Ryan Remiorz Archives The Canadian Press A petition filed on the Assembly website National calls for the first-past-the-post majority voting system currently in force to be replaced by a mixed proportional voting system.
A petition calling for reform of the voting system in Quebec, posted on the National Assembly website, has received more than 10,000 signatures since October 3.
The petition, launched by the New Democracy Movement and sponsored by PQ MP Pascal Bérubé, had collected some 13,000 signatures on Sunday. This is the petition with the most signatures among those currently open on the National Assembly website — its closest pursuer has received around 2,000 supports.
The document requests that the first-past-the-post voting system currently in force be replaced by a mixed proportional voting system, which “would allow a fairer representation of the diversity of opinions, values and convictions expressed by the Quebec population,” according to the instigators of the petition.
“This is only the beginning, let’s continue the fight, and we hope that this beginning will give momentum,” said Jean-Pierre Charbonneau, president, in an interview of the New Democracy Movement and former president of the National Assembly.
“What I want citizens to know is that they can join this movement,” he added, stressing that it is possible to sign the petition until 4 December.
Mr. Charbonneau indicates that the petition aims to ask the Legault government to keep its 2018 promise regarding reform of the voting system, but also to show that the quality of democracy interests Quebecers.
“People consider that the electoral result of last year was not fair, when with less than 41% of the vote, we had 72% of the deputies [from the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ)], says Mr. Charbonneau. This is not acceptable, it is not fair, it is not equitable. This is not true representative democracy. »
“Imbalance”
Mr. Charbonneau believes that the current voting method creates an “imbalance” in the National Assembly, while for a similar percentage of votes, Québec solidaire (QS), the Parti québécois (PQ) and the Liberal Party of Quebec (PLQ ) had a very different number of deputies. With 15.43% of the votes, QS obtained 11 deputies, with 14.61% of the votes, the PQ had three deputies, and with 14.37% of the votes, the PLQ had 21 deputies, according to data from Quebec Elections.
The Conservative Party of Quebec obtained 12.91% of the votes, but no MP in the National Assembly.
“This petition is part of the follow-up to a commitment that the Parti Québécois made several years ago in favor of reforming the voting system,” said PQ MP Pascal Bérubé in an interview. He invites the CAQ to respect its promise, but also the PLQ to take a position in favor of a reform of the voting system.
“People do not always realize at the time that the omnipresence of the CAQ on the territory of Quebec is linked to a system that favors this party. The reform of the voting method is not to favor any political group, it is to promote democratic expression,” he added.
This petition is circulating while the deputy from QS Sol Zanetti asked Prime Minister François Legault to renew his commitment to reforming the voting system.
Mr. Zanetti presented to the National Assembly, on October 5, a bill aimed at establishing a new voting method more representative of the will of voters.
The member for Jean-Lesage asks the government to the CAQ to call its bill before Christmas, so that it can be studied in parliamentary committee.
With information from Frédéric Lacroix-Couture