A citizens' rights group is taking the province to court to enact electoral reforms that the group's leader says are long overdue.
The Association for Democratic Rights is fighting to create a system of proportional representation in the province. Brian Gibb, the group's president and a former Action Démocratique du Quebec candidate, says the current system is outdated and doesn't reflect the will of the population.
"The actual voting system is going to go on trial [based on] whether or not it's constitutional, particularly whether it respects the charter's equality guarantees, and we're saying no, it's obvious that it doesn't," he said.
Gibb and his followers aren't the only ones pushing for change. Former Liberal MP Liza Frulla, former ADQ leader Jean Allaire and ex-Parti Québécois cabinet minister Jean-Pierre Charbonneau are among the high-profile political figures calling for electoral reform.
"There are four or five countries in the world that still use the old British colonial electoral system [used in Quebec]," Charbonneau said. "Most of the other [countries] have pushed it aside, because they consider it totally illegitimate for democracy."
The province's current system creates an "elected monarchy," he said.
In 2003, Quebec Premier Jean Charest pledged to implement a system of proportional representation before the next election, but reneged on the promise in December. The Liberals returned a set of proportional-representation proposals to the province's chief electoral officer, asking him to report back in June.
"It's a historic case.
It's moving slowly, but at the same time it's moving faster than the political process to change the voting system."
The case is inspired by a similar situation in Japan that led to sweeping electoral reforms in 1994.
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