the committee did not adopt specific electoral systems within its report, we
believe the government would benefit from some specifics. We believe the government
should consider adopting one of the following models, both of which would result in a
Gallagher score of less than four.
Mixed-member proportional representation (MMP), with 2/3 of the House of
Commons elected to represent direct constituencies, and 1/3 elected as regional
compensatory members. Regional compensatory MPs may be elected from an
open list, flexible list, as recommended by the Law Reform Commission, or they
may be elected as best runners-up, as per the Baden-Wrttemberg system.
Open and flexible lists have the benefit of letting voters choose. The BadenWrttemberg option has the benefit of forcing all candidates to be scrutinized and
supported by voters every election in order to win their seat. Compensatory seats
would be drawn from territories, provinces, or sub-regions within provinces. As
such, since it would not affect current riding boundaries, a full riding redistribution
would be unnecessary. The government could decide to take an incremental
approach by adding regional compensatory MPs in groups of 30-45 over the next
three or four elections.
Rural-urban proportional representation (RUP), as first elaborated by former
Chief Electoral Officer Jean-Pierre Kingsley, in which current riding boundaries
are maintained, but current urban ridings are clustered into multi-member ridings
of three to five MPs. To minimize the level of distortion between the popular will
of the electorate and the resultant seat allocations in Parliament, in 2019, the
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There is no question that more work needs to be done to increase public awareness
around electoral reform. But we have two years between putting a system in place by
2017 and using it in 2019. That two-year window creates the opportunity for the full
engagement of Canadians. Prime Minister Trudeau stated, on countless occasions,
both before and after the election, that 2015 would be the last election held under firstpast-the-post. He and the Minister of Democratic Institutions promised, in black and
white, to make every vote count. The government must not squander this generational
opportunity for reform that will have an enormous impact on the quality of Canadian
democracy.
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