<x-flowed>J. Paul Johnston writes:
Members of the List might find interesting the following item from the most
recent email edition of the newsletter published by Fair Vote Canada
[
www.fairvotecanada.org] on the rapidly growing interest in adopting PR there,
mostly in the form of a parallel version of MMP.
"An article in the February 3 issue of the Regina Leader-Post reported that
Premier Lorne Calvert is forming an internal government caucus committee to
begin looking at proportional representation alternatives for Saskatchewan.
This makes Saskatchewan the sixth Canadian province to begin examining
significant voting system reform. CalvertŐs initiative leaves Alberta,
Manitoba, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland as the only provinces not formally
considering reform."
The province of Quebec has given notice that it plans to introduce legislation
soon to create an MMP style system there. And, a story in the Toronto Globe
and Mail from Feb. 2 [also reported in the newsletter] indicates the Law
Commission of Canada, which earlier held a nation-wide set of hearings on the
need for changing the national electoral system, will issue a report calling
for the adoption of an MMP plan nationally that would have one-third of the
seats in the House of Commons distributed by PR from a compensatory
[presumably national, but some have advocated a set of regional or
provincially defined] pool[s].
J. Paul Johnston, Associate Professor
Department of Political Science
The Universiry of Alberta, Edmonton
Email:
j.p.johnston@ualberta.ca
J. Paul Johnston
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