MEDIA RELEASE

APRIL 26, 2011 – www.pairvote.ca has completed their first round of vote pairings.  With a little over a week to go before the federal election, more than 5000 Canadian voters have opted to “power up” their vote by asking to be paired up with other Canadians in a vote swap.

For this election, Pair Vote matches a voter in a close race (swing riding) with one who is not, to maximize voting impact. Both voters ensure a vote for their party of choice, plus one vote has a real chance of electing someone. That’s the best vote swapping can do within our broken voting system.

Total registered: 5741
Total swaps made across 40 swing ridings: 792 (1584 votes)

Numbers breakdown by party:

  • Liberal: 613 swaps
  • NDP: 129 swaps
  • Green: 39 swaps
  • Bloc: 11 swaps

Top 10 riding breakdown:

  • Kitchener–Waterloo 92
  • Guelph 64
  • Kingston and the Islands 43
  • Edmonton Centre 38
  • Kitchener Centre 38
  • Saint Boniface 37
  • Edmonton–Strathcona 34
  • Ottawa–Orleans 33
  • Saanich–Gulf Islands 33

We anticipate 2-3 times our current registration totals by Saturday, April 30, the last day to register at www.pairvote.ca .

Citizens getting engaged

Local residents across Canada have gotten involved to start their own pair voting movements, particularly in Saanich-Gulf Islands where the effort is to get Elizabeth May elected.

“This is my second time voting with Pair Vote. I was satisfied with the conversation that I had with the man in BC who I traded with, and I believe we helped to reinforce the NDP vote in his neighborhood, while satisfying his Liberal intentions here in Toronto. – Luke”

“[Pair Vote is] a very useful tool and I hope it catches on. It’s a way for all Canadians to work together to get the results we really want!!   Additionally, I made a good friend and she and I still keep in touch with each other.  — Cheryl F.”

Local vote swap citizens are available to speak with media. Contact Pair Vote to request an interview.

Background

The volunteer-run, non-partisan Pair Vote effort, which can be found at http://pairvote.ca, has heard the cries of voters who are frustrated with the First Past the Post system and has offered vote swapping as an elegant, legal, and intelligent alternative for people who feel their vote is wasted on election day.

Our goals for this election, in order of priority:

  1. Prevent a false majority Conservative government – this party is the least motivated to reform anything, and the only majority threat.
  2. Elect Elizabeth May as first Green Party member of parliament so approximately one million Canadian voters have an official voice.
  3. For other races (NDP-Liberal, Bloc-Liberal or Bloc-NDP), swap votes.

Statistics tracked on the Pair Vote site indicate that we will be swapping thousands of effective votes in this election, benefiting the Liberals, Greens and NDP most, in ridings where only a few votes can make the difference. Our goal is nothing less than a Parliament whose makeup more closely mirrors the percentage of the popular vote.  In the absence of much-needed electoral reform and proportional representation, Pair Vote is an empowering solution for voters who’d prefer to vote FOR their preferred party instead of against their least-preferred one.

Interested voters –whether you are in a swing riding or not — can register for a swap, learn about how the process works, see stats on those we’ve already registered, and more at http://pairvote.ca

Media Contact

Gerry Kirk
906 379 0798
[email protected]

Filed under: Canada 2011

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