Themes from Consultation Meeting in Burlington

This is a summary of thoughts expressed by members of the public who attended this consultation meeting. If a point was made by more than one participant, it is included only once in the summary. The comments below sometimes contradict one another because they reflect the diversity of the viewpoints of participants.

Number of public participants: 56

Thoughts about Principles

Accountability

  • Accountability is important.
  • Personal accountability is important.

Effective parliament

  • The opposition should have more power.
  • Parties should collaborate to make decisions.

Effective parties

  • Thresholds should be low (3%) to ensure that everyone gets representation.

Fairness of representation

  • All votes should count equally. No voter should be disenfranchised by living in a “safe seat” riding.
  • Our system should represent the collective voice of all citizens.
  • Local representation is important.
  • We should consider having one male and one female representative for each constituency.
  • We should have better demographic representation. Our representatives should reflect the ethno-cultural composition of the population.
  • Demographic representation is not necessary.
  • Fairer representation leads to increased legitimacy and accountability.

Simplicity & practicality

  • Simplicity is less important than satisfying the other principles.
  • People would be able to figure out a more complex ballot.

Stable & effective government

  • Changes in government at each election undermine stability and effectiveness.
  • Coalition governments and minority governments have served Canada and Ontario well in the past.
  • Coalition governments are less vulnerable to corruption because parties keep an eye on each other.

Stronger voter participation

  • People don’t vote because they think their votes have no impact.

Voter choice

  • Strategic voting reduces voter choice. We should be able to vote for exactly what we want.

Thoughts about Ontario’s Current Electoral System

Participants highlighted these advantages of First Past the Post:

  • Our system lets us hold our representatives personally accountable.
  • Our system is stable, simple, and practical.
  • Our system produces an effective parliament.

Participants highlighted these disadvantages of the current system:

  • In our system, all votes do not count equally. I believe the Bloc won one seat for every 30,000 votes, while the Greens received 640,000 votes and no seats.
  • Our system produces manufactured majorities that act as if they were true majorities. I don’t think there’s been a true majority in Ontario in 70 years.
  • Our system produces dramatic changes in government at elections. This not stable.
  • In our system, votes are only represented if they are for the winner. The majority of voters often have no political representation.
  • Our system produces many wasted votes.
  • Our system shuts out opposition and minority voices.
  • The current system does not fairly represent race and gender and discriminates against certain occupations and economic status.
  • It emphasizes geographic representation over other types of representation.

Thoughts about Other Systems

Participants made these comments about other systems:

Mixed Member Proportional (MMP)

  • MMP could work with only 120 seats, but ridings would have to be enlarged.
  • MMP preserves local representation.
  • MMP will ensure representation for minorities and women.
  • An MMP system could use STV for its local tier.
  • In an MMP system, local members should not be associated with parties. There should be more independents.
  • MMP should use open lists to fill adjustment seats.

Proportional Representation (PR) systems

  • PR makes every vote count.
  • PR will give us more parties and more choices.
  • PR makes it hard to hold representatives personally accountable.
  • I think PR would eliminate passive MPPs.

Other Thoughts

If the Assembly recommends a new system

  • The threshold for the referendum is too high. A simple majority would be better.
  • A voter education campaign before the referendum is critical.

Other comments

  • We should review the electoral system on a regular basis.
  • There should be new forms of public consultation between elections.
  • Corporate and financial interests have increasing influence. This is a problem that changing the electoral system cannot fix.
  • We should consider “selection by lot” (random selection of representatives) instead of elections. Mandatory service with no self-selection will lead to a more representative government.

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