One of the biggest environmental decision facing Ontarians in the next month is the referendum on electoral reform. Under the current first-pasted-the-post electoral system, parties like the Ontario Green Party only have an outside chance at winning a seat in the provincial legislator. Even though they represent about 10% of the popular vote, since they've never gotten the majority of the votes within one district, the provincial Greens have never had any of their candidates elected. Under the proposed mixed member proportional system (MMP), if 10% of Ontarians vote for the Green Party, than 10% of the seats will go to the Greens!
Obviously, I'm in favour of the new system. I've summarized some of the arguments for and against the new system:
Arguments for MMP:
-more choice - choose the party and the candidate
-fairer results - 10% means 10%!
-stronger representation
-eliminates "wasted" votes (know that your vote will count towards something!)
Arguments against MMP:
-17 fewer local ridings (is thought to be less representative)
-39 politicians not chosen specifically by voters
-22 more politicians and their staff at Queen's Parkand vote-counting system
Arguements for FPTP:
-hmm....?? (honestly.. the official site for the "No MPP" campaign just bashes MPP and but doesn't say anything that's good about FPTP)
Arguments against FPTP:
-less representation (only the "most popular" in each riding wins)
-distorts the will of the voters
-produces phony majority governments
-fails to produce accountable governments
-results in low percentage of elected women and visible minorities
To get this new electoral system is going to be tough! They've set the stakes pretty hight. This MMP will become law only IF:
a) 50% of the voters in 64 electoral districts vote for Mixed Member Proportional
AND
b)At least 60% of all the referendum ballots across the province choose the alternative system recommended by the Citizens' Assembly.
EVERY VOTE IS CRUCIAL!!!!
To learn about how and why MPP was selected check out this video.
To learn about how the electoral system will work check out this video.
Saturday, September 15, 2007
A crucial time to cast your vote
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4 comments:
Wow! Congratulations Sarah on your new Blog! I hope you are better at keeping it up to date than I am with mine? lol
There is a much better video on MMP but I'll be damned if I can find it right now. When I do, I will let you know.
I understand the new system, but it concerns me how it will work under real conditions. I am not sure if a coalition government all the time is a good thing?
If this experiment is adopted and we find out that it is not working properly, is there a provision where we can return to our present system? Or are we stuck with it?
I finally found the other video (interactive)! I think it explains things better although I am still not clear on how it will work in a real government day to day?
http://yourbigdecision.ca/en_CA/Media.aspx
Thanks Uncle Ian for pointing me to the other video.
I wouldn't call the MMP system "experimental". Other countries around the world have used a system similar to this one (e.g. Germany, New Zealand).
Onces it's in place, I think that it will be a good change. We haven't changed the way we vote in over 200 years! And as far as I'm concerned, the current system doesn't work. But, you're right, I don't think that there is a "fall back plan" of any kind.
On a day to day basis, I think that the way that the government operates isn't going to change drastically. We're still going to have our locally elected members to address our communities needs.. but we will have an extra set of politicians who will be able to address the needs of the province as a whole.
Also, this system will help eliminate "strategic" voting (i.e. voting for Liberals to keep the Conservatives out of power).
I think what would help the MMP cause is building in an automatic reassessment date after (let's say) 5-10 years. At that time the govt & voters would reassess MMP and see if any changes are required?
Another stumbling block is the short form "MMP". It is just too close to MPP and might get confused by some voters. Too bad they didn't come out with a better and more distinctive name. :(
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