I'm a recently retired Ontario civil servant. I here on my own behalf, but I'm also a national council member of Fair Vote Canada.
Working in the province, I've seen many governments come and go and many shifts in policy. I've seen how first past the post works at the provincial level. I've voted in every federal election, and in every election in my life, and I've never voted for a winner. I'm a perpetual political loser who found out later in life that this affects almost or more than half the voters in every election when we don't elect anyone. This results in a lot of democratic and practical issues when you have a government that cannot have cabinet members from certain regions of the country and when you have regions of the country that can have no opposition voices in Parliament. These are all things that are fundamental, in my view.
I'll go back, because I don't have much time, to this thing about voting for a loser in my riding every election. That's local to me, so I find it rich that people—I see this in the media, and we heard it today from the first speaker on the first panel—that somehow proportional representation is going to do something to that special bond between the constituent and the member. I've never had a member represent me, so what is it that I'm going to be losing here? I don't get it.
Voices Hear, hear!
It's a phony, disingenuous argument. Please don't fall for it. I appreciate the seriousness with which all of you from all parties are taking this issue. I implore you to continue to put your heads together and find that made-in-Canada solution that will lead to political equality, so that no matter where a Canadian lives, and no matter which party they support, their vote counts equally. Whether it's in opposition benches, or in government benches, they can see themselves reflected in Parliament and they can have local representatives and will have more local representatives than we have now, where half the voters have no one.
Thank you.