Electoral reform is not about revolution, it’s about evolution

Written by Jesse Hitchcock  In ecology, we talk about ecosystems - groups of organisms living together and interacting with their environment. Ecosystems are perfectly engineered...

Bill Black: Are majority governments good or bad?

Guest Blog by Bill Black A core question when considering proposals for new voting systems is whether majority governments are good or bad. I think they...

The nature of systems is to resist change

Written by Michael Chender Changing something as embedded as our voting system is a big undertaking.  In fact, as any of us who have worked...

Fighting Environmental Racism in Nova Scotia: Q&A With Advocate of the...

Dr. Ingrid Waldron was recently named the Advocate of the Year at the Better Politics Awards for her work fighting environmental racism in Nova...

Op-Ed: New politics? Up to you, Nova Scotia

This editorial was written by Mark Coffin, and originally featured in The Chronicle Herald, Opinions section. See the original here.  “A new politics” was the first...

What we’ve learned since starting Make Democracy Better.

We launched the Make Democracy Better project to build a space – on the ground, and online - where people could contribute to a discussion...

Reform Act would make the Prime Minister First Among Equals

Written by Mark Coffin Originally published in the Globe and Mail on December 4th, 2013.  The House of Commons is one of the most expensive and least...

Politicians could learn to collaborate from whale watchers

Written by Mark Coffin. Originally published in the Chronicle Herald.  If politics worked more like the whale watching business, more of us would want to...

Nova Scotia Election Results Unpacked: 2013 Provincial Election

Analysis of election results reveals deep problems with first-past-the-post electoral system. View PDF version (recommended). A detailed analysis of the provincial election results suggests that...

Stephen McNeil, Jamie Baillie and Darrell Dexter on Democratic Renewal

Written by Mark Coffin Tomorrow, thousands of Nova Scotians will head to the polls. Despite popular belief, we will not be electing a government. Instead,...