POLITICS – Kamloops group pushes Caputo to support Citizens Assembly
A local lobby group wants Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo MP Frank Caputo to support a bill calling for another National Citizens’ Assembly on Electoral Reform.
Motion M-86 is expected to come up for consideration soon in the House of Commons. It’s already been debated once in the House and will likely come to a vote Feb. 7, according to Fair Vote Kamloops, which says Caputo hasn’t yet declared which way he’ll vote.
“Unlike the previous process which saw politicians in control, a National Citizens’ Assembly would have ordinary citizens examine all the options and make recommendations on strengthening our democracy, including whether or not to change our electoral system,” Fair Vote Kamloops said in a news release.
“Members are selected by sortition (a civic lottery, like a jury) with steps taken to ensure the assembly is demographically representative of the population. A citizens’ assembly is a neutral and independent ‘mini public’ that does its work at arms-length from government.”
The group, which advocates for a voting system based on proportional representation, said Citizens’ Assemblies go through three phases: learning about all the options, weighing the evidence, and then coming to a consensus on recommendations that go to government.
“It is a process that has been used around the world to find a way forward on complex issues that go beyond the short-term incentives of electoral cycles, and those where politicians may find themselves in a conflict of interest.”
Prime Minister Trudeau reaffirmed recently he is still “deeply committed” to electoral change, and that the Liberal Party will work on building consensus on a path forward. Trudeau has supported electoral change in the past but cancelled plans for it in 2017.
In B.C., a proposal to change to a proportional representation system was defeated by referendum for a third time in 2018.
“The beauty of this process is that it is specifically designed to find consensus,” said Fair Vote Kamloops organizer Frances Monk.
“Citizens’ assemblies are the gold standard for deep public engagement, and we need to strengthen our democracy before it’s too late. We are not immune to the trouble south of the border.”
Monk pointed out the motion to get citizen input into electoral reform has support across all parties, and hopes Caputo will add his name to the list.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
Canadian voters would generally support such a notion, as seen by a national poll last year by EKOS showing that 76 per cent of Canadians would support a National Citizens’ Assembly on Electoral Reform.
In detail, at that time 73 per cent of Liberal voters, 69 per cent of Conservative voters, 84 per cent of NDP voters, 91 per cent of Green voters, 88 per cent of Bloc voters, and 72 per cent of People’s Party voters … would support such a move.
The problem is … to get there from here means the House has to pass such a thing. That’s where this fails, full stop.
The National Citizens’ Assembly on Electoral Reform supports some form of proportional representation, a thing that makes todays politicians from the 2 major parties snap their neck and change the subject:
We have seen in the past that the Trudeau Liberals will say all the right things regarding electoral reform, but after the election will file it away under “ya, that was a thing”. This is because under prop rep, Liberals lose seats to NDP and Green, and given the razor edge vote last time, they realized this is not in their best interest.
The Conservative Party, especially under Pierre Poilievre, is very much not interested as under a prop rep or ranked system, they would lose a huge amount of seats, lose official opposition status and become a minority party.
For this reason our local Fair Vote Kamloops peeps are dreaming that Mr. Caputo would vote for it against the interest of his own party or job.
Besides … he has shown that he votes along party lines … even if its a budget vote and he intentionally votes against border security, air traffic control and military funding, to be seen to the party as a team player.
The NDP and Greens and possibly the PPC would jump at this as they would be the clear winners regarding seats.
In todays Parliament, the only avenue to success is if the National Citizens’ Assembly on Electoral Reform organizers manage to get Mr. Singh and the NDP to pressure the Liberals to vote in favour, or lose the supply and confidence agreement they presently have, but thats not likely.
This can is about to be kicked down the street.
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Some people just have way too much time on their hands. Thinking that “proportional representation” will make for a “better” Canada is a seriously flawed idea IMO.
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