End Fear-Based Voting: Why Educators Should Demand Proportional Representation Now
In a result few saw coming, the Liberals have won a fourth straight election—again a minority. But this is not a win for democracy. In fact, it’s a flashing red light.
In 2025, millions of Canadians voted not with hope, but with fear. Fear of Trump’s trade war. Fear of Pierre Poilievre’s threats to our rights. Fear that their vote would be wasted if it went to a party they actually supported. That fear distorted the ballot box. That fear elected a government that—again—no one truly mandated.
This is the crisis of first-past-the-post: a system where two parties can each win over 40% of the vote, while everyone else is erased. It’s why Conservatives in downtown Toronto, and NDP voters across rural Canada, felt invisible. It’s why we’re now sliding toward an American-style two-party system. That’s bad for democracy. It’s bad for workers. And it’s bad for teachers.
But here’s the good news: there is a fix. Proportional representation is a simple, tested reform that would make every vote count—no matter where you live, or whom you vote for. A form of proportional representation that assigns seats in government according to parties’ share of the overall vote must replace our current system. It would mean the NDP wouldn’t have to disappear to stop Poilievre. That Green voices would be heard in Parliament. That political parties in the inner city wouldn’t be erased. And that compromise—rather than fear—would be the norm.
Mark Carney’s Liberals may be “riding high,” but they don’t have a blank cheque. We have a narrow window, with a new minority government and fractured opposition, to demand real democratic reform. Let’s use it. Because the alternative—status quo politics in a moment of global crisis—will only drive more people, especially young people, toward the populist right.
Let’s be real: affordability is a teacher issue. New educators in Toronto see starting salaries of between about $53 000 and $65 500 a year, depending on their jobs. They can’t afford rent in the city they work in. And yet we see billionaire CEOs like Galen Weston increasing profits while students come to school hungry. Meanwhile, Conservatives promise “tax cuts for job creation”—a trickle-down lie we’ve heard for decades.
Poilievre won support among young voters by pretending to stand with them. Why? Because the NDP failed to offer a bold, uncompromising vision that names the real enemy: corporate greed. Instead of fighting for universal housing, free transit, and food justice, they propped up a Liberal government offering band-aids and empty slogans.
That affordability crisis has created an opening for right-wing influencers like ‘Maple MAGA’ to step in and whisper false promises. But let’s be clear: it’s our unions, our collective action, that has always delivered real gains for workers.
We can fight for better wages, affordable groceries, dignity in retirement and – at the same time – push for a fairer electoral system. These struggles are one and the same. Because when bankers like Mark Carney tell us to trust in trickle-down economics, we know exactly who the system is working for—and who it’s not.
As educators, we teach young people to believe in fairness, in justice, in making their voices heard. Let’s show them we believe in it too. Let’s not settle for a system where democracy is a gamble. The stakes are too high. I’m raising a nine-year-old in a world where fascism is no longer a far-off threat—it’s a real and present danger.
It’s time to demand more—from our democracy, and from ourselves.
We can’t keep waiting for politicians to save us. Teachers have always been on the front lines of justice—both inside and outside the classroom. Let’s demand a system where every voice counts. Let’s unite across political lines and say: we want a future built on courage, not fear.
Now is the time for proportional representation. Let’s teach democracy by living it.
Nigel Barriffe
Dad
School Teacher
Singer Songwriter