Halifax, Nova Scotia, September 15th, 2013 – Fair Vote Nova Scotia has submitted a questionnaire to each party leader in advance of the October 8th Nova Scotia election to determine where each provincial political party stands on the issue of electoral system reform.
“We have requested that each party leader respond to the questionnaire by Oct 1st and following this date, we'll be publicizing the responses or lack thereof on our website” says Fair Vote NS secretary Steve Caines.
“People should know where the parties stand on electoral reform before the election. The party responses to the questions, if they choose to respond, should pretty firmly determine where they stand. And if parties choose not to respond, that will still be telling.”
The way Nova Scotia's elections function once again came under the microscope recently, following the most recent redrawing of provincial electoral district boundaries. Significantly this time the protected constituencies that were established to more effectively elect members of the province's African Nova Scotian and Acadian communities were altered.
Much of the questionnaire revolves around the issue of minority representation. “Do the parties see this as a real issue or not? What ideas and plans do the parties have for adequate representation of these groups?” asks Caines.
Fair Vote Nova Scotia has also included a few questions related to election financing. “Current rules don't require campaign financing information to be released before people cast their ballots” states Caines. “We want to know if they're willing to change that, in the interest of transparency.”
“Next week is Democracy Week, as declared by Elections Canada. And we have an election coming up in Nova Scotia in less than a month. We feel these are pertinent questions to be asking.”
Visit Fair Vote Nova Scotia's website www.fairvotenovascotia.ca to read the full questionnaire.
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Fair Vote Nova Scotia is a Chapter of Fair Vote Canada, a grassroots multi-partisan citizen's campaign for voting system reform.
Contact:
Steve Caines, Secretary
Fair Vote Nova Scotia
(902) 476-1001
halifax@fairvote.ca
This is the Atlantica response to a series of questions put to each of the leaders running in this election regarding Electoral Reform. The questions were submitted by Fair Vote NS.
The original document is available here
http://www.fairvotenovascotia.ca/
Thank you for your questions. We welcome any and all discussion. As you may know Atlantica is very committed to voting and political reform here in the province.
1. Would you agree that provincial legislation, to be the most legitimate, should be approved by a
majority of elected MLAs representing a majority of voters?
Of course. We need electoral reform here in Nova Scotia. We would form a Citizen’s Commission to examine Single Transferable Vote (STV) to ensure PR-like results in the house.
2. Voters need and should have fair and effective representation in a democracy. Yet in Nova
Scotia, members of minority groups including African Nova Scotians, Aboriginal persons and
others have historically been under-represented in the House of Assembly. No Aboriginal
person, for example, has ever been elected to the House. As well, despite making up half of
the provincial population, women are also under-represented (currently only 23% of MLAs are
female). Do you feel this under-representation of women and minorities needs to be rectified?
No. We do not believe in group politics, it is a form of tyranny to assign individuals to a group. All individuals must be treated equally by our political system.
3. Do you agree that the share of the vote a party receives in an election should be close to the
share of seats it receives in the legislature?
Of course. We want to end phony majorities and make elections fair.
4. In its final 2012 report, The Nova Scotia Electoral Boundaries Commission recommended that
the Nova Scotia Legislature “initiate a process involving both extensive critical examination and
public consultation on the current electoral system as well as possible alternatives to it”, and
“establish a process for consulting with key minority groups, in particular the Acadian and
African Nova Scotian communities, for the purpose of determining alternative means for
achieving fair and effective minority representation.” Do you support these recommendations,
and, if elected Premier, will you in your first mandate initiate these processes?
The first yes, the second no as explained above.
5. As party leader, would you ensure that a process (which includes public consultation) to make
the provincial electoral system more fair and proportional is a condition of your support for any
minority government?
Yes. Absolutely.
6. Currently, Nova Scotia electoral law does not require candidates and political parties to release
election campaign financing information in advance of election day. As party leader, and in the
interest of transparency and voter awareness, would you develop or support legislation that
would require all political parties to release election campaign donation lists before any election
day?
Yes. In fact we would require real time disclosure of all political donations.
7. In the interest of transparency and voter awareness, will you and your party's candidates
voluntarily release your campaign financing information in advance of the October 8th 2013
election?
Yes. It has always been a stated objective that all our financing be available publicly on our website.
Thank you.
Jonathan Dean
Leader
Atlantica
Electoral reform is part of our Democracy Manifesto.
“There is a lot more to democracy than a series of reasonably free and fair elections every four years.”
– Louise Arbour
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