Challenge to first-past-the-post in Supreme Court

iPolitics:

A languishing legal battle against Canada’s first-past-the-post electoral system is going all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada, where advocates of proportional representation hope their case will be heard by Canada’s top justices.

The Association for the Revendication of Democratic Rights filed an appeal with the Supreme Court on Monday night. Brian Gibb, one of the principle plantiffs in the case, said the motion seeks to declare the current system unconstitutional.

“The essential question that we’re asking of the courts is that the first-past-the-post system does not respect the charter rights of effective representation, and of meaningful participation in the electoral process,” Gibb said.

A favourable decision from the court would end first-past-the-post in Quebec and would affect its use across Canada.

The legal challenge began in Quebec in 2004, where it was unsuccessful at the province’s superior court and its appeal court.

Gibb said he expects the Supreme Court will decide whether to hear the case within the next six months.

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Greens join legal battle against 'first-past-the-post'

The Montreal Gazette:

Ottawa — A pair of democratic rights groups are teaming up in a legal battle that is urging the nation's top court to strike down Canada's first-past-the-post electoral system on the grounds that it doesn't protect guarantees under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The case would argue that the Constitution protects the right of Canadians to have "effective representation," which goes beyond having the right to cast a ballot.

The two groups, the Association for the Advancement of Democratic Rights and Fair Vote Canada, have also earned an endorsement from Green Party leader Elizabeth May.

May noted that more than 80 per cent of people vote in Scandinavian countries and some other European nations, but she said the lowest voter turnouts in the world occur in countries with first-past-the-post systems, such as Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom, where governments can be elected with majorities despite having received less than 50 per cent of the ballots cast in elections.

Despite backing the legal bid, May said people and the politicians would be the best ones to demand changes, noting that the Opposition New Democrats have traditionally supported changing the system.

She also said that Prime Minister Stephen Harper supported this type of democratic reform when he was in opposition, but later while in government told her privately that elected officials would not support reviewing the systems that got them elected.

"I'd like to see proportional representation in place and I think our best way to get there is through public demands."

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