My name is Nan McFadgen and I am the president of CUPE Nova Scotia. CUPE Nova Scotia represents more than 18,000 front-line public sector workers in education, health care, elder care, child care, municipal government, community services, transportation, and post-secondary education. I want to thank the committee for the opportunity to speak.
I feel that Canada's current electoral system of first past the post needs to change. We can't continue to have political parties get a majority of seats when they only get a minority of the votes. Too many people feel that their vote doesn't count and that their opinions don't matter. Fewer and fewer people are getting out to vote. I don't see this as being good for our democracy.
We support a move to proportional representation. Proportional representation would ensure that the proportion of seats the party gets in the House of Commons is about the same as the proportion of the votes it received. This to me seems fair. Many countries, as many have said, already have proportional representation. These include Scotland, Wales, New Zealand, and Germany.
A new system needs to keep a connection to our local MPs. People need to feel that someone represents them and their community. Mixed member proportional representation would make sure we keep a connection to an MP like we have now and a fair proportion of overall seats. It would mean one ballot and two votes. One vote would go to elect an MP and the other vote would go to elect a party.
We feel mixed member proportional representation is the best solution to encourage greater democratic participation by voters and a fair result at the polls.