Motion: Proportional Representation 

The major issues of our time – like climate change and healthcare – need a sustained and shared effort from our elected officials. We don’t get that from the partisan politics that first-past-the-post fuels.

Kevin Arseneau

WHEREAS the 2014 New Brunswick general election produced a Liberal majority government with 100% of the power, despite only receiving 28% of the vote among eligible voters;

WHEREAS the 2020 New Brunswick general election produced a Conservative majority government with 100% of the power, despite only receiving 26% of the vote among eligible voters;

WHEREAS the New Brunswick Commission on Legislative Democracy established in 2003 by Conservative Premier Bernard Lord designed and recommended a mixed-member proportional representation system for New Brunswick;

WHEREAS the 2017 Commission on Electoral Reform recommended that the government consider some form of proportional representation;

WHEREAS over 90 countries currently use proportional representation, including 85% of countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development;

WHEREAS New Brunswick’s electoral system should accurately reflect the will of the people, something that cannot be achieved through the current first-past-the-post electoral system;

BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED that the Legislative Assembly urge the government to implement a proportional representation voting system.