CACOR Live | Réal Lavergne | Proportional Representation you Say? How would that work? | 11 Feb 2026 at 13:30 EST

You are invited to a scheduled CACOR Live meeting.

Speaker:  Réal Lavergne

Subject: Proportional Representation you Say? How would that work?

Time: 11 Mar 2026 13:30 Eastern Time (US and Canada)

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https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85792764597?pwd=A4994OZfjkWiQlVl4RRqqXepiLX7gG.1

Meeting ID: 872 3976 9573

Summary:

While the appeal of proportional representation (PR) is immediately apparent to most, people also want to know how that would work. This presentation begins by situating Canada compared to other democratic countries and flags the way we elect our representatives as the weak link of our democracy.

To fully understand how PR works one must first understand the foundational problem of our first-past-the-post system: electing our representatives in single-member-districts. To understand PR in comparison, imagine how things might work if a number of single-member districts were simply merged into one to create a multi-member district.

That gives us the key feature of any PR model: multi-member districts. Variables that could be tweaked to further enhance the model include better ballots, bigger districts, and/or the addition of top-up seats. Mixing and matching these different variables gives you a number of possible combinations.

The challenge is to come to a consensus view of what is needed. The presentation identifies four strategic requirements for achieving this:

• A rigorous, principles-based approach
• No referendum
• A Multi-party agreement
• A citizens’ assembly.

Biography:

Réal Lavergne has been engaged in the movement for election reform with Fair Vote Canada since his retirement as a civil servant in 2013 and was President of the organization from 2016 to 2021. He is now President of Fair Vote Canada’s chapter in the National Capital Region. He has been involved in every FVC campaign for electoral reform from 2014 onwards. A former academic and civil servant, Réal Lavergne spent most of his career working in the area of international development as a researcher, academic and senior policy analyst. He holds a Ph.D. in political economy from the University of Toronto.

Links:

Fair Vote Canada – Proportional Representation

Canadian Association of the Club of Rome (CACOR) homepage https://canadiancor.com/

CACOR YouTube www.youtube.com/@canadianassociationforthec7885

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CACOR Live Schedule – Canadian Association for the Club of Rome