Canada has taken on the dubious distinction of being a nation of apathetic voters. Voter turnouts at municipal, provincial and federal elections have been declining steadily over the years. Various explanations for this have been served up, but the main factor appears to be the way political parties take their voters for granted.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is set to abolish the $2-a-vote subsidy for political parties, saying that parties must be forced to work hard for their money, instead of relying on the taxpayers.

He is absolutely right about this, and it is high time that Canadian taxpayers were released from this obligation to fund parties they don’t even like. But just as Mr. Harper is to be commended for making this move, so must the opposition parties be reprimanded for spreading falsehoods. Eliminating the subsidy and making parties rely on private donations only won’t open the door to corporate influence. Companies and, thank God, unions are prohibited from writing cheques to political parties.

Some will try, of course, to circumvent the rules, for example, by forcing employees or union members to donate generously to one specific party, making an organized donation drive look like a succession of many private donations. But Elections Canada can and should monitor for such irregularities, which should be relatively easy to spot when, say, there are fifty or so donations from people who all happen to work for the same company.

With the public subsidy gone, will this make parties pay more attention to voters? Absolutely. All parties have been guilty of taking their voters for granted, especially the Conservative Party. In the last election, Calgary candidate Jason Kenney was flitting around the country, but was never really seen in his home riding. Even a rookie like Michelle Rempel, taking on Jim Prentice’s former Calgary riding, felt so secure about winning that she gave voters the cold shoulder at every chance she got.

Having to compete for dollars and votes will solve part of the apathy problem. The other solution needed, if Mr. Harper is really serious about making parties work, is proportional representation (PR).

Under the current first-past-the-post system (FPTP), parties do compete but not as much as they ought to. It is because of FPTP that so-called “safe ridings” have formed, where the dominant party in question no longer feels it necessary to campaign – again, all the Calgary-based Conservative candidates and MPs are guilty of this insult to democracy.

Not receiving a knock on the door by one of the candidates during an election campaign is not such a big deal; seeing one’s concerns and complaints be completely ignored, however, is. The Conservatives have become so complacent that they will not only ignore their base’s concerns, but will also gladly head off into an opposite ideological direction.

Once the party subsidy has been cancelled, the next step will have to be about implementing PR, but not some half-hearted “alternative vote”, like the one recently voted down by Britons, but full and unadulterated PR. That is to say, if a party wins ten per cent of the vote, it will get ten per cent of the seats in Parliament. Simple as that.

Establish a hurdle of five per cent to keep fringe parties from becoming a burden on Parliament, and voilà, you have real democracy. Gone will be the days of safe ridings, or personal fiefdoms, and voters will definitely start showing more interest in what happens in politics. Most importantly, all the parties will compete on an equal footing. They will all have to compete equally for dollars and votes and will not be able to take any voter or riding for granted anymore.

As an added bonus, Parliament, as it convenes after a PR election, will finally reflect the true views and opinions of Canadians.