We've got some exciting news to share about an upcoming event and a great result from our latest pledge campaign.

Special Screening of Unrigged, Episode 3: Better Ballots

As you may already know, RaBIT was founded by community choreographer Dave Meslin almost a decade ago. Since then, Dave has gone on to write a bestselling book - Teardown - about how to rebuild our democracy for the better. Teardown has now been adapted into Unrigged a “TVO Original docuseries that explores the challenges that democracies are facing and how they can be strengthened for the future”.

The third episode of the series, called "Better Ballots", is all about changing our voting system and how this can help change who runs for office, how they run, how we vote, who wins, and how elected officials operate between elections. In partnership with our friends from Unlock Democracy, and TMU’s The Dais, we are hosting a special screening of this episode on Wednesday, December 4th. The screening will be followed by a short panel discussion between several people featured in the episode, including Dave Meslin, current RaBIT co-chair Rebecca Chesley, and former RaBIT co-chair (and city council candidate) Kevin Rupasinghe.

Get your tickets here.

Not only does RaBIT feature prominently in this episode, we’ll also see real life examples of how the use of ranked ballots in local elections has made a positive difference in who runs and who gets elected. Less positively, we also see how political insiders have tried to stop change, so they can keep benefitting from the old way of doing things. 

We really hope that you can join us at this event. Details are as follows:

Unrigged: “Better Ballots” 

Date: Wednesday, December 4, 2024

Time: 6:30pm to 8:30pm

Location: Sears Atrium (George Vari Engineering and Computing Centre, Third Floor, Toronto Metropolitan University, 245 Church St, Toronto, ON M5B 1Z4

Tickets: Here

Successful Pledge Campaign in Don Valley West

On Monday, 4 November, thousands of Torontonians in Ward 15, Don Valley West, went to the polls to elect a new city councillor. In the run up to this by-election, RaBIT asked all the candidates to take our Candidate Pledge, which commits candidates to “support and work to restore Toronto's ability to use ranked ballots” and “to vote in favour of Toronto using ranked ballots for its elections” once it again becomes possible to do so.

As has been the case in all our pledge campaigns, we were overwhelmed by the positive response from candidates and by the number of candidates who took the pledge. In the end, 8 candidates took the pledge, including the eventual winner, Rachel Chernos Lin. As a result, we have strengthened support for ranked ballots on Toronto City Council such that a majority of council has taken the pledge! Congratulations to Councillor Chernos Lin and thank you to all the candidates who took the pledge.

Naturally, this positive result could not have been achieved without RaBIT supporters who asked candidates about their support for ranked ballots, advocated for ranked ballots with these candidates, and helped spread the word about our pledge campaign. We are building a stronger foundation of support on Toronto City Council thanks to your unstinting support, and you have our genuine gratitude.