In this episode of The Missing Middle, Cara Stern sits down with YouTuber Paige Saunders to discuss the one structural glitch that is sabotaging Canada’s economy, healthcare, and housing market: our electoral system.
While most democracies have moved on to Proportional Representation, Canada remains stuck with a model that empowers swing ridings and ignores millions of voters. Paige explains why this monopoly on power prevents real innovation and how a simple change in how we vote could lead to a 20% performance increase across the board.
In this video:
- How our voting system benefits wealthy people
- Which voting system would a villain choose?
- Why Ranked Choice is a trap for multi-party democracies.
- The path forward: Why we need a binding Citizens' Assembly.
Check out Paige Saunders' channel: https://www.youtube.com/@PaigeMTL
Chapters:
00:37 Intro: The hidden force behind Canada’s biggest problems
01:12 What’s broken about Canada’s voting system
01:48 How swing ridings control the country
04:03 Why politicians ignore entire groups of voters
05:26 Does proportional representation hurt suburbs?
06:59 Populism, power, and lack of accountability
08:59 Why this won’t magically fix housing
10:17 Why politicians refuse to change the system
11:11 Why most Canadians don’t even notice the problem
12:58 Is Canada heading down the US/UK path?
15:13 Why electoral reform keeps failing
19:40 The real barrier to change
24:24 The AI test: which system is worst?
29:12 “I was shocked Canada still uses this”
32:28 Is Canada falling behind on democracy?
36:03 Can anything actually force reform?
40:00 What a better system could look like
42:45 Final thoughts: a more Canadian democracy
Hosted by Mike Moffatt & Cara Stern & Sabrina Maddeaux
Produced by Meredith Martin
This podcast is funded by the Neptis Foundation and brought to you by the Smart Prosperity Institute.
