2025Q1 - What are the objectives of our Fair Vote community?

Preface

I'm writing this on the eve of Ontario's 2025 election. I know that this is unfortunately another election that is not held under a proportional representation (PR) electoral system.

I am just an ordinary Canadian citizen -- I don't consider myself an activist, yet I can recognize an unfair and abusive system.

But now is not the time to let pessimism dissuade us from the democracy we deserve. With Duverger's Law (i.e., in non-PR electoral systems, a trend towards a two-parties), we are running out of time to act. Canada's 2021 effective number of parties is 2.76 - this number will decrease over time, and will eventually end Canadian democracy as we know it today.

I'm not writing this to get donation money (although here is the Fair Vote Canada donation site), but this is just the reality with live with and the future we are fighting for.

Proposed 2025 objective

~~to be in the top 100 most subscribed communities for lemmy.ca~~. Achieved on 2025-03-02.
As of writing this post (2025-02-26), !fairvote@lemmy.ca is currently 111th rank with 261 subscribers.
To be in the top 100, this would technically mean having >= 296 subscribers, but for simplicity, let's set the goal to be >= 300 subscribers before 2026. That's just ~40 new subscribers by the end of the year. Achieved on 2025-03-02.
Where we currently are https://lemmy.ca/communities?listingType=Local&sort=TopAll&page=3, and where we want to be https://lemmy.ca/communities?listingType=Local&sort=TopAll&page=2 (or on page=1, of course). Achieved on 2025-03-02.

While I love a good, yeasty, loaf of bread 🍞, !bread@lemmy.ca has 638 subscribers, which is 144.4% more than our 261. I suppose you could say I'm jealous.

Next steps

Before the end of March 2025, please comment on whether:

this is a good objective to have
if it's not a good objective, what other objectives should we pursue
Ideas on how to achieve our objectives

Statistics

Date	users/month	u/m % of c/Canada	mod/u/m	posts	comments	Subscribers	subscribers % of c/Canada
2025-02-26	-	-	-	-	-	261	-
2025-02-28	785	-	-	-	-	-	-
2025-03-03	866	11.994%	23.09‱	205	629	323	3.968%
2025-03-04	942	13.120%	21.23‱	211	654	342	4.191%
2025-03-05	894	12.556%	22.37‱	213	665	354	4.317%
2025-03-06	891	11.770%	22.45‱	218	674	374	4.539%
2025-03-07	904	10.984%	22.12‱	219	683	377	4.531%
2025-03-08	951	11.149%	21.03‱	229	694	389	4.587%
2025-03-09	971	11.174%	20.60‱	232	706	406	4.749%
2025-03-10	1.02k	11.384%	19.61‱	237	740	421	4.867%
2025-03-11	1.04k	11.441%	19.608‱	238	750	437	5.017%
2025-03-12	1.05k	11.254%	19.048‱	239	751	441	5.029%
2025-03-13	1.12K	11.655%	17.857‱	247	804	442	5.017%
2025-03-14	1.17k	12.037%	17.094‱	259	828	448	5.062%
2025-03-15	1.19k	12.143%	16.807‱	270	853	452	5.079%
2025-03-16	1.22k	12.449%	16.393‱	273	868	459	5.140%
2025-03-17	1.3k	13.333%	15.385‱	280	907	465	5.196%
2025-03-18	1.33K	13.516%	15.038‱	291	952	469	5.229%
2025-03-19	1.36k	13.977%	14.706‱	296	989	471	5.233%
2025-03-20	1.41k	9.78k (u/m Canada)	2 (mods)	310	1.04k	474	9.02k (subs Canada)
2025-03-21	1.48k	10k	2	332	1.04k	479	9.04k
2025-03-22	1.51k	10.3k	2	348	1.1k	481	9.06k
2025-03-23	1.53k	10.4k	2	361	1.13k	485	9.08k
2025-03-24	1.55k	10.4k	2	370	1.18k	490	9.1k
2025-03-25	1.58k	10.5k	2	382	1.22k	509	9.13k
2025-03-26	1.64k	10.6k	2	417	1.27k	533	9.15k
2025-03-27	1.71k	10.6k	2	450	1.35k	554	9.16k
2025-03-28	1.75k	10.8k	2	476	1.4k	558	9.22k
2025-03-29	1.79k	10.9k	2	494	1.45k	562	9.26k
2025-03-30	1.83k	11k	2	516	1.47k	562	9.27k
2025-03-31	1.87k	11.1k	2	537	1.52k	571	9.31k
2025-04-01	1.92k	11.2k	2	570	1.55k	572	9.33k
2025-04-02	1.9k	11.3k	2	581	1.59k	576	9.36k
2025-04-03	1.81k	11.3k	2	609	1.6k	580	9.39k
2025-04-04	1.78k	11.4k	2	612	1.61K	580	9.41k

Done.

You're viewing a single thread.

27 comments

I originally posted this in a separate post, but was redirected here. It's more about the "how" rather than the "what", original text below:
The community description explicitly states that this community is non-partisan. I think this is a very smart call because we'll need people with all sorts of different political ideologies to get onboard if we're ever going have a shot at implementing some form of PR.
However lately the sub seems to be filled with anti Poilievre articles that don't seem to have anything to so with electoral reform. I'm no fan of Poilievre, but in my experience electoral reform is already unfairly labeled as a "leftist" policy.
My opinion is that the most important thing we can do is help conservatives understand that PR is in their best interest just as much as it is for people on the left. It means the conservative movement no longer needs to live under one giant tent. It will be able to split into multiple parties that can then form coalitions on the issues that matter to them. Conservatives on the fringe benefit because at least they'll have some representation in parliament.
Anyway, any conservatives who are interested in electoral reform and come peek at this community will be immediately turned off by the content that's here. So please, let's try to keep posts as non-partisan as possibly, and focused on things relevant to electoral reform!
- I completely agree with your points about keeping our focus on electoral reform and maintaining a non-partisan approach. Our community is quite new, and still trying to figure out what it is (hence this thread).
  You've hit on something fundamental - proportional representation isn't a left/right issue, it's a democratic fairness issue that benefits voters across the political spectrum.
  You're absolutely right that conservatives have just as much to gain from PR as progressives do. Under our current FPTP system, conservative voters in liberal-dominated ridings essentially have no voice in Parliament, and vice versa. PR would allow for a more natural evolution of our political landscape, potentially enabling:
  Conservative voters in urban areas to finally gain representation
  The conservative movement to diversify beyond a single big-tent party
  Issue-based coalitions that better reflect the actual views of voters
  More honest representation without strategic voting distortions
  The mathematical case for PR is clear regardless of one's ideology - when roughly 50% of ballots cast make absolutely no difference to the outcome of an election, we have a serious democratic deficit.
  I've noticed the same trend you mentioned regarding content that doesn't directly relate to electoral reform (relating to the newness of the forum). While there's certainly room to discuss how various politicians approach democratic issues, we should be cautious about letting the community become an echo chamber or a place that feels unwelcoming to potential PR advocates from across the political spectrum.
  Perhaps we could encourage more content that specifically demonstrates how PR would benefit conservative voters? I'd love to see analysis showing how many conservative votes were effectively "wasted" in the last election, or how PR would change representation patterns for conservatives in traditionally non-conservative regions.
  See this draft content moderation policy, that I created specifically in response to your feedback!
  
  Right on! That draft looks great, no notes. Just wanted to say thanks for putting it together and for the quick response. Also for taking the time to get this community off the ground, all much appreciated!
- Seconded.
  
  The both of you are talking about separate topics.
  Ahal is talking about the "anti-conservative" posts, while you are talking about the general Canadian politics.
  The purpose of this thread is to discuss exactly that, what kinds of content we should be ok with having in this forum. Please make the case for it, as it's not been brought up explicitly by anybody except yourself.
  
  Ahal is talking about the "anti-conservative" posts, while you are talking about the general Canadian politics.
  They kind of go hand in hand though. Given Lemmy's demographics, the "general Canadian politics" posts which get the most traction are going to be anti-conservative ones.
  Please make the case for it, as it's not been brought up explicitly by anybody except yourself.
  My main concern with general politics posts is that they will dilute the core message of PR. Too much "clutter" in people's feeds might also cause the people who are most interested in PR to unsubscribe.
  
  They kind of go hand in hand though
  Not really. You can have one without the other.
  My main concern with general politics posts is that they will dilute the core message of PR.
  We also need general politics posts to grow the movement to new people who have never heard of proportional representation before. I've generally tried to keep topics to democracy, or from PR supporting parties, or PR itself. It's not like there are no rules.
  Too much “clutter” in people’s feeds might also cause the people who are most interested in PR to unsubscribe.
  This isn't what I've found to be the case based on the community statistics I've been tracking every day. The data suggests more activity consisent with what I've mentioned earlier (topics to democracy, or from PR supporting parties, or PR itself).
  I'm sorry that you believe this is not what the PR community needs, but if you can come up with more PR content, by all means post them to the community. I'm just a volunteer, so you really shouldn't be expecting anything from me for a free service.
  
  We also need general politics posts to grow the movement to new people who have never heard of proportional representation before.
  That's an interesting idea, though I don't think it is the only way to achieve that goal. I think mentioning PR in and crossposting to general Canadian politics communities could work too.
  This isn't what I've found to be the case based on the community statistics I've been tracking every day.
  I'm not sure that raw engagement is necessarily the best metric to track. Outrage is great for engagement, but often does not lead to constructive action. For example, I've increases in "haha, PP bad" comments, which, while they might be true, exacerbate political division and do directly advance awareness of PR.
  Is your strategy to use engagement-optimized posts as a sort of advertisement for the community? That would be an interesting idea, though I am unsure of its effectiveness.
  I'm just a volunteer, so you really shouldn't be expecting anything from me for a free service.
  Of course. I hope I didn't come across as ungrateful. I'd love to see this community succeed at its goals of getting PR implemented across Canada. Thank you for all the work that you do. :)

27 comments