We must keep advocating for proportional representation. If PR dies, so does Canadian democracy as we know it. FPTP is already pushing us toward a two-party system, just like the USA

Canadians, we’re witnessing the slow death of our democratic representation, and most of us don’t even realize it. Duverger’s Law is methodically strangling our political diversity, reducing us to the same polarized two-party hellscape we see south of the border.

The numbers don’t lie: Canada’s effective number of parties has plummeted to 2.76 in 2021. This isn’t just a statistic—it’s a death knell for meaningful democratic representation.

Why should you care? Because our current first-past-the-post (FPTP) system is fundamentally broken:

  • Millions of votes are literally wasted every election
  • Parties can win majority governments with minority vote shares
  • We’re being pushed toward a binary political landscape that doesn’t reflect Canada’s complex political reality

The solution is clear: Proportional Representation (PR). Countries using PR consistently show:

  • Lower political polarization
  • More stable long-term policies
  • Better representation of diverse political views

Check out the Charter Challenge for Fair Voting – they’re arguing that our current system violates our constitutional rights by rendering millions of votes meaningless.

Fair Vote Canada has the receipts: 76% of Canadians support electoral reform. We want a system where every vote counts, not just the ones in the right riding.

The stakes are high. As political scientists note, our current system is pushing us toward “policy lurch”—where each new government wastes billions undoing the previous government’s work.

Systems like Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) or Single Transferable Vote (STV) can save our democracy. They maintain local representation while ensuring every vote matters.

Wake up, Canada. Our democracy is on life support, and proportional representation is the only treatment.