MP Bruce Hyer: "Electoral reform must be acted upon before Canada descends into despotism"

A strong proponent of government accountability and electoral reform, NDP MP Bruce Hyer has come out strongly in favour of proportional representation in the lead up to Democracy Week.

“Canadians live with an albatross around their necks. It’s our electoral system, one which hands 100% of the power to political parties earning only 39% of the vote,” complained Hyer “Our first-past-the-post system of electing MPs over-represents the biggest party every election, and it takes away seats from smaller parties to do it. It spits the country into misrepresentative regional power-blocs. It discriminates against women and minorities. It has unnecessarily limited voter choice and disenfranchised Canadians for too long…and it’s a big reason voter turnout is declining. Canada desperately needs to undertake reforms that will make the election results proportional to the popular vote; if a party gets 39% of the vote, they should get 39% of the seats. That’s fair, and that’s democratic. If we wait too long, the PM’s vested interests could become so entrenched in Ottawa that real reform may be impossible.”

See his full statement here.

Hyer's call to action has come at an important time and you can be part of the solution. To help bring proportional representation to Canada, please join Unlock Democracy. If you find yourself in Winnipeg this Thursday, September 19, you can hear more from Hyer as he will be speaking at a panel on government transparency.