Scott Reid Survey

Norm Hart | Sep 28, 2016

While I was reading through Mr. Reid's compulsory survey several things did not seem to make sense. He said that "Politicians want to change what your vote means." It seems to me that the politicians are now catching up to the general public. After all, about 67% of the voters in the last election voted for the other four national parties who said in their platforms that Canada needs a Proportional Voting system.

What Mr. Scott does not say in his survey is that he is collecting more names for not only more numbers to back up his position on having a referendum; but also to add more names to his election data base through the individual municipal address numbers.

The claim (expressed as a fear) is that the Liberal government will push through their electoral changes on the country, and their 39% of the 2015 vote does not give them a mandate to do this. Then, the same claim can be applied to Fair Election Act from the previous Harper government with only 39.6% of voter support.

Will we have a referendum? Probably not, as the Conservative government under Mulroney changed the legislation so that a referendum can only occur on constitutional matters.. And to paraphrase our Constitution, which reads that 'unless and until the Parliament decides' to change voting'. This makes it clear that it is the purview of Parliament to change voting. Just as the Harper Conservatives did with the Fair Voting Act, without a referendum.

Also, hidden in the thinking behind Mr. Scott's survey is the faint hope if a referendum were to be held, then our current system of voting (First-Past-The-Post would be included and may win. His thinking is still with the 39 percenters who want all the marbles.