Yes2AV: ‘Canada is proof that the system is broken’

John, centre, with the Yes2AV campaign team

On Monday night, Canada went to the polls and gave us a perfect example of why the Canadian and British ‘first past the post’ (FPTP) voting system is broken, unfair and needs to be replaced.

Only 39.6% of the vote went to the right wing Canadian Conservative Party while 59.5% of the vote went to centre-left parties. What was the result? An absolute majority for the Conservatives. It doesn’t seem fair does it?

This Thursday we have a chance to move away from this failed system to one that will ensure that your MP will have to work harder and will give YOU more say in the type of politicians we elect.

Under the Alternative Vote (AV) system your MP would have to get at least 50% of the final vote to be elected (only 1-in-3 current MPs reached that mark).

Why will 50% minimum mean that MPs have to work harder? Politicians will need more votes to get elected so they can’t take your vote for granted, especially if they want to get re-elected.

If you were told no matter what you did or how rubbish you were at your job you couldn’t be fired what would happen? You would get complacent and may even abuse your position. It is no coincidence that the MP’s in the safest seats were the worst offenders in the expenses scandal that destroyed the image of British politics.

The No2AV campaign has been funded almost entirely from the Conservative Party but they don’t even use FPTP for their own internal elections. David Cameron would have lost his leadership election if it was done under that system. If it’s not good enough for the Conservatives party then why is it good enough for us? The answer: it isn’t!

For more than 100 years the UK has been waiting for a chance to tell the politicians that we deserve better. We can not miss this once in a generation chance for change.

Help end jobs for life and help end a voting system that protects lazy MPs.

Vote YES on Thursday!