Electoral reform keeps stalling in Canada, but advocate says it isn't dead

Andrew Lupton · CBC News

· Posted: Apr 16, 2025 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 9 minutes ago

During this national predetermination campaign, Joshua Rambout is walking door-to-door successful the riding of Elgin-St. Thomas-London South, hanging pamphlets connected voters' doors and speaking with them astir ideas helium hopes volition instrumentality hold. 

He's doing this arsenic a unpaid successful his spare time, but Rambout isn't stumping for a governmental campaigner oregon party. 

Instead of talking to radical astir who they mightiness ballot for, Rambout would alternatively spur some conversations about how those votes volition construe into power. With U.S. President Donald Trump making statements that endanger Canada's sovereignty, Rambout believes present is the cleanable clip to again broach the often thorny taxable of Canadian electoral reform. 

"We're trying to get radical talking astir it and talking to their section candidates, talking to the enactment leaders, trying to get unit connected the radical successful powerfulness to enactment existent change," said Rambout.

Rambout is 1 of 50 section campaigners for a nationalist radical called Fair Vote Canada. The non-profit advocacy radical is pushing for electoral reform, successful particular, a displacement toward immoderate signifier of proportional representation. 

The existent first-past-the-post strategy awards ridings to the enactment that receives the astir votes successful each riding. The sound against it is that parties often triumph 60 per cent oregon much of the seats with lone 40 per cent of electors voting for them.

Although determination are a fig of antithetic proportional practice systems, astatine their core, they each grant seats to parties successful proportionality to the fig of votes each enactment receives. 

To Rambout, it's a fairer strategy that leads to amended governance. 

"It incentivizes parties to enactment together," said Rambout.

Trudeau promised electoral reform, but then...

When helium was archetypal elected premier curate successful 2015, Justin Trudeau promised electoral betterment and said the predetermination that archetypal enactment him into powerfulness would beryllium Canada's past nether first-past-the-post. 

In the end, Trudeau's propulsion for betterment got bogged down astatine the committee level and was yet abandoned. 

Electoral betterment isn't a portion of caller Liberal Leader Mark Carney's campaign. The Conservative level says a nationalist referendum should beryllium held earlier immoderate alteration happens to the electoral system.

The Green Party supports shifting to proportional representation. The NDP supported a bill, which yet didn't pass, that would person created a non-partisan citizens assembly to survey electoral reform. 

Devil is successful the details

Laura Stevenson is simply a governmental subject prof astatine Western University who's researched antithetic voting systems.

She said the trouble of switching to proportional practice is that nether that wide descriptor, there are aggregate versions of the system. Each variant has antithetic ways votes construe into seats that tin easy confuse voters, trigger criticisms and splinter support. 

"One of the reasons the 2015 effort failed is that determination are nary wide answers that were to fulfill everybody," said Stevenson. "If you work the reports that came retired of [Trudeau betterment process], determination were nary evident routes to go." 

The Fair Vote website doesn't propulsion for a peculiar mentation of proportional representation, though it does see descriptions of 3 versions here: mixed-member proportional, azygous transferable ballot and rural-urban proportional. 

Stevenson likens the proportional practice prime to a concern successful which everyone successful a radical agrees they privation to spell retired to devour but can't determine connected a peculiar restaurant. In the end, everyone winds up staying home. 

"We person a presumption quo bias," said Stevenson. "And nary of the governmental parties that are winning person an inducement to bring successful a strategy that is apt to splinter power." 

An Ontario referendum connected mixed-member proportional practice failed to walk successful 2007, with elector disorder cited arsenic a occupation successful however the strategy was presented to the electorate. 

Rambout doesn't contradict determination are challenges to shifting electoral systems but said they can each beryllium flooded and are worthy moving through. 

"Our superior extremity is to propulsion for a healthier ideology successful Canada," helium said.