A Brief History of Democracy

Friday, July 15, 2011

No News Is Good News

It's been more five months since our appeal was heard and the decision has yet to be rendered. I take this to be good news since it means that our arguments weren't simply dismissed outright as was the case in our unfavorable decision at the Quebec Superior Court.

As a result, I expect a substantive decision that will either declare the present electoral system unconstitutional or square the use of first-past-the-post with democratic principles. In the latter case, this could turn out to a Herculean task since the right for each citizen to have an effective voice in the legislature runs contrary to the systemic elimination of voices that a winner-take-all, plurality voting system entails.

Of course, we would prefer that the Court upholds our appeal, but if not, I am quite confident that any attempt to square the circle will give us sufficient grounds to have our appeal heard at the Supreme Court.