Paige Saunders: Why the US and Canada are Trapped (and how New Zealand escaped)

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 peopleWhich 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/@PaigeMTLChapters:00:37 Intro: The hidden force behind Canada’s biggest problems01:12 What’s broken about Canada’s voting system01:48 How swing ridings control the country04:03 Why politicians ignore entire groups of voters05:26 Does proportional representation hurt suburbs?06:59 Populism, power, and lack of accountability08:59 Why this won’t magically fix housing10:17 Why politicians refuse to change the system11:11 Why most Canadians don’t even notice the problem12:58 Is Canada heading down the US/UK path?15:13 Why electoral reform keeps failing19:40 The real barrier to change24:24 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 like42:45 Final thoughts: a more Canadian democracyHosted by Mike Moffatt & Cara Stern & Sabrina MaddeauxProduced by Meredith MartinFunded by the Neptis Foundation https://neptis.org/