Election Day Tomorrow

Just doing my public service duty by informing my loyal readers (most of which are already aware) that tomorrow is election day here in Ontario. As an added bonus, it's also referendum day. The election of a new legislature is a yawn-fest in my opinion, with there being no real pressing issue facing the electorate. For this reason, I predict (as many others are) a return to power for the Liberals... not that I'll necessarily be voting for them.

However, this referendum is intriguing to me. The question being posed is whether we want to dump the current electoral system (first past the post) for a new system (mixed member proportional). The biggest flaws of the first past the post system is that it is difficult for smaller parties to gain seats and that a majority government can be won without a majority of popular vote, basically making the legislature not proportional to the popular vote in terms of party seats. Mixed member proportional will have the number of seats per party representative of the popular vote by introducing "list" members of provincial parliament. This is, in my opinion, MMPs biggest drawback. It will create two classes of MPPs, one who was elected in a riding and one who was appointed by a party. It's the party list MPPs that concern me. They will not be responsible for a constituency (although, the argument is that they represent the riding of "Ontario", which is a cop-out) and have the real possibility that they'll just turn into cushy jobs for big party supporters. Another drawback to the MMP system is that we will probably never get a majority government again. While I don't dislike minority governments, I would prefer that they not be in all the time. Tomorrow, I'll be voting "No".

I don't like this referendum, and I'll tell you why. I think that our system could use an update. First past the post does create an unbalanced number or party seats. I'd like a change... just not MMP. And this is the inherent problem with the question being asked tomorrow. If I vote for first past the post, it'll be saying I like that system... If I vote for mixed member proportional, it'll be saying, I think this is the system we need. Neither of those answers reflect my opinion. However, this is what I believe: Electoral reform is coming... whether it's this election or the next or another... it's coming. I'm voting for FPTP in the hopes that a better system will be proposed next time around. If MMP wins, it'll be a long time before another system is proposed. "What other systems?", you may ask. Well, I like the system that BC voted on recently, a variation of Single Transferable Vote , but it still has elements I don't like, as in multi member ridings. Another system, which is closer to our current FPTP, is Instant Runoff Voting, where one would rank all the candidates, and 50% of the vote would be required to become elected, and if 50% isn't reached, the lowest vote getter is dropped from the ballot. The drawback here is that the effect on the proportion of seats is muted, at best.

I suppose the bottom line is that no system is perfect, and it'll come down to personal preference for each voter. In any case, if you've skipped my unnecessarily long post to the end here, just get out and vote.

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As a side note: I read an article in the London Free Press this weekend (which I can't find online) where a series of questions was asked to the chairs of both the MMP and FPTP campaign. One question was what was the biggest problem with this referendum campaign. The MMP guy said the lack of information/education about MMP... which I think is understandable. But he went on to say that since the Citizen's Assembly on Electoral Reform voted 94-8 in favour of MMP, the popular vote should be in the same proportion (ie. 92% in favour of MMP). If it was less, he said, then the only explanation is that people didn't know about it. Since I couldn't find the article online to recheck it, I suppose there's a chance that I misread it... But if memory serves me correct, what arrogance! I suppose it couldn't possibly be because people don't like it? Anyway, that just stuck in my head.