Where are the ordinary people?

A constituent recently met with an influential MP about PR. The MP said something to the effect of: "It's very important to me to talk to ordinary people who are not associated with groups like Fair Vote Canada."

He's not the first.

So my question is: Who are the ordinary people? Where would one find them?

Imagine this:

It's a lovely summer day and you're strolling through a festival in the park. Local Fair Vote Canada volunteers have a booth there - alongside many others - and they invite you over. After talking to one of the volunteers, you think that 30% of the vote getting 30% of the seats is fairer than what we have now. You think everybody being represented sounds like a good idea, too - you usually don't elect anybody. You don't like strategic voting. You sign their national petition. Now you're on the mailing list. Like most people, you usually don't have time to open the emails. Fast forward a year or two. You've been busy with life - you know how it is. A couple of national issues have come up since that day in the park which have upset you. That's usually when you remember that our majority government was elected by thirty-something percent of the voters, which didn't really register quite as much before you talked to the FVC volunteer. Your life doesn't revolve around politics, much less electoral reform. What should land in your email inbox today but a notice from Fair Vote Canada. Your local MP is holding a town hall on electoral reform next week. The email says that the government has promised to change the voting system, but they need to hear from Canadians or they might not follow through. It's once in a generation thing. Well, why not? You go! You bring your friend Sally with you and plan to just listen.

You, my friend, are no longer an ordinary person.

No indeed. If you actually showed up at that town hall, you now belong to that fanatical, unrepresentative group of Canadians called "a special interest group." Don't you know they are the only people who show up at these things?

Because, you see, the "ordinary" people do not sign petitions. They don't email MPs. They certainly don't come out to town halls. The moment they do, they are no longer the people the government wants to talk to most.

Where can an MP find the ordinary people?

Obviously the kind of "ordinary" this MP wanted to hear from is defined as: People who are absent from the very places people are invited to go to participate. Certainly not the person who has taken time out of his day to visit the MP. The MPs must venture out and find the ordinary people. Stop in at a random Zumba class or church picnic and say "Hey, everyone, let's talk about electoral reform!" Because the opinions you will get there about how to make our electoral system fairer apparently matter the most. Some will be very knowledgeable, and others may only have a hazy idea that majority governments are almost always formed by less than a majority of the vote, or that there's anything else to compare the fairness of our electoral system to besides our neighbour to the south. Like you and me, many people just don't know a lot in depth about many issues. The half credit course in grade ten civics - which is mandatory in just one province - doesn't help. But these kind of ordinary people do think that seats should match votes. They told pollsters the same thing for 13 years. When three parties ran in the 2015 election on a promise to make every vote count it may not have received the media frenzy of a burqa but voters for three parties supported that platform. If you missed the outcry it's because it didn't happen.

This promise started with ordinary people

This is important: Justin Trudeau didn't get the idea that we should make every vote count by attending a Fair Vote Canada meeting in someone's basement. He got it by travelling the country for two years listening to ordinary Canadians about everything. And Canadians he talked to were were bringing this issue up to him, again and again. Like his fellow MPs in the NDP and Greens, it was through first-hand experience with Canadians that he came to believe that we can do better than 39% majorities. He came to believe that re-engaging people in politics meant modernizing our electoral system to let our voices be heard in a way that first-past-the-post denies us. The Participants in the Citizens Assemblies were Ordinary People

If this isn't enough, we've already had the in depth, ordinary-citizen-centered processes - twice. The BC Citizens' Assembly - the other example being the Ontario Citizens' Assembly - was a world class exercise in citizen-led democracy, giving power to ordinary citizens to listen, learn and design a new electoral system. It was composed of 160 citizens of BC who responded to ads in the paper and then were randomly selected from a large group of potential volunteers. Many had never been much involved in anything political before. There were two people from each riding, half men and half women, and two Aboriginal members.

For 11 months, they put their minds and hearts into asking their fellow citizens at 50 public meetings what values were important to them, and learning from experts at home and around the world. This resulted in designing a system (BC-STV) that got the support of 58% of BC voters. One of the reasons it got that much support was not because of the particular PR system (although it is an excellent system), but because citizens trusted their fellows and all the work they had done. Listen to a participant in the BC Citizens' Assembly and the Chair of the ON Citizens' Assembly explain their process and why a referendum isn't the way to go now here. The work of those assemblies and other commissions should not be discounted or shelved as history. These were ordinary people. The values, the issues, and the facts are the same today. Everyone at those assemblies, and everyone who shows up to the town halls now with some prior knowledge, is someone who started out knowing very little about why this issue matters. An ordinary person, who just knows or cares a little more than most. I value their participation, and their leadership.

Invite your Friends to Be Heard by the Committee: Here's How

The government has put out an invitation for Canadians to host electoral reform dialogues - anytime before October 7. They're trying to find the "ordinary" people. These can be small group conversations at a coffee shop, or in your living room. The government has provided a simple set of questions related to values that anyone can answer, and asked Canadians to submit the feedback from their dialogues directly to the all-party committee, to inform their recommendation. Sign up to host. Invite your friend. Invite your uncle. Invite people into this conversation so the committee knows that the voices of "ordinary" Canadians today are again the backing up what so much evidence to date has told us: that every voter should count. Can you help? Please step up now. www.fairvote.ca/dialogue