Democratic renewal

It’s probably not a huge surprise that when a government tries to make taxation fairer, richer Canadians – who’ve been benefitting from a torqued system -- scream bloody murder.

This Labour Day solidarity takes on a renewed importance and our work as progressives acquires a new urgency. Over the summer, white nationalist and racist right-wing mobilizing turned deadly in Charlottesville, Virginia as the ideology of hate grows increasingly visible across North America. Here in Canada, that same ideology led to the massacre of six men at prayer in a Quebec City mosque at the hands of an Islamophobe.

On June 22, the BC Legislature reconvened and Premier Christy Clark tabled a curious Throne Speech which bore little resemblance to the platform her BC Liberal party ran on just weeks before.

The Broadbent Institute's new project, Change the Game, takes a critical look at the history of social democracy in Canada, with the intention of learning from the successes and challenges of the past in order to build the best possible path forward. We invite you to join us in rethinking and renewing social democracy by reading other entries in this series.

The surge of what is often called “populism” in many Western democracies, in Europe and the USA, represents a deep threat to democracy. 

I had to watch Prime Minister Trudeau’s epic electoral reform meltdown from a distance over the past couple of weeks given my attendance at an international meeting of progressive policy leaders in South Africa. 

Through my many decades of involvement in politics and public life, I’ve lived through a number of disappointments and broken promises.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s decision to abandon his commitment to make the 2015 election the last held under the broken first-past-the-post electoral system is one of the most cynical I’ve seen.

On January 20, a dangerous con-man took high office in the United States.

Openly trading in hate while ushering in more inequality will be Donald Trump’s MO for the next four years. While the far right gains ground globally, locally we’re not immune.  It is a troubling moment for progressives. It’s also an opportunity to respond and to act.

TORONTO—Executive Director Rick Smith is available to comment tomorrow on the final report of the special parliamentary committee on electoral reform, to be tabled in the House of Commons.

OTTAWA—There’s overwhelming support for proportional representation and now is the time to get on with designing a proportional voting system suited to Canada, says a diverse coalition representing the country’s leading women’s groups, the country’s largest unions, leading advocacy groups in Quebec, and organizations advocating for students and immigrants.

The Every Voter Counts Alliance, bringing together over 60 organisations, is making the call just as the special parliamentary committee on electoral reform is about begin its deliberations. The all-party committee is to release its report by Dec. 1.

The Every Voter Counts Alliance, bringing together over 60 organizations from across the country representing diverse groups, will be hosting a press conference on Parliament Hill later this morning just as the special parliamentary committee on electoral reform is set to begin its deliberations.

Speakers making the case for why it’s time to listen to the experts and Canadians -- and get down to business and develop a made-in-Canada proportional representation system include Hassan Yussuff, President of the Canadian Labour Congress, Katelynn Northam, electoral reform campaign lead at Leadnow, Farhat Rehman of the Canadian Council of Muslim Women and Annie Bérubé, director of government relations at Équiterre.