GPM Platform - Table of Contents:
REBUILDING DEMOCRACY FROM THE GRASS ROOTS
In a sustainable society, democracy is grassroots and inclusive with all members of society being able to participate. The Manitoba Greens believe that major changes must be made to the way we exercise democracy in Manitoba to ensure that it is not just every four years that people participate. The Green Party of Manitoba is always working from the grassroots to promote our policies and engage people in our party. Please join us in this task that is at once, fun, frustrating, and rewarding.
Electoral Reform and Proportional Representation
Our voting system is outdated and no longer meets the needs of Manitoba's diverse population. The current first-past-the-post or single-member plurality system is based on having two parties and two candidates in each riding. Other provinces (BC and Ontario) have initiated electoral system reform processes using Citizens' Assembly models (www.citizensassembly.bc.ca and www.citizensassembly.on.ca), which have looked at their electoral systems in a non-partisan way, holding referendums to change their voting systems.
Manitoba Greens, if elected, will work to:
1. Implement proportional representation, where:
- The percentage of votes for a party equals the percentage of seats in the Legislative Assembly that party gets, and
- The various groups in society are represented in the Legislature in proportion to their numbers in Manitoba society (truly representative government);
2. Hold a Citizens' Assembly on electoral reform, which would select 100 Manitobans from the permanent voters list to look at the current electoral system and:
- Decide if the current system is meeting the needs of Manitobans
- If it is not, find alternative systems that would, and
- Bring three (3) of these systems to the people of Manitoba for a preferential vote on which system should replace the current system.
Citizens' Assemblies - A New Model for Decision Making
The Green Party supports the use of the Citizens' Assembly model for a variety of governmental decision-making functions such as: environmental licensing, Municipal Board, and economic advisory councils. This process of making society more and more democratic and involving more and more citizens in the processes of governance would also provide incentives for a broader concept of citizenship and public education aimed at educating citizens for the roles we all could play. The Green Party of Manitoba would examine ways of increasing democracy in Manitoba using Citizens' Assemblies and other innovative models of participatory democracy.
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