Despite the heavy rain, about 50 people gathered at the National War Memorial May 14 to raise their voices in favour of proportional representation.
Fair Vote Canada is a non-profit organization created 10 years ago to campaign for electoral reform in Canada. After the May 2 election, the group organized the National Day of Action, where groups in 10 different cities organized public demonstrations to support electoral reform.
Ottawa’s demonstration took place at the National War Memorial, near Parliament Hill. However, the adverse weather conditions possibly reduced the turnout.
“We had an amazing turnout anyways,” said Gabriela Rappell, member of the Sierra Youth Coalition, and the first speaker of the rally.
“It’s not just people in Ottawa that really have a stake in politics that want change, it’s people across the country. And if the government does not listen, it’s only further proof that they are not representing Canadians,” she said.
Julien Lamarche, vice president of the Ottawa chapter of Fair Vote Canada, emphasized the non partisan nature of his organization, and the rally.
“It’s not serving the left, and it’s not serving the right either. Even the diversity among the left and right is not well represented [in the current electoral system],” he said.
“I’m hoping that the current supporters [of Fair Vote Canada] will consolidate their support, and new people will come to join our organization,” Lamarche said.
Lamarche said that citizen involvement is important but it isn’t the only option, as legal measures are being taken to enforce the proportional representation system.
“There is a group of Quebec plaintiffs that are bringing the Quebec elections act to court saying that voters are not represented equally despite the chart of rights and freedoms,” said Lamarche. “We can also use a judicial method to declare that the first-past-the-post method is unconstitutional.”
The demonstration that started around 2:00 p.m. saw various speakers, mostly thanking the small public, and touching on the flaws of the current Canadian electoral system.
One of the last speakers of the rally was Ottawa Centre MP Paul Dewar, who reassured the New Democratic Party (NDP) support for reform, even after their strong election results.
“You can count for the NDP to fight for democratic change until we get it. We are not going to settle with the system just because we are here now,” he said.
“[Today’s events] represent citizens expressing their will [since] too often we just hear it from politicians,” said Dewar. “What they want to see is a more fair voting system, so that when they vote they will actually see their vote represented in the result, which is not what we have now.”