Steps Toward Making Every Vote Count brings together the best analyses from the best qualified observers on developments in the growing movement to reform Canada's electoral system.

Among mature democracies, only the United States and Canada use the first-past-the-post (FPTP) system for electing all state and provincial, as well as national, lawmakers. In Canada the debate over the electoral system, which began in earnest after the 1997 federal election, is now moving from the university and think-tank seminar room to the floor of five provincial legislatures.

Four key chapters present up-to-date accounts of developments in BC, Qu ébec, PEI, and Ontario. They show the provinces moving at different speeds toward meeting an objective to propose a specific model of proportional representation that also ensures a continued role for directly elected representatives of specific geographic boundaries. Two chapters recount experiences in New Zealand and Scotland, which have adopted electoral plans attempting just such a balance. Others look at South Africa, Japan, France, and the United Stateseach selected for the light it casts on a specific aspect of electoral system reform. The remaining chapters consider various practical implications of changing Canada's electoral system - now a very real prospect.

Comments:

"This clear, crisply written, and well-rounded book will be a handy reference guide to those following what has become an important debate in contemporary Canadian politics." - American Review of Canadian Studies

Henry Milner is a political scientist at Vanier College and Universit é Laval, and Visiting Professor at Ume å University in Sweden. The author of six books including, most recently, Civic Literacy: How Informed Citizens Make Democracy Work, he is also the co-publisher of Inroads, the Canadian journal of opinion and policy, and Fellow at the Institute for Research in Public Policy. 

Table of Contents: [Back to Top]

List of Tables and Figures

Notes on Contributors

Preface

Introduction: Political Drop-Outs and Electoral System Reform
Henry Milner

Part I: The Pros and Cons of Reforming the Canadian Electoral System

    1.  Regionalism and Party Systems: Evaluating Proposals to Reform Canada's
         Electoral System
    Harold J. Jansen and Alan Siaroff

    2.  That Bleak? Fathoming the Consequences of Proportional Representation in                      Canada
    Louis Massicotte

    3.  Problems in Electoral Reform: Why the Decision to Change Electoral Systems is              Not Simple
    Richard S. Katz

    4.  Reminders and Expectations about Electoral Reform
    John C. Courtney

Part II: Recent Experience in Other Countries

    5.  Stormy Passage to a Safe Harbour? Proportional Representation in New Zealand
    Jack H. Nagel

    6.  Making Every Vote Count in Scotland: Devolution and Electoral Reform
    Peter Lynch

    7.  Electoral Reform in South Africa: An Electoral System for the Twenty-First Century     Murray Faure and Albert Venter

    8.  Something Old, Something New: Electoral Reform in Japan
    Lawrence LeDuc

    9.  Lessons from France: Would Quotas and a New Electoral System Improve                      Women's Representation in Canada?
    Karen Bird

    10. The Fair Elections Movement in the United States: What It Has Done and Why It           Is Needed
    Robert Richie and Steven Hill

Part III: The Provinces Show the Way: Progress Toward Reforming the Electoral System in Canada

    11. Electoral Reform and Deliberative Democracy: The British Columbia Citizens’           Assembly
    Norman J. Ruff

    12. The Uncertain Path of Democratic Renewal in Ontario
    Dennis Pilon

    13. Twenty Years after Ren Lvesque Failed to Change the Electoral System,                       Qubec May Be Ready to Act
    Brian Doody and Henry Milner

    14. Prince Edward Island's Cautious Path toward Electoral Reform
    John Andrew Cousins

    15. Prospects for Federal Voting System Reform in Canada
    Larry Gordon

Appendix I: New Brunswick Mission, Mandate, And Terms Of Reference

Appendix II: Websites on Electoral Systems in the Democratic World

References and Suggested Readings

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