Myths, damn myths, and voting system change: How Canadian political scientists misrepresent democratic reform

Speaker: Dennis Pilon, Politics, York University
Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/7116687523291/WN_lTfTR-WRSd-Vtk1t7t4J3g

Academics have framed the debate on the issue as a kind of popularity contest, one where the public is encouraged to take sides on the basis of the values they prefer their institutions embody.They claim that different voting systems reflect value trade-offs on issues like simplicity,  stability, local representation, and accountability.But these are myths.

By contrast, Pilon argues that voting system reform is really an attempt to apply democratic values of inclusion, equality, and equity to Canadian  electoral institutions, and offers a sounder, historically informed, evidence-based way to do it.

The Fall 2022 issue of Canada Watch is available at here.

Dennis Pilon is an associate professor in the Department of Politics at York University and is one of Canada’s preeminent experts on voting system reform. He is the author of The Politics of Voting: Reforming Canada’s Electoral System and Wrestling with Democracy: Voting Systems as Politics in the Twentieth Century West.

This event is sponsored by Fair Vote Canada with the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies.