Videos on Proportional Representation vs First-Past-The-Post (2018)

Contest Winners – First Rolling Thunder Video Contest (October)

2018/10/19: Winning First Place in VotingBC’s contest was Eva Brownstein with The Secret to Happiness is… (38 seconds):

Winning Second Place was Rhashad El’s Proportional Representation NOW!. Additional winners were Forest Animals Vote, First Past The Post: The Friend That Nobody Wants, and First-Past-The-Burger.

Second Rolling Thunder Video Contest (November)

2018/11/2: Winning First Place in VotingBC’s second contest was Paul Manly of Manly Media with “Vote Yes For Pro Rep” (The Pro Rep Song), written and performed by Tony Turner and friends (2 minutes):

CURATED VIDEOS

(1) The most famous Canadian comedy on voting reform: Erik Anderson’s  “First Past the Pizza”. Pro Rep supporters like it a lot – “brilliant”, “awesome”, “amazing”, “funny and informative” (5 minutes):

(2) Here’s an enthusiastic video explaining the 2018 BC Referendum amazingly clearly and simply. It got over a quarter of a million views on Facebook and YouTube in one week in 2018!  [One correction to producer Double Blind’s terminology: PRO REP GOVERNMENTS ARE USUALLY MAJORITY GOVERNMENTS – about as often as with Canada’s First-Past-The-Post governments! They’re just multi-party or coalition governments instead of single-party governments. They are based on true majority support. Not the “false majority” support of less than 50% that’s behind most First-Past-The-Post governments.] (4 min.):

(3) Very similar to the video above, the following video by Bee Current is a bit more leisurely paced (6 min.):

(4) Energetic National Post columnist Andrew Coyne needed only five minutes to explain why our voting system needs modernizing – and the failings he notes on the federal scene are just as bad provincially (5 min.):

(For an extended but even more humorous version of the above, see MP Elizabeth May’s TEDx talk – 17 mins.)

(5) Christy Clark, at the time of this video a spunky CKNW journalist, lays out the need for proportional representation based on her insider knowledge, and in her incomparably vivid way. [Although she mentions a particular version of pro rep, her comments apply almost entirely to any voting system with proportional representation. Clark was subsequently elected premier of British Columbia, but got swallowed by the system as far as electoral reform goes.] (6 min.):

(6) BC MLA Sonia Furstenau’s passionate speech to the Legislature about how our old voting system fails to give true majority rule, while proportional representation makes every vote count and fosters more productive politicians, is heartfelt and inspiring (22 min.):

(7) Famous actor John Cleese – Monty Python comedian – explains why proportional representation is needed in a short, somewhat grainy video. His example is British, but the problem is exactly the same here in B.C. (91 sec.):

(8) A talk on change in society and proportional representation by fair voting enthusiast and MP, Nathan Cullen – actually quite entertaining! (46 min.):

(9) Terry Dance Bennink, Vice-President of the official proponent group Vote PR BC: She speaks on why the United Church supports Pro Rep for justice and why you should be sure to vote (21 min.):

(10) BC MLA Sonia Furstenau gives an excellent talk about the 2018 BC referendum on electoral reform and how proportional representation leads to a kinder, gentler democracy in this video (38 min.):

(11) Here’s BC Premier John Horgan speaking simply and eloquently on Pro Rep and his practical experience in the legislature – both in opposition and in government – and why that led him to support the somewhat more cooperative, consensual style of proportional representation governments. (Unfortunately his party largely stuck to their preference for the old voting system – keeping their chance to win a false majority – and Horgan himself subsequently badly bungled a televised debate on Pro Rep.) (3 min.):

Looking for even more?

There is a collection of annotated links to both short and long, funny and serious, videos at Fair Vote Canada

Facebook has video collections:

Click on the left-hand menu item “Videos” to see a few brief videos and many longer ones at Fair Vote Canada; a few brief videos, plus a report to supporters by official Pro Rep proponent Vote PR BC’s spokeswoman Maria Dobrinskaya and President Antony Hodgson, at  Vote PR BC; and a dozen brief videos on Pro Rep at Shaw TV.

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