Well over a year since Walk4PR, it was my expectation for some time to do a similar walk in the July to September, or even October timeframe to coincide with the referendum in British Columbia. However, I consulted with Real Lavergne and the FVC board people in Ottawa, and their view is different. They have felt the need to concentrate their efforts in British Columbia to have a more direct impact on the results of the referendum. Needless to say, the enthusiastic support in advertising and organizing that I and the other Walk4PR walkers received from them was instrumental in whatever exhilarating success we achieved in May of 2017. Without that support I personally would have experienced a considerably more lonely pilgrimage to Ottawa, followed by a considerably less populated summit at Parliament Hill, and some other hikers would not have been there at all. So although I'm personally a little disappointed to be unable to reprise the events of spring 2017, I have no doubt they made the right resource allocation decision. I will contemplate the results of the referendum, and consider how best I can help support the electoral reform cause on an ongoing basis.
Ron Weigand
It's now June. In May we Walked 4 PR from Kingston to Ottawa. On May 29 we rallied on Parliament Hill - hoping for a crowd of 200, despite the early rain there were about 250 of us! We kept the fight for proportional representation in Canada in the public eye for at least a while! In Ottawa we listened to inspiring messages from Nathan Cullen MP, Guy Giorno, David Kilgour former MP, Elizabeth May MP, Daniel Rae, Real Lavergne our Ottawa Fair Vote coordinator, Leadnow's Katelynn Northam and (ahem) Ron Weigand, and in Kingston to Mark Gerretsen MP, George Thomson (2007 Ontario Citizens Assembly chair), Hugh Segal and our Kingston FV coordinator Lea Westlake . We danced and sang to the tunes of Tony Turner and the Raging Grannies! And we successfully generated increased press coverage for proportional representation including CKWS TV interviews with Real and Ron.
Here are recent press items:
Kingston (CKWS) TV startoff.
Kingston Whig Standard article.
CBC article on electoral reform.
Council of Canadians article on Walk 4 PR.
Inside Ottawa Valley article.
See the press release.
And here are videos from the Parliament Hill rally on May 29:
A practice version of Tony Turner's new PR song, at Vincent Massey Park May 27, 2017.
The Raging Grannies' response to Justin Trudeau's decision to abandon electoral reform.
Toronto Metro comment on Parliament Hill rally, May 29.
Nathan Cullen's comments (youtube) at May 29 Parliament Hill rally.
Ron Weigand's comments (youtube) at May 29 Parliament Hill rally.
Daniel Rae's comments (youtube) at May 29 Parliament Hill rally.
Guy Giorno's comments (youtube) at May 29 Parliament Hill rally.
Elizabeth May's comments (youtube) at May 29 Parliament Hill rally.
Katelynn Northam's comments (youtube) at May 29 Parliament Hill rally.
The vote in the House of Commons on May 31st was of course not in our favour, a surprise to very few. The interesting development was the announcement of a formal four year agreement by the BC NDP and Greens to work on a joint agenda including a referendum on proportional representation. In my talk at Parliament Hill I spoke of the 1960's Pearson government, arguably the most successful federal government ever because it introduced medicare, CPP and OAS. It was able to do so because of two factors: there was an existing (Saskatchewan) model of medicare, and it was a minority government, forced to work with the opposition MPs in the HoC. Together they did the right thing. The BC situation means these factors could re-occur after 2019. If those who voted Liberal because of Mr. Trudeau's promise change their vote, there could be a minority. With a model of PR in BC, the case for PR would be be compelling. Fifty years after Pearson, would our MPs do the right thing?
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