Fair Vote Yukon is a local, non-partisan citizens’ campaign for proportional representation.

Proportional representation means if a party gets 40% of the vote, they’ll get about 40% of the seats.

A fair system for every voter!

Fair Vote Yukon’s statement on the 2025 plebiscite results

Fair Vote Yukon sees growing reform push in plebiscite results

It is with gratitude and humility that Fair Vote Yukon (FVY) thanks the 35,962 Yukon Registered Voters and the thousands of youth voters for this historic election and plebiscite result. FVY is overwhelmed and proud of the growing awareness amongst Yukoners of the need for Electoral Reform. 10,186 Yes votes is certainly a mighty shot in the arm for moving forward with a new voting system in the Yukon.

FVY believes all voters send messages when they vote or don’t vote. As we study the results, we can see that support for electoral reform is growing in every Party. The message a declined or rejected ballot sends can be multi-layered. In this election, 219 declined or rejected their candidate ballot while a much larger 957 plebiscite votes were declined or rejected.

FVY knows how smart Yukon people are and we are certain many voters sent a message to political leadership with their vote or lack of vote. Low voter turnout is another message; many voters are losing faith in their preferred Party leadership. Why bother to vote in a winner-take-all system?

Over FVY’s 20 years of advocacy for Proportional Representation (PR) we have heard many stories about why people don’t feel their vote matters. That is precisely why Yukoners have shown the world with this election and plebiscite that it is time to modernise our voting system.

There is international attention on this vote because only two countries have ever changed from first-past-the-post to PR with a referendum: Switzerland (1918) and New Zealand (1996). Most of the countries who have PR achieved it with multi-party agreements. That is the reason PR systems around the world are so different, even if they have the same name, these PR systems came out of a negotiation between Parties at a moment in time. This type of negotiation informed by education, community outreach and inclusiveness is what Yukon people are all about.

FVY will be sending a letter to the new Premier describing in more detail our proposal to educate all Yukoners about a local PR innovation that emerged from grassroots community educators.

FVY would like to thank and honour the work and sacrifices that the Yukon Citizen’s Assembly on Electoral Reform made throughout this phase of public education. FVY holds them up for being the agents of change that Yukon needed to push, encourage and engage, even when it was very hard. Your perseverance brought out the early majority to say yes on the plebiscite vote. You made history!

As many FVY supporters have experienced over the past 20 years, education is a process that never ends, and we all need to take responsibility to learn.

Sally Wright
Fair Vote Yukon Volunteer Wrangler

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