Canadian proportionalists - Canadians who spoke out for PR and STV in history
- Tom Monto
- 23 hours ago
- 5 min read
List of Canadian proportionalists
(including those who lived in Canada or played a role in Canada's drive for P.R.)
excerpt from Montopedia blog: "Leading Canadian Proportionalists 1890s to present"
CRIDGE, Alfred and Annie
Alfred Denton Cridge (1824-1902) (his books mostly just say Alfred Cridge )
(he is constantly confused with his author son of the same name.)
Apparently besides being proponents of PR, he and his wife Annie Denton Cridge were spiritualists.
He authored the book Epitome of spirit-intercourse a condensed view of spiritualism, in its scriptural, historical, actual and scientific aspects; its relations to Christianity, insanity, psychometry and social reform; manifestations in Nova Scotia; important communications from the spirits of Sir John Franklin and Rev. Wm. Wishart, St. John, N.B., with evidences of identity and directions for developing mediums. (1854) (see Hathi Trust online)
(Book is said to be authored by "Alfred Cridge of Canada," presumably the same person.)
contributor to Sandford Fleming's essay contest On Rectification of Parliament (1894) (Spence, Ever Yours, C.H. Spence, p. 148) (essay contestants used nom de plumes - perhaps he is "Pacifico")
author of 1895 pamphlet PR including its Relation to the Initiative and Referendum (see Hathi Trust)
(starts out by giving examples where people simply accepted myths that they were told, pointing out how the election system actually does not operate at all as most people think)
author of 1904 pamphlet PR including its Relation to the Initiative and Referendum (Spence, Ever Yours, C.H. Spence, p.146) (see Hathi Trust)
(starts out "If a representative government is the nearest approach to a democracy,..."
(the two small books were different but both bore the same title)
He also wrote other hard-hitting pamphlets.
He is subject of a blog:
and a Montopedia blog:
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Sandford Fleming
one of Canada's leading scientists
he assembled and published two books on electoral reform in the early 1890s
-An Appeal for Essays on the Rectification of Parliament in 1892. (most of book is reprint of past North American newspaper coverage of electoral reform up to that time) (available on the CIHM Canadiana website)
-Essays on Rectification of Parliament (1893).
reprinted in Montopedia blogsite:
SEE
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Earl Grey
Canadian Governor General 1906-1911
donated the Grey Cup, awarded to best Canadian football team to this day
said to be a perfect fanatic on the subject of PR
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John D. Hunt of Alberta
author of The Key to P.R. 1924
instrumental in Alberta's adoption of STV in the 1920s (STV was used to elect Edmonton and Calgary MLAs from 1924 to 1956) and also use of STV in Edmonton city elections, 1923-1927.
He was instrumental in Alberta using ranked voting (IRV) in the end-Prohibition referendum of 1923.
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Ronald Hooper
prior to moving to Winnipeg in 1910s to run a newspaper, he had background in electoral reform, being active in Tyson's Proportional Representation League.
In 1919, he was contacted when Manitoba government officials was discussing how to calm public unrest following General Strike.
When asked if PR would cause Labour victory, Hooper said he could not say about that but would say that the result would be fair to all sides. Based on that, the Manitoba government became the first in North America to use STV to elect legislators. (see Monto, When Canada Had EV and PR)
In 1936 Hooper addressed a House of Commons committee investigating electoral reform.
see the transcript of the 1936 HofC. Spec. Comm. on Franchise and Elections Acts
House of Commons Committees, Special Committee ... - Image 146 - Canadian Parliamentary Historical Resources
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Oliver Aiken Howland (1847-1905)
political activist and author about the time when Catherine Helen Spence toured Canada
mayor of Toronto 1901-1902
He authored several books:
-The Irish problem as viewed by a citizen of the Empire (1887) (Hathitrust)
-The New Empire - reflections upon its origin and constitution and its relation to the great republic (1891), in which he reprinted views he had previously presented in columns in the Toronto Week.
Howland was first elected as an MPP in 1894 and to the mayor's chair in Toronto in 1901.
He was an advocate of electoral reform calling for proportional representation. (Spence, Ever Yours, C.H. Spence, p. 155)
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William Peyton Hubbard
Shortly after his mayoralty, Toronto began to use Cumulative Voting (a semi-proportional election system) to elect its Board of Control. The change to at-large direct election using Cumulative Voting can be credited to Toronto's first black municipal politician - William Peyton Hubbard.
CV first used in 1904.
This was also first time that the Toronto Board of Control was directly elected by voters - previously city councillors had elected the Board from among its own members.
The Board of Control was elected in city-wide district.
William Peyton Hubbard, Board of Control member 1898-1907, had been instrumental in achieving this democratization. He was the first person of a visible minority to serve in Toronto city hall and the only one to do so to at least the year 2000 (at least the only one to be elected by a city-wide electorate). A mere alderman under FPTP, under CV he was elected to the Board of Control.
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J.M. Johnson, editor of the London (Ont.) newspaper Searchlight. (mentioned in Direct Legislation Record circa 1900)
(#331 (p. 71))
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James H. Macoun (of the Geological Survey of Canada), [attended the 1899 Political and Social Conference] (mentioned in Direct Legislation Record circa 1900)
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E.N. Price of St. Thomas (Ont.), (mentioned in Direct Legislation Record circa 1900)
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A.J. Samis
Calgary city commissioner
advocate of PR
He was instrumental in pushing Calgary to adopt STV for election of city councillors in 1917, the first Canadian city to use PR to elect members of its city council.
(see Monto, When Canada Had PR)
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W.M. Southam
W.M. Southam,
Correspondent Extraordinary
Wilson M. Southam of the Ottawa Citizen, a leading figure in the Southam chain of Canadian newspapers, died on August 24 of last year. His going deprived the Canadian P.R. movement of its most active and effective leader since Ronald Hooper, of St. James, Manitoba, had to discontinue his fruitful volunteer work as secretary of the Canadian P.R. Society some years ago.
Mr. Southam performed a unique service through a wide correspondence.
Keeping in close touch with political developments throughout the world, he kept up a constant bombardment of the principal figures involved with letters pointing out how an accurate method of representation could help them. In 1943 he distributed widely a pamphlet of his own preparation on the application of P.R. to the problems of world government.
Mr. Southam's Citizen was well named. He and it were citizens of the world. Their penetrating editorials and special articles helped to keep democratic principles to the fore in his nation's capital and exerted an influence far beyond his country's borders.
G.H.H. [George H. Hallet]From 1948 National Municipal Review
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Spence, Catherine Helen in Canada in 1893 see timeline above
Spence, F.S. Toronto alderman, circa 1898. Direct Legislation Record, vol. IX (criticized misrepresentation of 1898 ON election)
Robert Tyson
Catherine Helen Spence said she was particularly proud of her success in converting Tyson to the PR cause in the 1890s (Spence, Yours Ever, C.H. Spence)
wrote a section in Alfred Cridge's 1904 pamphlet on PR
see Montopedia blog "Tyson..."
Walker (mentioned in my timeline above)
George Wrigley (who is said to be father of George Weston Wrigley (see DCB)) (mentioned in Direct Legislation Record circa 1900),
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also
Williams, Sir John Fischer
father of Jenifer HART, author of Proportional representation: critics of the British electoral system 1820-1945
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