The Disenfranchised Anglophone Voter
by Brian Gibb, Executive Director
Regional Association
of West Quebecers
With another federal election looming on the horizon, how
many of us will actually be bothered to vote?
Participation rates are plummeting throughout Quebec and particularly amongst
Quebec Anglophones. In a recent study prepared for the Canadian Institute for
Research on Linguistic Minorities, Jack Jedwab notes that since 1993 the turnout
rates for federal and provincial elections have dropped by as much as 20 percent
in predominantly
Anglophone ridings. This is about double the decline to be found in Francophone
ridings. What’s bringing about this alarming situation? In a nutshell, it’s the
voting system.
According to an Environics survey conducted in 2004
concerning what factors contribute most to low voter
turnout, 41% of Canadians think that the main reason why people don’t vote is
that they don’t think that their vote has any impact. Breaking it down by
language spoken at home, 45% of English speaking respondents held this view as
compared to only 30% of the Francophones who responded to the survey. Indeed,
the difference between the perceptions of the linguistic communities in regard
to the utility of voting points to a systemic disadvantage for the English
speaking community that, over the long-term, contributes to its demise. Simply
put, the concentration of English speaking voters in a small number of ridings
robs the community of its political power to protect its interests.
Within our electoral system, only the votes that are needed to declare a winner
in the riding are counted for the purposes of representation. All of the other
votes, whether they are for other parties, or are over and above what is needed
to elect the winning candidate are simply discarded.
As a result, the possibility of full political representation
of the English speaking community is diminished because fewer ridings with
higher concentrations of Anglophone voters translates into fewer members in
Quebec’s National Assembly who are sympathetic to our interests than would
otherwise occur if we had a proportional voting system.
In other words, our community is subjected to a linguistic gerrymandering of the
electoral system that creates an over-representation of the nationalist option
at our expense. Moreover, the gerrymandering of the electoral system brings
about two debilitating effects. First, Anglophones are disengaging from the
political system for they know that their vote has little impact when cast in a
riding where the favored candidate normally wins with a huge majority. Knowing
all to well that splitting the federalist vote could allow a nationalist
candidate to squeak by, dissatisfied Anglo voters are deciding more and more to
stay at home during the day of the election.
This political disengagement brings about a second effect. If
Anglophones are showing less interest in the results of the elections, it goes
without saying that our politicians show less interest in the concerns of our
community. Certainly, this is the case if we always vote for the same party.
Indeed, what is the motivation for a political party to address our needs if it
knows it can count on our vote without fail or if it knows there is no way its
candidate can win in a riding where a significant number of Anglophones reside.
The result? Our traditional concerns are virtually ignored and the Anglophone
exodus out of Quebec continues as more and more of us exercise our democratic
option of voting with our feet and moving elsewhere.
Fortunately, there is a citizens’ movement within the
population to change the voting system to make it fair for everyone. In fact,
the Liberal government of Quebec has tabled draft legislation to change the
voting system. Unfortunately, the same government has no intention of actually
changing the manner in which we elect our representatives before the next
provincial general election. Once again the interest of our elected politicians
to keep their jobs takes priority over the interest of the population at large
to participate in a fair and just election.
Faced with the realization that those who are elected by the present system are
the least likely to go ahead and change it, a small group of citizens, myself
included, has decided to challenge the constitutionality of the present voting
system that denies effective political representation to linguistic and
ideological minorities and have taken the Quebec government to court over the
issue. Represented by Julius Grey, one of Canada’s leading constitutional
lawyers, the plaintiffs will have their preliminary arguments heard on June 9
and 10 at the Quebec Superior Court in Montreal.
If you would like to know more about the case or would like
to contribute to its successful conclusion, I can be reached at the following
number 819-682-9602 or at the following address wq@magma.ca.
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