In Canada, most votes simply don’t matter.

In a healthy democracy committed to treating voters equally, this would be scandalous. But those in power tend to unapologetically resist changes that might limit or reduce the unearned partisan advantage our current voting system hands them.

Andrew Coyne once said that if the government issued ballots to some voters and not others, we would riot in the streets. So how can we be okay with half our votes having no impact on who’s elected?

When the system ignores votes, the politicians ignore the voters who cast them, and that’s a problem for all of us. Imagine instead if we all had strong and equal voices in our legislatures — how much richer, more robust and responsive could our democracy be?

The good news is that there are lots of examples of how we can vote better — virtually every EU country already uses a more fair and inclusive approach. All we have to do is pick one that suits our culture and geography and tailor it for use here in BC.

Our biggest obstacle is that those with power to fix the problem aren’t motivated to — after all, they won under our current system, and if we vote differently, they might need to share power in ways they haven’t had to before, or perhaps even risk not getting re-elected, which they’re reluctant to do.

Read on to learn more about why we should change how we vote, what the best options for better voting are, and how you can help bring that change about.