Category Archives: democracy and good government

MMP, Inaccuracy

democracy and good government, ontario referendum on mmp,

Somewhere, there must be opponents of MMP who are able to argue their case without resorting to misleading statements and inaccuracies. The Sudbury Star’s Claire Hoy does not appear to be one of them. In yesterday’s paper he writes a frustratingly irresponsible attack against MMP that contains numerous fallacies which beg to be corrected.

First, he claims that MMP would result in “considerably more politicians.” What he doesn’t say is that under MMP Ontario would still have fewer representatives than we did before the Harris years, and still less political representation per person than any other province or territory in Canada. Either way, most Ontarians will recognize stronger representation as a positive thing.

Second, he makes the equally inaccurate but often repeated claim that the list representatives under the new system would not be elected, but would rather be chosen in secret. In fact, it is our current system which allows parties to choose candidates in back-rooms without any transparency; the new system requires them to open up the process so that voters can make informed decisions. Parties will nominate their list candidates as they nominate candidates under our current system, but they’ll also be required to make public the process by which their list is chosen, making it all but impossible for “party hacks” to control the list in secret.

Third, Hoy inaccurately claims that MMP leads to minority governments. In reality, countries that use MMP (like Germany and New Zealand) experience coalition-majority governments that have proven to not only be stable (Germany has had exactly the same number of elections since adopting MMP as Ontario has had in the same time period), but also to do an extremely effective job of reflecting the will of the electorate.

Finally, Hoy feels the need to mock the Citizens’ Assembly itself, which is most objectionable. The Citizens’ Assembly–103 every-day Ontarians chosen at random from each riding–worked for eight months on our behalf learning, consulting, and deliberating about all of the world’s many electoral systems, including our current system and France’s system that Hoy favours. This represents an unprecedented exercise in democratic engagement for our province and should be applauded. The citizens who made up the assembly know more about the advantages and faults of MMP than any other group of people in Ontario, and yet they voted over 90% in favour of recommending MMP as being the best system for Ontario.

Of course, Mr. Hoy is free to disagree with them. However, he should do it using facts, and with a respect for the overwhelmingly democratic process that was used to arrive at the conclusion that Ontario should vote for MMP.

There Is Hope

democracy and good government

I find American politics to be profoundly discouraging. While Stephen Harper has made it clear that he will not hesitate to stoop to the lowest of political tactics to get his way (as John Ibbitson has written, “there is nothing, nothing Mr. Harper won’t do to win”), he has at least been kept in check to a certain degree by a Parliamentary system that, while not perfect, could be much worse, and by a media that has refused to stop asking questions even when Harper stopped taking them.

There are now glimmers of hope appearing for the majority of Americans who would take back their democracy. If you read any other political blogs, you’ve probably already seen Keith Olbermann’s special comment as broadcast Tuesday night on MSNBC. If not, it’s embedded below and is required viewing. Thanks to Mr. Olbermann for reminding us that dissent can be patriotic, and that opposition to American government policy is not in itself anti-American.

B-Sides and False Starts

climate crisis, conservative party, democracy and good government, economy, green party, polls

I’ve started to accumulate a back-log of things I wanted to write about, or started to write about but couldn’t make work. Here, then, are a handful of brief observations and links from the past few weeks.

I Am Rubber. You, Are Glue.

Angus Reid finds that, while Conservative attack ads do hurt Dion, they hurt Harper even more. For me this reveals that attack ads against the personal character or patriotism of another politician (the Liberals are guilty of this too) are actually attacks on democracy itself, as they turn everyone off of the process and do damage to the level of debate in this country. Unfortunately, they seem to also help rally donations.

Four Myths on Senate Reform

An interesting piece by Thomas Hall in The Hill Times [pdf]. A good backgrounder on how and why most politicians are misleading us on senate reform.

More Support for Carbon Tax

Put a price on emissions now or else, report says. The economic impacts of not introducing a carbon tax would be worse than introducing one, and the cost goes up with each day of inaction. And yet, the Green Party continues to be the only party in Canada to support this painfully obvious necessity. Why then do the others–chief among them the Conservatives–keep hiding and distorting the truth?

Vote Like You Mean It

An Angus Reid poll finds that 58% of Canadians “would like the Green party to have representation in the House of Commons.” If anyone can think of a realistic way to make this happen without actually voting for us, I’d like to hear it. (Though voting for MMP in Ontario would help too.)

Buying Good Headlines

While the Greens were getting good headlines, the Conservatives were buying theirs. Like, wow.

This Is The Question

democracy and good government, ontario referendum on mmp

The question Ontarians will be asked in the October 10th referendum is: “Which electoral system should Ontario use to elect members to the provincial legislature?” Voters will then indicate a choice between the First Past the Post system and the Mixed Member Proportional system.

This question seems designed to favour the status quo. We didn’t need that; with a (possibly unconstitutional) 60% threshold required for a “yes to MMP” victory, votes for the status quo are already being weighted more heavily than votes for change. The Ontario government should have used a question following the format of the British Colombian referendum, which was “Should British Columbia change to the BC-STV electoral system as recommended by the Citizens’ Assembly on Electoral Reform? Yes/No.”

It’s important for voters to understand that this new voting system was designed and recommended by their peers, just as sub-committees typically report recommendations to their parent committees.

So here’s the real question: why are the people in power so afraid of giving Ontarians a democratic, simple majority yes/no vote on such a fundamental issue?

UPDATE (June 22nd, 2007): The way the two options are worded addresses my primary concern. Apologies, that wasn’t in the original news report I read. Thanks to Saul for pointing it out.