As a collection of people, we seek to build systems of rules and government to make it more clear how we should get along with each other, in the fairest and most equitable way we can. Sometimes, those rules can get embedded for a long time, and it starts to feel like they are unchangeable, even when there are clear symptoms that something isn’t working.
One such rule governs our elections, with the “first-past-the-post” system of “winner-takes-all”. Is there a better alternative? Students Matthew Belyea and Amanda Gallant believe that there might be, and they want the question of whether to challenge the current rules and explore other options to be brought before government. Specifically, they are very interested in NB adopting “proportional representation”, and they’ve formed the action group Students For Democracy in NB as part of their studies at St Thomas University. They joined me on the Lunchbox to talk about what’s wrong now, what “proportional representation” means, and how we might bring about change.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Google Podcasts | RSS
