Assembly touts electoral reform

This is an article on the MMP from a smaller paper in Orangeville. Although the author claims that the candidates did not take a clear stand on the MMP, three out of the four seem to speak in favor, at least from what is reported. The NDP sees the MMP as positive, the Liberal as exciting, and the Green as solving the problem of people being elected with much less than a majority of the popular vote. As for the complaints that the referendum was being sold like laundry soap, wouldn't the MMP makes for cleaner politics! Anyway political advertisements certainly are like product ads more and more and that is because it is a product that is being sold. If the public don't buy your product you don't get to rule..

Assembly touts electoral reform
By WES KELLER Freelance Reporter


In what seemed at times like an advertisement for laundry soap - the one in which "real people" speak of the virtues - the audience at Tuesday's all-candidates meeting was shown a video presentation by The Citizens Assembly on Electoral Reform.

The Assembly, convened in March 2006, spent about a year studying various kinds of democratic elections, and came up with a system called Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) representation, as a means of ensuring that political parties have a percentage of representation in the legislature that's closer to their share of the popular vote than in the present, "First-Past-the-Post" system.

Greg Verner said that between advance voting that runs from this Saturday until Election Day Oct. 10, electors will be asked to cast two ballots - one for their favourite candidate and a second for their favourite party, in the first Ontario referendum since one on Prohibition in 1924.

Mr. Verner, a retired Dufferin teacher, represents Elections Ontario.

He said before the meeting he had made presentations at fall fairs and various society meetings, and found that as many as 75 per cent of the people he talked to had no concept of what the referendum was about. Some weren't even aware there is a referendum.

Ted Alexander, representing the Citizens Assembly, presented a video purporting to show how the members had arrived at their recommendations.

'Similarly to soap ads that feature "real people"on TV, the video had a succession of members all touting the recommended new system.

Oddly, neither the video nor a brochure being sent to households answered all the questions that voters logically might ask about the system.

The MMP would reduce the number of electoral districts with directly elected representatives to 90 from 107, and raise the number of MPPs to 129 from the present 107, but there was no explanation of whether this would involve a realignment of electoral districts or how that would be done.

Supporters of the reform do point out that, with a multiple party system, the ruling party seldom has a clear majority of the popular vote.

They say MMP would correct that.

The four candidates Tuesday night did not appear to have a clear stand on the issue, except to the extent that the referendum would give the people a clear choice between the present system and the recommended one.

Liberal Betsy Hall, the first in rotation to respond to an audience question about personal stands on the issue, said she found the process "exciting. The people decide what democracy will look like."

Green Party Rob Strang said, under the present system, any candidate (in Dufferin Caledon) might win with (more than a quarter) of the popular vote.

He said the MMP system would mean that "if you don't like the candidate, you can still vote for the party."

NDP Lynda McDougall found MMP and the referendum "a positive thing."

PC Sylvia Jones described it as "ultimately a public choice."

According to the rules, the referendum would require 60 per cent of all votes cast, plus a majority of votes in "50 per cent plus 1" of all 107 ridings, i.e. a majority in at least 64 seats, to win.