Fairvote Canada
What is This Group is About?
De Quoi Parle ce Groupe?
The unofficial non-partisan Lemmy movement to bring proportional representation to all levels of government in Canada.
🗳️Voters deserve more choice and accountability from all politicians.
Le mouvement non officiel et non partisan de Lemmy visant à introduire la représentation proportionnelle à tous les niveaux de gouvernement au Canada.
🗳️Les électeurs méritent davantage de choix et de responsabilité de la part de tous les politiciens.
- A Simple Guide to Electoral Systems
- What is First-Past-The-Post (FPTP)?
- What is Proportional Representation (PR)?
- What is a Citizens’ Assembly?
- Why Referendums Aren't Necessary
- The 219 Corrupt MPs Who Voted Against Advancing Electoral Reform
Related Communities/Communautés Associées
Resources/Ressources
Official Organizations/Organisations Officielles
- List of Canadian friends of Democracy Bluesky
- Fair Vote Canada: Bluesky
- Fair Voting BC: Bluesky
- Charter Challenge for Fair Voting: Bluesky
- Electoral Renewal Canada: Bluesky
- Vote16: Bluesky
- Longest Ballot Committee: Bluesky
- ~~Make Votes Equal / Make Seats Match Votes~~
- Ranked Ballot Initiative of Toronto (IRV for municipal elections)
We're looking for more moderators, especially those who are of French and indigenous identities.
Politiques de modération de contenu
Nous recherchons davantage de modérateurs, notamment ceux qui sont d'identité française et autochtone.
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And that mechanism is leading to moderate parties in FPTP systems like ours and hate groups in PR ones.
You admit that
So, why aren't those tensions which are boiling over repeatedly in PR systems boiling over here? Again, simply put, do you think 1/5 Canadians are angry enough to vote for a far right group?
Your framing mischaracterizes what actually happens in both systems. FPTP doesn't produce "moderate parties" - it forces diverse viewpoints to consolidate within fewer parties where extremist elements can gradually capture them from within.
Let's examine Canada's own history: The Reform Party didn't disappear because FPTP "moderated" it. Rather, the Reform wing ultimately took over the merged Conservative Party. Stephen Harper came from Reform to lead the CPC and become Prime Minister. This pattern isn't moderation - it's the Reform ideology successfully gaining control through internal capture rather than standing alone. The same pattern happens in other FPTP countries - extremist views don't vanish; they work to take over major parties.
Your question about tensions "boiling over" assumes these tensions don't exist in Canada, rather than recognizing they're channeled differently. In PR systems, when segments of the population hold certain views, they can express them through parties that specifically represent those positions. In FPTP, these same views still exist but must operate within big-tent parties to have any chance at representation.
The key difference isn't in whether tensions exist but in how transparently they're represented. In Germany, the AfD's support is visible and proportional, while the remaining 77% can form governments that reflect majority viewpoints. This creates accountability - we know exactly how much support extremist views have, no more and no less.
As for whether 1/5 of Canadians might vote for a far-right party - that's exactly why democratic principles matter. The purpose of elections isn't to suppress certain viewpoints by design but to accurately represent citizens' actual preferences. A democracy worthy of the name trusts its citizens and ensures representation proportional to support, whatever that support may be.
What PR provides isn't the amplification of extremism but transparency and containment. It's showing us the photograph rather than retouching it to look nicer. And there's considerable evidence that this transparency leads to better long-term democratic outcomes than pretending divisions don't exist until they capture entire mainstream parties.