Each June, Canadians come together to celebrate Pride Month, an international celebration of the progress the 2SLGBTQ+ community (Two-Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer or Questioning and additional sexual orientations and gender identities) has made towards achieving equality, and to fight for progress not yet made.
While Pride Month directly commemorates the Stonewall riots (which began in the early hours of June 28, 1969, after police raided the Stonewall Inn bar in New York City’s Greenwich Village neighbourhood), it also acts as a time for Canadians to reflect on the rich and conflicted history our country has regarding 2SLGBTQ+ rights. For instance, Canada only decriminalized homosexual acts between consenting adults on June 27, 1969 (one day before the Stonewall Riots took place in New York).
Pride Month is also dedicated to uplifting and amplifying 2SLGBTQ+ voices, something our country’s electoral system – First Past the Post – is not very good at. While the 2021 federal election did deliver a record number of 2SLGBTQ+ MPs to parliament (eight in total — three Liberals, two NDP and two Conservatives), this proportionally amounts to only half the estimated 2SLGBTQ+ population nation-wide. Taking everything into account, could a switch to Proportional Representation increase the number of 2SLGBTQ+ MPs in parliament? Dennis Pilon, Associate Professor in the Department of Politics at York University believes so.
“Diverse representation in Canada fits the pattern for countries using single-member majoritarian voting systems [First Past the Post] in that advances for all [minority] groups have been slower and more uneven than in countries where proportional systems are the norm,” Pilon wrote in an article in ‘Queering Representation: LGBTQ People and Electoral Politics in Canada‘. “So, the short answer to the question of whether a different voting system might advance 2SLGBTQ+ representation in Canada would appear to be yes — if the new system were some form of proportional representation.”
This is in part due to the use of multi-member districts and quotas in proportional systems. In short, Proportional Representation (PR) allows for greater democracy as it is more likely to elect a Parliament that looks more like the country it represents. A good reminder that in both politics and our daily lives, representation is everything.
FVT Volunteers Needed at Pride Festival
The annual Pride Street Festival is coming up this weekend and Fair Vote Toronto will have a tent along the festival route to engage attendees and help spread the word about Proportional Representation!
We are looking for volunteers interested in working the festival tent with us. No need for a long commitment – a few hours of your time is all we need!
If you’re interested in volunteering during Pride, please sign up using this Google Survey.
We’d like as many volunteers as possible, so feel free to bring a friend. And if you can’t help out but plan to attend the festival, be sure to swing by our table to say hi!