The province of Ontario has just released their regulations for municipal ranked ballots! For the first time, we can see all the details of single-member Ranked Choice Voting as well as multi-member STV (Single Transferable Vote - a proportional system).

This is a huge step forward for Canada's voting reform movement. For the first time in over half a century, legislation has been adopted that breaks the First-Past-The-Post monopoly in Canada. We are currently the only OECD country that uses FPTP exclusively, but these new regulations open the door to reform.

While most eyes will be on the Trump/Clinton showdown this Tuesday night, many of us will be watching another vote just as closely. Residents of Maine will be voting on six "ballot initiatives" (referendums), one of which would switch ALL of their state elections to ranked ballots. The change would include their elections for U.S. senators, U.S. representatives, the governor, state senators, and state representatives.

150 years after Canada was conceived in Charlottetown, the residents of Prince Edward Island have delivered a blow to Canada's archaic First-Past-the-Post voting system. How fitting that the birthplace of confederation would now lead Canada towards democratic renewal!

Voters were asked to express their preference for five different voting systems:

Vancouver's Independent Election Taskforce presented their final report today calling for Proportional Representation for City Council elections and recommending a randomly-selected Citizens Assembly to design the new system.

The report covers five core recommendations:

My second-favorite political poster of all time is from the 1982 Hummer Sisters' mayoral campaign in Toronto. Their slogan, "This is no job for politicians", is just as relevent today as it was 35 years ago - especially when it comes to my favorite topic: democratic renewal.

London Ontario has just become ground-zero for democratic reform in Canada. While almost every City Council in the province has put self-interest ahead of public interest by quickly (and quietly) rejecting the opportunity of using ranked ballots for the 2018 election, a handful of young and innovative Councillors in London have pushed for a full public consultation to explore the option.

While we've all been distracted by the fallout of Donald Trump's unexpected election as president, another important political story has been unfolding under the radar. At the same time that Hillary Clinton lost the presidency, despite getting three million more votes than Trump, voters in New England (the birthplace of the American Revolution) and Prince Edward Island (the birthplace of Canadian confederation) delivered an unprecedented one-two punch to the archaic and dysfunctional first-past-the-post voting system.

In two referendums, one on each side of the border, residents of Maine voted in favour of switching the entire state over to ranked choice voting (RCV) and two days earlier voters in P.E.I. embraced a system called mixed member proportional (MMP).

Today's London Free Press contains a very unusual op-ed from the London Chamber of Commerce. The piece urges City Council not to proceed with ranked ballots and offers some strange arguments against reform. Here are some of the most interesting quotes from the piece, penned by Gerry Macartney - Chief Executive and General Manager:

"Will it really cost us about $3.5 million to ramp up the election machinery to accommodate a ranked ballot system? Is that a one-time cost or the same increase every election going forward? And isn’t $3.5 million about a 1.5 per cent hike to my property taxes?"

London City Council just become the first government in Canada to abandon First-Past-the-Post!

Minutes ago, the City Council of London Ontario voted in favour of switching to a ranked ballot system for their 2018 municipal election. This unprecedented decision makes London City Council the first and only government, anywhere in Canada, to abandon First-Past-the-Post.

Visit our Fab Four page, to learn more about these opportunities to spark a tidal wave of change.

Following our successful Kickstarter campaign, we're working hard on our #TimeToTopple report. We're hoping to take our successes in London, Kingston and Cambridge, and trigger more change all across Ontario.

Stay tuned for details!

ETA: Late April! Sign up here for updates.

Important piece in today's Toronto Star by Kofi Hope, featuring a blunt diagnosis of our democratic deficit, featuring analysis and remedies from Brittany Andrew-Amofah as well as our own Creative Director Dave Meslin.

Unlock Democracy is a non-profit organization advocating for democratic renewal across Canada. Our goal is to rebuild democracy in Canada through inspiring campaigns that foster grassroots participation to overcome apathy and create meaningful change through political and legislative reforms.

Led by the our Creative Director Dave Meslin, our current projects include Local Choice, Lego my Vote, #Vote16 and Better Ballots 101 . We are also looking at new campaigns as they relate to Covid-19’s impact on democracy, including a greater willingness to build bridges across partisan divides and the need to build virtual networks for community collaboration.

Join Unlock Democracy UK and Unlock Democracy Canada for this transatlantic discussion about democracy!

What can activists in the UK and Canada learn from each other? RSVP here.

Our Amazing Race is heating up across Canada, with grassroots community leaders trying to secure Local Choice for their city councils!

Municipal voting reform is the first step towards democratic renewal in Canada as well as a strategy to increase voter turnout and boost diverse representation on all of our city councils.

If you live in BC - or know anyone in BC - we have an important action item for you:

Standing in front of a statue dripping with pink paint, Ravyn Wngz looked into a dozen television cameras and explained why Black Lives Matter activists felt they had no other choice but to turn to dramatic tactics. In a speech that quickly went viral online, she softly described her frustration. “We’ve tried many different ways to get the attention and the conversation of those in leadership roles and positions. It took us having to do this, to get you all to show up” she said, pointing at the pink statue.

It's almost Election Day in Ontario! If democratic reform is important to you, you may want to take a close look at each party's commitments on this topic.

And to make it easier for you, we've already researched and evaluated the platforms of thirteen parties (every party with more than ten candidates), based on seven unique criteria.

We had an incredible two our chat this week with Duff Conacher from Democracy Watch! Duff was the second guest in our Voices from the Movement series.

Democracy Watch is a national citizen advocacy group in Canada who have been advocating for reforms since 1993. They have won more than 180 changes to federal and provincial good government and corporate responsibility laws, many of which are world-leading.

Duff and Dave talked in detail about democratic reforms that effectively require everyone in politics and big business to be Open, Honest, Ethical and Representative.

We had an amazing two-hour conversation with Desmond Cole talking about authentic activism, advocacy tactics, intersectionalism, the limitations of electoral organising and finding room for humour in our work.