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Proportional Representation Gives More Voting Power to Low-Income People
Economies across North America are supposedly doing well, yet lots of people are still feeling the pinch. Many Americans and Canadians are part of a trend of widening inequality. It might not be intuitive, but updating their electoral method could help. Countries that use proportional representation (ProRep) have less inequality and more equality-enhancing policies compared with winner-take-all countries such as Canada and the United States. In the winner-take-all systems, many...Read more » -
Proportional Representation Delivers Stronger Environmental Solutions
Around the world, voters want strong environmental protections. In countries that use proportional representation (ProRep) voting systems, they get them. ProRep countries like New Zealand and Germany are faster to ratify global climate accords than winner-take-all countries like the United States and Canada. They also have twice as much renewable energy and less air pollution. No voting system can promise a particular policy outcome—like action on climate change—but some guarantee...Read more » -
Trouble in Paradise: BC’s Local Elections Shake Up Housing Policy
To paraphrase Calvin Coolidge: The chief business of British Columbia is British Columbia. Construction and real estate add up to a hugely disproportionate share of the Cascadian province’s economy, Bloomberg Businessweek noted Saturday, as BC voters went to the polls in dozens of municipal elections whose overriding issue was housing. Those elections indicated that BC’s housing policy may be brewing another big shift. There’s no mystery why the business of...Read more » -
Questions about Proportional Representation You Were Afraid to Ask
As the midterms approach, many American voters may be feeling disenchanted with American democracy. Some may wonder about the point of voting if politicians can gerrymander the districts and big donors can buy elections. While many can identify the bugs in the American system, voters might not know an upgrade is available. It’s called Proportional Representation, and the Canadians might beat Americans to it. What is Proportional Representation? Proportional representation...Read more » -
Canada Already has 100+ Years of History with Proportional Representation
In October 2018, BC voters will get a ballot asking them to choose between First-Past-The-Post (FPTP) and Proportional Representation (ProRep) voting methods. For some voters, this may be a new idea but it is one BC has considered for a long time. As early as the 1890s, voters were calling for ProRep. Voters usually become aware of the need for ProRep when the two dominant parties become less popular or...Read more » -
E-scooters Could Be One Way to Fund Better Protected Bike Lanes
Last month, I argued that the answer to problems of the e-scooter revolution will be bike lane infrastructure. And it makes sense for cities to charge hefty scooter fees—shared e-scooters seem to be extremely profitable due to indefinite public storage space—as long as the money gets reinvested in protected bike lanes. Last week, North America’s largest e-scooter startup, Bird, announced a voluntary plan to donate $1 per scooter, per day...Read more » -
Thanks to Comprehensive Street Design, Vancouver Sows for the Future
Editor’s note: This is Part 2 in a four-part series on how trees and plants help to slow traffic, ameliorate climate change impacts and make growing cities more livable. Read Part 1 here. When it comes to cultivating plants and walkability together, Vancouver, BC, over the last two decades has reaped a harvest of low-hanging fruit on its residential streets. Today, though, the city is looking to plow new ground...Read more » -
Jordan Cove Energy Project, LNG facility may harm water quality, salmon runs
Southern Oregon regulators, Native American tribes, and local communities are worried that a proposed fossil fuel facility will, among other chaos, pollute water resources and irreversibly damage wildlife populations. If approved, the Jordan Cove Energy Project would put a behemoth liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility in Coos Bay. The plan was believed to be dead in 2016 after federal regulators denied key permits, but the latest incarnation enjoys the...Read more » -
Trump Administration Pushes Jordan Cove Energy Project
It’s a project that refuses to die, despite efforts to keep it from moving forward. In 2016, the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) voted unanimously to deny approval for the Jordan Cove Energy Project, an oversized fracked gas project proposed in a small town on the Oregon Coast. But less than six months after FERC issued the project its second defeat, a Trump administration official boldly announced, “The first...Read more » -
How Could Proportional Representation Work in the Washington Legislature?
As the introduction to this series noted, Washington’s constitution is notoriously difficult to amend. Which is why my previous two articles present two options for implementing proportional representation in Washington without a constitutional amendment. But if there were a way to add democracy reform to the list of 83 amendments that have made it through the Washington constitutional amendment approval gauntlet, imagine what the Evergreen state could do! It could...Read more »