Green Party leader calls for voting reform

The Vancouver Sun:

Ottawa - The Harper Conservatives won a “false majority” on polling day under an electoral system desperately in need of reform, Green party leader Elizabeth May told a rain-soaked rally in downtown Ottawa on Saturday.

The newly elected MP was speaking at one of a series of cross-Canada rallies organized by Fair Vote Canada, which describes itself as a national citizen's movement for voting reform.

The group held similar rallies in 10 cities, including Montreal, Vancouver, Whitehorse, Calgary and Halifax.

Advocates of voting reform want some form of proportional representation that they say would more fairly represent the wishes of voters than the traditional first-past-the-post system where the winner of the most seats forms the government.

There is growing non-partisan support - especially among younger voters - to change “the perversity of our voting system,” she said.

“My concern is less about the number of seats the Greens would have in Parliament,” said May, “but that the first-past-the-post system has allowed this false Conservative majority when only 39.6 per cent of voters voted for them.

“By vote splitting,” she added, “they managed to win their majority by a few thousand votes - a total of about 6,200 votes made the difference between a minority and a majority because in so many ridings the votes were so close. But that's our system.”

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