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Research Paper

Citizen Engagement in Voting System Reform:
a plan for 21st century democratic renewal in Canada

The need to turn public and political attention to voting system reform has never been more urgent. In the last Federal election, 39 per cent of registered voters, or 8.25 million Canadians, did not participate.

Electoral reform is becoming a political issue because what voters are saying at the ballot box is distorted by the first-past-the-post voting system. The governments in British Columbia, Quebec and Prince Edward Island are already considering electoral reform. Likewise, most of Canada’s major policy institutes have begun addressing this issue and many civil society organizations are taking positions on electoral reform and proportional representation.

Many nations have reformed their voting systems in recent years. The best example of electoral reform based on citizen engagement is New Zealand. After a period of public deliberation, New Zealanders voted to adopt a proportional representation voting system in 1993. Canada can learn from and adopt aspects of the New Zealand approach, including the use of a two-stage referendum process.

A civic engagement process in Canada should be initiated by the federal government and parliamentary parties. The process could be managed by a non-partisan royal commission or citizens’ assembly. Elections Canada and other agencies could play important support roles.

The civic deliberation process will require plain language public information materials. The process should also find a major national media partner and include consultations with civil society organizations, public forums and hearings for citizens. In addition, the process should include a series of deliberative polling events across the country.

The process would culminate with a binding referendum process in which Canadian would decide on which of a number of alternative voting systems would be most suitable for Canada, and then choose whether to adopt that alternative or continue with the current voting system.