Themes from Consultation Meeting in Sudbury

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: 22

Thoughts about Principles

Effective parties

  • Parties are not important. In local politics we don’t have parties. Parties can be a tremendous problem.
  • Established parties that are gathering strength (e.g. Green Party) should be able to gain representation.
  • A threshold (perhaps 10%) might be needed to prevent too many maverick parties and too many elections.
  • A threshold might be unconstitutional; a threshold for public financing of parties has been struck down as unconstitutional.

Fairness of representation

  • We should consider reserving a certain number of seats for women.
  • Our representatives are elected to serve us and to help us navigate our provincial bureaucracy. We need a strong link to our local representatives.
  • Geographic representation is a part of fair representation.
  • Representation by population favours the Greater Toronto Area, but other interests that are unique to the North need to be heard.
  • We need an electoral system that reflects the ideas that people are talking about, perhaps by recognizing the proportion of people that voted for a particular set of ideas. Proportional results would accomplish this.
  • There must be some link between votes and representatives. Votes must matter. Proportional results might help.

Legitimacy

  • Legitimacy is the most important principle. It means that the results of the election reflect the will of the public.

Simplicity & practicality

  • The education system should be used to explain how the electoral system works. This might be enough to deal with a complicated system.

Stable & effective government

  • Huge shifts in the makeup and policies of government at each election hurt long-term stability.
  • Stability is not just about governments falling, but also about governments being able to pass their policies.

Stronger voter participation

  • Education should be used to get youth interested in the political process and increase voter participation.
  • More people, especially youth, would vote if they thought their votes mattered.
  • The right not to vote is as important as the right to vote. Compulsory voting should not take away this right.

Voter choice

  • Voter choice would be improved if people could vote for more than one candidate.
  • If I had had the opportunity, I would have voted for several parties in the last election because of their positions on a particular issue.

Thoughts about Ontario’s Current Electoral System

Participants highlighted these advantages of First Past the Post:

  • FPTP is the best system for linking voters with their local representatives.

Participants highlighted these disadvantages of the current system:

  • It is difficult to get parliament to pay attention to regional interests.
  • Our system produces results that do not reflect the wishes of the general public.
  • Those who do not vote for the winner in their riding have no representation.
  • Our system produces a “culture of secrecy” in government.
  • It causes huge policy shifts when a government changes.
  • It creates seat bonuses for the winning party.
  • It causes parties to focus on winning the next election.

Thoughts about Other Systems

Participants made these comments about other systems:

Mixed Member Proportional (MMP)

  • MMP would be a lot better than the way it is now.
  • I don’t support MMP.
  • MMP gives more groups and ideas representation.

Proportional Representation (PR) systems

  • PR leads to better demographic representation.
  • PR could be modified to give certain groups, such as Aboriginal people, guaranteed representation.
  • PR makes every vote count.
  • PR would increase voter turnout because people would have more faith in the system.
  • PR would appeal to younger people (e.g. those who are interested in the Green Party).
  • PR would create a more open government.
  • PR would improve stability because there wouldn’t be huge seat shifts at elections. Governments could think 30-50 years ahead in terms of policy.
  • Coalitions produced by PR work well in Europe, though Canada would take some time to get used to them.
  • PR creates instability. PR countries have elections all the time.
  • Coalitions and minority governments produced by PR make accountability and responsibility unclear.
  • One of the difficulties of discussing PR is that it is not clearly defined. There are several forms, which clouds the issue.

“Sudbury/Kaufman Model”

  • I would like to see a bicameral (two house) legislature where the lower house is elected by multi-vote, Single-Member Plurality and the upper house is elected by proportional representation.
  • The lower house would preserve local representation.
  • The upper house, with 50 members, would be unlikely to ever have a majority.
  • We could ensure demographic representation in the upper house through party lists.
  • Multiple votes per voter (i.e. voters could vote for as many candidates as they wish on the ballot) would force candidates to broaden their appeal and increase voter choice and satisfaction.
  • The government would have to consult with other parties in order for laws to pass both houses.
  • We would have stability in the lower house and diversity in the upper house.

Other Thoughts

If the Assembly recommends a new system

  • There needs to be an engaging public education program. Otherwise, the proposal won’t be accepted, because people won’t understand it.

Size of the legislature

  • I have no difficulty with increasing the size of the legislature.
  • The more seats there are in the legislature, the more demographically representative it can be.

Other comments

  • There should be one voter list shared by all levels of government.
  • Electronic voting methods should be considered.
  • Looking at reform every now and again would be a good idea. A more flexible system would be good.
  • We need education in schools to teach people about voting, the political system, and democracy.
  • I hope that the Citizens’ Assembly process will be used for other issues (e.g. climate change).

» Return to Summaries of Public Meetings