Canada: Take Back Democracy!

Enter your postal code to find out if you live in a close riding and which party has the most chance of defeating Harper there. Only about 10% of us live in a close race, but if we vote strategically using this tool, all the opposition parties together could win a huge majority of Parliament! Just enter your postal code in the box above.

Click above to see the national election ad paid for by thousands of Avaaz members! It will air across the country until election day on major networks.

Update: May 2011
Harper may have won the most seats in Parliament on May 2nd, but our vision of Canada won a large majority of the people -- again. Over 60% of us voted for the opposition, and almost 25% of voters used the strategic voting tool supported by Avaaz! Despite outspending the Liberals 15:1 on vicious American-style attack ads, Harper only increased his percentage of the vote by 2%.

Still, it's going to be a challenging 4 years. And the stakes are high. Harper has promised to be the PM for all Canadians, and we should give him a chance to show it. But we have every reason to fear that he will try to use his unchecked power to Americanize our country - abolishing public funding for political parties so that private money rules politics, slashing CBC funding and supporting crony-media outlets like SunTV, giving corporations more political power while cutting their taxes, privatizing health care delivery, deregulating guns, growing the tar sands and wrecking international efforts at everything from climate change to poverty reduction.

But sometimes it takes a period of darkness for our brightest lights emerge. A powerful movement of Canadians is already rising to meet the challenge of Harperism. Together we can fight back online, in Parliament, in the streets, in the media, in the courts, and in provincial and municipal elections. Canada is entering a time of trial -- let's make this the time that we remembered who we are, and fought for it. Click https://secure.avaaz.org/en/oh_canada_2/ to see a live chat joined by Canadians across the country after the election.

Campaign launched: April 2011

Canadians, and all the opposition parties, are basically in the same camp on the major issues in this election -- 74% of us want to keep our gun laws, 82% want a UN treaty on climate change, 56% oppose dropping corporate taxes, 69% want one-tier public healthcare, and on and on. Even conservative voters oppose Harper's flagship policies!

It's time to fix our democracy. Above is a new online tool that tells you if you live in a riding where a challenger can defeat Harper's candidate. This tool identifies the leading opposition challenger in each close race -- if enough us come together across party lines to vote for them, Harper loses, and the majority wins. Simple!

We need to reform our electoral system. But in the meantime, strategic voting helps us ensure that our Parliament actually represents the majority of the electorate. And it helps all the opposition parties -- NDP, Greens and Liberals -- by increasing their seats in Parliament and blocking a Harper majority that would silence their voice for years to come. That's why 86% of Avaaz members have voted to run this campaign.

Harper's done more than rule against the will of the people. He's launched a full scale assault on the institutions of our democracy. He's bullied and silenced government whistleblowers, refused lawful requests for financial information, and abused an arcane rule to actually shut down our Parliament for months! His party has cheated election laws and altered official documents. No wonder he's the first Prime Minister in Canadian history to be kicked out of power for being ruled in contempt of Parliament.

Canada has been ruled for too long by a radical minority intent on dismantling the country most of us want. On election day, Let's take our country back.

See the full results of our national poll, conducted by Environics Research here: https://www.avaaz.org/en/canada_poll_result

With the election just around the corner, we need to get the word out fast. We need the funding to launch a nationwide advertising and media campaign that rallies Canadians in close races to come together to use this tool. Donate to help take back democracy:

Just to be sure

Canada: Take Back Democracy!