McGill Centre for Media, Technology & Democracy on Bluesky
This #elxn45 and beyond, understanding our digital public sphere is more important than ever. At the Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy, we track these currents closely.
Sign up for our newsletter for sharp analysis, new research & more: https://www.mediatechdemocracy.com/subscribe
Electoral Renewal Canada on Bluesky
The Longest Ballot Committee (@longestballot.bsky.social) is a political organization in Canada that has been contesting Canadian elections since the 2021.
They protest Canada’s elections by flooding individual districts with dozens of independent candidates. But why do they take this approach?
The core of their message is straightforward:
Politicians should not be in charge of making the rules for their own elections.
It's true, there is an inherent conflict of interest in allowing politicians to be the decision makers in this respect, and it’s not just limited to the election system.
One tool to help improve decision-making is the use of Citizen’s Assemblies.
Dozens of randomly selected citizens work together to make decisions through careful discussion and consensus.
Here's information from an assembly held in Yukon last year: www.yukoncitizensassembly.ca
In the disinformation age, our institutions face real threats to their legitimacy. Strengthening them and reclaiming legitimacy must include an openness to new ways of making decisions.
That change can start with a National Citizen’s Assembly on Electoral Reform:
Fair Vote Canada 🗳️🍁 on Bluesky
Nigel Farage's Reform Party may win a majority government with just 28% of the vote at the next UK election.
First-past-the-post needs to be abolished from the face of the planet.
It’s time for proportional representation.
Fair Vote Canada 🗳️🍁 on Bluesky
Canada already has politicians who spread conspiracies on everything from LGBTQ rights to vaccines to immigration.
First-past-the-post doesn’t block them—it hides them in big parties that can win all the power with 40% of the vote.
Demand proportional representation.
Fair Vote Canada 🗳️🍁 on Bluesky
Over 1,600 volunteers.
300,000+ doorhangers.
Nearly 70% of Canadians support us.
The time for proportional representation is now. Let’s make history—politicians must get on the right side of it.
Join us! Sign up here: secure.fairvote.ca/en/action/el...
Additional context:
I have done all of those things and will continue to do them in the future
Thanks! Let's keep growing the PR movement!
This isn't just about a party not following "promises exactly" - it's about a fundamental democratic reform promised and then deliberately abandoned. The electoral reform promise wasn't a minor policy detail; it was presented as a pillar of their platform with Trudeau stating it over 1,800 times.
When a government makes a major promise about democratic reform and then breaks it, it directly undermines their democratic legitimacy to make all other promises. This pattern goes back a century - Liberals have campaigned on proportional representation since 1919, starting with Mackenzie King.
In 2024, Trudeau even admitted they were "deliberately vague" about electoral reform to appeal to advocates while never intending to implement proportional representation.
Housing promises matter deeply, but they're built on the same democratic foundation that was undermined by this broken commitment. A government elected through a system where millions of votes don't count is structurally limited in its ability to represent Canadians' actual preferences on any issue, housing included.
~~That's because it's the same organization!!~~
Edit: while not the same organization, they have the same mission: critical analysis of information and mass media. Read more at House hippo on Wikipedia.
This means that as angry as I am at the Liberals for the FPTP stab-in-the-back, that very FPTP system now requires that I vote Liberal for the sake of my country.
I am not happy about this.
Then after the election, you better be fighting your hardest to get proportional representation.
Get started with this link: Simple things you can do right now, to grow the proportional representation movement—so we never have to vote for the lesser of the evils, have a two party system, "split the vote", or strategic vote.
I very much want PR
Then after the election, you better be fighting your hardest to get proportional representation.
Get started with this link: Simple things you can do right now, to grow the proportional representation movement—so we never have to vote for the lesser of the evils, have a two party system, "split the vote", or strategic vote.
I couldn't do it alone. We have decades of broken promises on proportional representation promises to thank.