I am a huge advocate of changing electoral systems, but I don’t think this case is going to get far.

The Ontario Superior Court will soon hear a Charter challenge against our first-past-the-post (FPTP) electoral system by a pair of civil society organizations, Springtide and Fair Voting BC. As it hears that case, it should carefully consider how the way we vote (that is, how governments are held accountable to voters) affects the separation of powers (the accountability between branches of government).

The other issue often comes to how to get to some alternate system from here. Technically, the House of Commons or any provincial legislature can just pass a bill that changes the system. Granted, governments seem hesitant to do so without public consultation or a referendum first. That has been the point of failure every single time whenever a province attempts to do so.

Thus, if we are reliant on a referendum, it would take a long campaign to inform and normalize systems that are not ‘First Past the Post’ (Single Member Plurality). When people are uninformed, they get doubtful, and wish to conserve what they currently have. I suspect it would be a decade or more of informing the public and popularizing systems.