I Feared This Would Happen

So, even though I was not in favour of MMP in the referendum (unlike most of my friends), I was actually hoping for a much closer result than the one we got... perhaps in the order of 50-50. The reason being that I think a bit of reform is necessary, but not MMP in the form it was proposed. However, I feared that if MMP was soundly defeated like it was, it would be viewed as "the people have spoken, they like FPTP". That was why I didn't like the referendum question... you're either for FPTP or for MMP... nothing else. So, now that McGuinty has basically said that the issue is closed, what now? Will there be another shot at electoral reform?

Here's my proposal... increase the number of ridings in Ontario (perhaps to the 130 level that was proposed by MMP, or even up to 150) and introduce Instant Runoff Voting. My thinking is this... a smaller sample size will be more likely to produce results that are different from the provincial trend, and IRV might encourage people to vote for smaller parties as their #1 vote. Of course, the drawback to this is that you won't get the exact proportional representation that MMP would have produced, but because of it's similarity to our current system, it might be easier to implement. What do you think? I'm interested to hear if the MMP supporters would think this doesn't go far enough, or if the FPTP supporters think this is too much of a change.