Themes from Consultation Meeting in St. Catharines

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: 12

Thoughts about Principles

Accountability

  • Single member districts do not provide accountability.
  • The media helps hold politicians accountable.

Effective parliament

  • MPPs should debate issues, but party affiliations and ideologies prevent this from happening.
  • We need to have members who don’t just vote along party lines.

Effective parties

  • More parties are important for innovation.
  • Broad-based parties are in some sense coalitions, so it is difficult to predict what they will do in power. Having more parties would make things more transparent.
  • I’m opposed to any system likely to maintain party-focused elections. Since most of us are unable to vote for party leaders, their influence should be reduced.
  • If parties had less power, independents would be more likely to run.
  • Why vote for parties? Why not vote for people? The party system is hurting Ontario and Canada.

Fairness of representation

  • We need local representation, but not necessarily single member districts.
  • Governments should represent all of the people, not just the people who voted for them.
  • Governance should be about identifying the needs of the community, with clear communication. Proportional results (seat share equals vote share) would help do this.
  • Fair representation is not just about translating (party) votes into seats; it’s about the person we select to represent us.
  • If we abolish parties, we’ll have fair representation.
  • As a youth (13 to 18), it’s tough to get representation.

Legitimacy

  • Not everyone has a common value system. This makes it hard to judge legitimacy.

Simplicity & practicality

  • There should be a balance between simplicity of voting and simplicity of results (e.g. voting under First Past the Post is simple, but the effects of a vote may be difficult to understand).
  • Keep the system simple.
  • If you put something complicated on the ballot, you will not get everyone interested.

Stable & effective government

  • Single party majorities are bad.
  • Coalitions are unstable when parties think they can win a majority. If the political dynamics are different (e.g. in countries where majorities are unlikely), coalitions are stable.
  • Policy changes from one government to the next (e.g. on gun control) are wasteful.
  • The legislative committee system that underpins the parliamentary system is quite stable; all parties collaborate and there is more debate. So coalitions could work here as well.

Stronger voter participation

  • People don’t vote because they don’t trust party leaders.
  • More people would vote if: more parties were represented; they were voting for a person, not a party; they thought the system represented them.
  • Voting should be mandatory to increase voter literacy and engagement. There should be penalties for not voting (e.g. paying more taxes). There could also be rewards rather than penalties.

Voter choice

  • Voter choice is the key to fostering the other principles.
  • One candidate was worthy of my vote but I didn’t like the party leader. I felt conflicted, torn, cheated. Should I vote for a “politically challenged” candidate because I like the party? Or should I vote for the candidate I really want?

Thoughts about Ontario’s Current Electoral System

Participants highlighted these advantages of First Past the Post:

  • It is simple.
  • It is the same system that the federal government uses.
  • It is effective and stable.

Participants highlighted these disadvantages of the current system:

  • It has a tendency to elect a single party majority.
  • It exaggerates the power of the dominant party, creating back and forth policy changes at elections.
  • Our system penalizes third parties.
  • MPPs are accountable only to those who elected them in the past.
  • I’m dedicated to the sustainability of society. The current system does not provide this.
  • The winning party represents only a small proportion of the population.
  • In our system, parties have too much power. They restrict debate and participation.

Thoughts about Other Systems

Participants made these comments about other systems:

Proportional Representation (PR) systems

  • The PR family seems the most likely to offer meaningful reform.
  • List-PR increases the likelihood of coalitions.
  • PR makes government based on the needs of the community.
  • It would increase voter participation.
  • It gives small parties representation.
  • PR would focus attention on long-term issues.

Single Transferable Vote (STV)

  • STV with a district magnitude of 5-7 would be best. To maintain local representation, parties could be forced to nominate candidates from each current constituency.
  • STV increases voter choice.
  • STV is easy to use.
  • STV reduces divisiveness because candidates have to appeal not only to voters’ first choices but to their next preferences (i.e. candidates can’t afford to alienate anyone).
  • With decades of experience, Irish voters like it, and have twice refused to change it.
  • STV may increase the attention paid to local issues and individual voters because candidates in the same party will compete against each other. (This is a common complaint in Ireland, but may be a good thing.)
  • We should study coalitions under STV; Ireland is different than Malta, which also uses STV.

Other Thoughts

If the Assembly recommends a new system

  • The Province must undertake a public awareness campaign.
  • There may not be enough time for a public education campaign, or to collect public input. Could the referendum be moved?
  • There should progressive change to make sure the reforms are permanent.

Other comments

  • If there were true need for change, then it would come from the people not the government.
  • The change should not be the electoral system, but how the party process is applied.
  • I think the current system is in need of reform; otherwise, this process would never have been undertaken.
  • We should be able to elect party leaders directly; they have too much influence.
  • We need accountability in the bureaucracy.
  • We should consider recall of politicians.
  • I’m tired of lobbyists.
  • There are too many municipal politicians.
  • Election campaigns should be run by a neutral body such as Elections Ontario, not parties or the media. This would ensure that all candidates receive equal attention. There could be two rounds with six months between them. The first round would be a way to involve the public in the nomination process. In the second round, voters would choose from among the top three candidates in each riding.

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