Quebec Elections Act challenged

Fair Vote Canada:

Montreal – Fair Vote Canada today won permission from the Quebec Superior Court to intervene in a challenge to the Quebec Elections Act.

A group of Quebec voters, l’Association pour la Revendication des Droits Democratiques, has been seeking to have Quebec’s winner-take-all election system declared unconstitutional because it is unfair to the supporters of small political parties.

“We salute ARDD for bringing this case forward and we are being allowed to present additional information and arguments to the court,” said John Deverell of Fair Vote Canada. The hearings are scheduled to begin on February 8.

The court has recognized that every Canadian has a stake in the outcome of the Quebec case, Deverell said.

“The winner-take-all voting system is utterly unfair to every citizen who can’t elect a representative, and that’s usually about half the voters,” Deverell said. “After every election half of us are subjected to taxation without representation. Depending on where they live, some Canadians may live an entire lifetime without ever being able to elect a representative they want.”

The traditional voting system is “a British relic from a pre-democratic age,” he said. Fair Vote Canada will ask the court to order the national assembly to replace it with a system designed to provide every Quebec voter equal representation of his or her choice.

He noted that winner-take-all elections in single-member districts make it very difficult to elect women and representatives of minorities. “There are ways to create a much fairer, more responsive and more representative assembly. That is what the Charter of Rights calls for – equal treatment in law for everyone in relation to the state.”

For decades federal and provincial political parties have acknowledged the democratic deficit, promised to address it, and then done nothing to fix it.

“The absence of democracy in this society is a continuing affront to the Charter and the people,” Deverell said.

Fair Vote Canada is a non-profit multi-partisan membership organization which campaigns for equal votes and proportional representation and related democratic reforms at every level of government.