I'm Mark Brown from Brampton North representing the Toronto and York Region Labour Council.
Thank you again for this opportunity.
At the Toronto and York Region Labour Council, we believe that every vote counts and it should count equally, but that's not how it worked unfortunately in the 2015 election.
More than nine million votes were wasted, and by wasted we mean that they were cast for a candidate who didn't win in our first past the post system. Therefore, the Prime Minister has pledged that 2015 would be the last year that an election is done with the first past the post method.
The Labour Council has long supported Fair Vote Canada in its effort to win electoral reform with proportional representation.
The vast majority of OECD countries elect their governments through PR, proportional representation, resulting in stable administrations that rule effectively.
There are different variations of proportional representation, but in 2007, the Labour Council supported a recommendation of the Ontario Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform to move to a mixed member proportional system, the details of which are in the document in front of you entitled Make Every Vote Count.