Choas On The Horizon

Considering the apathy of voters in this province a referendum on MPP would elevate our status to countries like Germany, New Zealand, Mexico, Venezuela and Bolivia...real role models for us.

Radical voting proposal gains steam
Ontario citizens' assembly endorses `mixed member proportional' plan
February 22, 2007
Ian Urquhart
Queen's Park Columnist

Ontario is a step closer to a radical change in the way MPPs are elected to the Legislature.

The citizens' assembly on electoral reform, a randomly selected body of 103 ordinary Ontarians established by the provincial government, voted overwhelmingly last weekend for a system called "mixed member proportional," or MMP.

It is a system in use in Germany, New Zealand, Mexico, Venezuela and Bolivia and in the regional parliaments of Scotland and Wales.

The system can lead to permanent minority governments and a proliferation of fringe parties.

In a list of alternative systems put before the assembly last Sunday in a meeting at Osgoode Hall law school, MMP was the overwhelming choice, with the backing of 78 assembly members, versus eight for the "single transferable vote" (rejected by British Columbia voters in a referendum in 2004), six for the "parallel" system, three for pure "proportional representation," two for the "alternative vote" (also known as the "preferential ballot") and zero for the "two-round" system.

The status quo – our centuries-old system of members elected by a plurality in their individual constituencies – was not up for consideration, although it will be voted on by the assembly in the coming weeks.

But with last weekend's vote, MMP becomes the front-runner as the system to be recommended in the assembly's final report, due May 15.

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Primer On MPP

VOTING ON HOW TO VOTE: THE LIKELY MAIN CONTENDERS

First past the post: Each electoral district is represented by one member. Voters mark a single “x” or checkmark beside the candidate they want to win. Many candidates may be competing for the seat, but the winner only needs to get the largest number of votes cast.

Preferential/multiple ballot: Voters rank the candidates on the ballot, writing “1” beside their first choice, ”2” beside their second and so on. When the ballots are tallied, if no candidate has an absolute majority, the candidate with the least votes is eliminated and their ballots are redistributed among the remaining candidates according to the second choices marked on the loser's ballots. This goes on until someone emerges with more than half of the total vote. This system is used to elect members in the Australian House of Representatives and is also the one our political parties use to elect their leaders.

Proportional representation: The number of seats a political party has in Parliament directly corresponds to the percentage of votes they've received in the election. It's the dominant system in Europe and was recommended by the BC Citizen's Assembly for the province in 2004. British Columbians didn't go for it in the referendum the following year.

Mixed: As the name suggests, this system is a mixture of first-past-the-post and proportional representation systems. For example, in Germany, voters cast two ballots: representatives for half of the seats in the lower house of parliament (Bundestag) are chosen on one ballot by individual electoral districts using the first-past-the-post system, while the other half of seats are assigned to parties based on the percentage of total votes they receive nationwide.

MEGHAN EVES