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Join us in planet-over-party thinking
Letter to the Editor
Recently I became a member of the One Time Alliance, a coalition of pro-democracy and environmental protection activists across Canada. The One Time Alliance is not a partisan formation, but we have clear policy preferences, and that is why we have formed our association.
As you probably know, in virtually every election the plurality (first past the post) system constructs a government which has only a minority of the popular vote. The Liberals and the Conservatives dominate under the plurality system. Other parties fail to get seats proportional to their share of the popular vote. The consequence is that successive parliaments do not have the full range of democratic voices to speak to policy issues.
Our One Time Alliance policy priorities are protection of the planet, and electoral reform. Successive federal and provincial governments have failed us on both these issues. The One Time Alliance sees an opportunity for real change if Greens, New Democrats and other similarly motivated citizens join with us. We have a strategy, and with your support, we can implement it before the next federal election.
Based on the federal 2019 electoral data, we see an opportunity for both Greens and NDP to take more seats by utilizing our strategy. Specifically, we see 100 ridings which are potentially available for either a Green or an NDP win; we think that of the 100 ridings, we can reasonably expect about 66 campaigns to be successful, using our strategy.
Our strategy requires Green and NDP co-operation, the two parties who claim they care the most about social justice, electoral fairness, and climate and environmental protection. If riding associations agreed to field a single candidate for only one of the two parties in approximately 100 ridings, we can create the conditions for more wins for both parties. With more progressive voices in the House of Commons, especially in a minority Parliament, we could have the numbers to pass electoral reform and environmental protection legislation. With the amplified voices in defence of our planet, Parliament would be far more responsive to environmental policy initiatives.
We must convince the NDP and Green parties that partisanship must be replaced by targeted cooperation in order to elect the people who can move the legislative agenda on our two main issues. We are urging you to join us in planet-over-party thinking.
Our strategy respects the differences between the two parties, but focuses on what we have in common. To join with us, you merely need to like us on Facebook or retweet us on Twitter.
We invite you to read our Win-Win strategy and related documents: Towards a Win-Win Strategy – One Time Alliance for Democratic Reform and One Election, One Candidate, One Chance. You can see more and comment at onetimealliance on Facebook, and soon, on Twitter.
Joyce Green,
Cranbrook,
for One Time Alliance
