Themes from Consultation Meeting in Etobicoke

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: 79

Thoughts about Principles

Accountability

  • Candidate behaviour is confusing and misleading. Reform could increase accountability.
  • Our representatives should be accountable to local voters. We should only consider electoral systems which ensure this.

Effective parliament

  • We need a parliament that can pass legislation, as well as a strong opposition. This is impossible with too many small parties.

Effective parties

  • More small parties should be able to win seats.
  • We should discourage small parties. Too many parties decreases the likelihood of majorities and reduces stability.
  • We can design a system to encourage larger or smaller parties, but in any system parties will adapt.
  • Parties should be induced to cooperate, not to compete.
  • Politics should reflect the views of the population, not parties.
  • The Citizens’ Assembly should curtail the dominance of political parties and their elites. Party hierarchies exclude people and stifle creativity. Independents should have more impact.

Fairness of representation

  • Everyone should be represented in parliament. We should have elected representatives who reflect our opinions and act on our behalf.
  • Results should be proportional (seat share should equal vote share).
  • Every vote should count.
  • I don’t feel badly about wasted votes. We should not conflate “being heard” with winning.
  • The government should have the support of the majority of voters.
  • Representation by population is important. Right now rural areas are favoured over urban ones. Geographic representation gives votes unequal weight.
  • We need to respect regional differences.
  • The diversity of Ontario’s population should be reflected in the legislature. Women should be fairly represented.
  • We need to have multi-member districts so that all voters can be represented fairly.
  • Everyone should be able to run for office.
  • Local representation is important. I respect politicians’ passion for and knowledge of their ridings.
  • Local representation requires that MPPs are engaged with and representative of their constituents. Everyone should be able to participate at the local level. To ensure this, riding sizes should be reduced.
  • Our representatives should represent us, not their parties.

Legitimacy

  • Legitimacy comes from accurately translating seat share into vote share (proportionality).
  • The system is legitimate if it is trustworthy and relevant. Declining voter turnout indicates a loss of legitimacy.

Simplicity & practicality

  • Simplicity is not, by itself, a virtue. A new system should be as simple as possible but as complex as necessary.
  • A new system should be simple enough to win support in a referendum. We should be able to make the change and move on.

Stable & effective government

  • I support minority and coalition governments because they force compromise. In a complex society, one party simply cannot represent the majority. Politicians can and must learn to work together and to consider diverse interests.
  • Coalition governments are stable in many places.

Stronger voter participation

  • Low voter turnout for youth limits their engagement with politics and increases cynicism. We need to foster a sense of civic engagement in youth.
  • Youth are not cynical. We need to be educated, represented, and feel like we have a voice.
  • More people would vote if they thought their vote counted.
  • Voter decline reflects the lack of fair representation.
  • We should have mandatory voting (as in Australia).
  • The electoral system may not be the cause of declining turnout.

Voter choice

  • We should not be forced to vote strategically [link to glossary]. We should be able to vote “positively”, for who we want.

Thoughts about Ontario’s Current Electoral System

Participants highlighted this advantage of First Past the Post:

  • Our system is simple.

Participants highlighted these disadvantages of the current system:

  • Our system produces too many wasted votes. Many citizens’ voices are not heard. This reduces accountability and leads to disengagement.
  • Our system does not represent minority opinions. This is undemocratic and stifles creativity. There are not enough viewpoints being considered in policy development.
  • Our system produces distorted (disproportional) results, governments without majority support, and manufactured majorities.
  • In our system, we do not have accountability. Pluralities encourage policies that appeal to small groups, not a broad spectrum of citizens.
  • Our system encourages strategic voting. This reduces accountability and leads to cynicism.
  • In our system, parties disguise their interests because they need to be big to win. The winning party has all the power (“winner-take-all”). There is no accountability between elections.
  • Our system concentrates too much power with the Premier and Cabinet.
  • In our system, legislation is often reversed after elections. This produces instability.
  • The competitive nature of our system discourages women from running for office. Our system does not reflect he diversity of our population.

Thoughts about Other Systems

Participants made these comments about other systems:

Alternative Vote (AV)

  • AV guarantees that riding candidates are elected with majority support.
  • AV eliminates wasted votes.
  • AV increases the likelihood that governments will have majorities and broad support.
  • AV gives the power to form a consensus to the voters, not to the MPPs. This will force parties to seek broader support.
  • AV is simple and similar to the current system. It would be an easy change.

Mixed Member Proportional (MMP)

  • MMP is close to the current system, keeps our local representatives, and adds proportionality.
  • In MMP, local representatives are easily identifiable.
  • MMP encourages diversity of representatives through the use of party lists.
  • MMP would encourage parties to cooperate with each other.
  • MMP would give voters more power. This would increase voter engagement.
  • MMP would be seen as fairer. This would increase legitimacy.
  • MMP would be an easy change and is likely to be supported by voters.

Proportional Representation (PR) systems

  • There are many stable PR systems internationally which can serve as good models for Ontario. PR is used widely and is stable elsewhere.
  • PR will increase confidence in the electoral system, particularly among the young.
  • With the right model, PR can increase diversity and gender balance in our representatives.
  • List PR can enable demographic, geographic, and proportional representation.
  • List PR usually has no local representatives, which leads to alienation and a loss of accountability. Candidates are chosen by parties, not voters.
  • PR favours the representation of parties over citizens. It is the antithesis of representative democracy.
  • PR gives more parties representation.
  • PR makes governing more complex. Having too many parties creates confusion. PR can give too much power to fringe parties.
  • PR may be divisive, because it eliminates the need to find shared political values. It could lead to splits in the population based on ethnicity or religion. Multiculturalism may suffer.
  • PR makes politicians and parties cooperate with each other, and share decision-making power. A more collaborative system would encourage more women to run for office.

Single Transferable Vote (STV)

  • STV was too hard to understand in BC, so I recommend against it here.
  • I like STV because it is a PR system that emphasizes candidates, not parties.

Two-Round System

  • Run-off elections would reduce distorted results.

Other Thoughts

If the Assembly recommends a new system

  • We need to get the word out to voters. Public education is crucial.
  • The Assembly should be bold and propose the most democratic alternative possible.
  • Any new system should be monitored and revised if necessary.

Size of the legislature

  • Reducing the number of ridings was a mistake. We have the highest population to seat ratio in the country. A larger legislature is needed to reduce this ratio.
  • The legislature should be enlarged as it needs to be for a new system. However large it needs to go is alright.
  • We should quadruple the number of seats in the legislature. Large parliaments work well for individual MPPs and weaken party discipline.

Other comments

  • Calls for electoral system reform are politically and ideologically partisan. All systems distort results. We should leave the electoral system alone.
  • Political parties are corrupt and have too much power (e.g. over the nomination process).
  • There should be no political parties. The PM should be selected by peers. Then there would be no Cabinet and no centralised power, and the legislature would no longer be adversarial.
  • Parties should be less stable. MPPs should have their own budgets and choose to pool their resources as desired to form parties.
  • Elections Ontario should run the entire electoral process, using public media and more transparency about policy agendas.
  • There should be more civic education.
  • The voting age should be reduced.
  • The permanent voters list is biased against urban and young voters, because they have to sign up for the list. There should be full re-enumeration before the upcoming election (and possible referendum.)
  • Non-citizens should be included in the Assembly process. Equity and inclusion should be core values.
  • We should have recall. 

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