“After months of consultations across this vast country, we found Canadians are extremely engaged in modernizing our democracy,� said Nathan Cullen, the NDP’s critic for Democratic Reform. “The vast majority expressed a desire for a fair electoral system that maintains effective local representation, and is developed through parties working together.�
The consultations also found that 82% of participants felt it was important to keep a local representative and 79% expressed a desire to see collaborative and cross-party support in the creation of a new voting system.
“This provides important and valuable information to the Government and the Special Committee on Electoral Reform,� said Cullen. “It also sets clear benchmarks that a new voting system will need to achieve before receiving support from the NDP.�
The report http://xfer.ndp.ca/2016/Print/ElectoralReform-Report-EN.pdf showed a smaller majority of 66% felt that gender and ethnic diversity should be a priority of the new electoral system and only 34% of participants supported lowering the voting age, while 49% opposed.
-30-
http://www.ndp.ca/news/canadians-demand-fair-and-local-voting-system
For more information, please contact:
NDP Media Centre: 613-222-2351 or [email protected]