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Next Oct. 10, Ontario voters will be asked if they
support replacing the first-past-the-post system with Mixed-Member
Proportional Representation, as recommended overwhelmingly in April by
the Citizen's Assembly on Electoral Reform.
Currently, whoever wins the most votes in a riding
goes to the Legislature at Queen's Park as that constituency's Member of
Provincial Parliament (MPP). Under the mixed-member system, there would
be a two-part ballot in which voters would cast votes for MPPs in 90
newly created, larger ridings—fewer than the 107 ridings in place for
next fall's election—plus another 39 MPPs to be selected from lists
compiled by political parties to more closely reflect the popular vote in
the election.
Those 39 seats would be awarded proportionately to any
party that receives more than 3 per cent of the popular vote, even if
that party doesn't win any constituencies through voting on the traditional
half of the ballot.
In the 2003 election, for example, the Liberals won
69.9 per cent of the seats with 46.6 per cent of the popular vote, while
the Conservatives won just 23.3 per cent of the seats but got 34.6 per
cent of the popular vote. The labour-based New Democratic Party got 14.7
per cent of the vote, but won just 6.8 per cent of the seats.
There are at least two problems with this ‘reform’
proposal. One is that the referendum requires a 60 per cent "super
majority" of all votes cast to pass, and would also have to be
approved by more than 50 per cent of ballots cast in at least 64 of the
107 ridings. Another is that MMPR would still award 70 per cent of the
seats on a non-proportional basis, a distortion which would also
frustrate the achievement of gender equality in the legislature because
male party candidates would still be favoured in territorial seats where
campaigning takes an inordinate amount of time and money.
So, dear Ontario readers, please vote for MMPR, but
continue to fight for Direct PR for all parties that obtain at least 1
per cent of the votes, insist that party lists be gender balanced, and
demand an amendment to the referendum law so that a simple 50 per
cent-plus-one majority (not the 60 per cent "super majority" nonsense)
is enough to affect democratic electoral reform.
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