Themes from Consultation Meeting in Timmins

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

  • Accountability is important.
  • Accountability has to do with responsible government.

Effective parliament

  • Members of parliament should try to build consensus.
  • Private members and opposition parties should have room to manoeuvre (e.g. to propose new bills).
  • Committee work is important to the legislature; the more varied the membership, the better the recommendations will be.

Effective parties

  • Effective parties are important.
  • The more parties, the better. Small parties should be represented.
  • Too many parties can create havoc.
  • Parties should have strong platforms.

Fairness of representation

  • People need to have a sense that their voices count; this would happen if representation was proportional (seat share equals vote share).
  • Northern Ontario needs effective representation, even though its population is small. “We are a lone, distant voice in Ontario politics.”
  • The urban/rural divide should be considered when you talk about fairness.
  • We have excellent representation as far as our MPPs go in Northern Ontario, but because of our numbers we are in a minority situation in the legislature.
  • We need to combine local representation and proportional results.

Stable & effective government

  • One of the best experiences that we had with government was in the mid-1980s when there was an informal accord between parties to work together.
  • A benevolent dictatorship is probably stable but not very democratic.

Stronger voter participation

  • People, especially young people, don’t vote because they think their votes don’t count.
  • People don’t vote because parliament is too partisan.
  • All of the other principles will follow from stronger voter participation.
  • If people don’t vote they don’t have a say.
  • Participation has got to increase no matter what the outcome of the Assembly process.
  • Education of youth and the general public would increase voter participation.
  • The media should be used to increase voter participation.

Thoughts about Ontario’s Current Electoral System

Participants highlighted these advantages of First Past the Post:

  • We have local representation.
  • Our party system is just right.
  • Our representatives can reach a consensus.

Participants highlighted these disadvantages of the current system:

  • Majority governments prevent the opposition or private members from being effective.
  • Geographic regions with small populations (i.e. Northern Ontario) do not have effective representation.
  • The legislature is too partisan; members of opposing parties don’t communicate with each other.

Thoughts about Other Systems

Participants made these comments about other systems:

Mixed Member Proportional (MMP)

  • I prefer a mixed system because it combines local representation with proportionality.
  • I would be willing to increase the size of the legislature to include adjustment seats.

Proportional Representation (PR) systems

  • With List-PR, I like the open list option. It provides accurate representation, more choice, and fewer wasted votes. It’s more interesting for voters and makes the most sense.
  • In a smaller region List-PR would be an excellent system, but in Ontario people need a local presence.
  • PR makes all votes count.
  • PR produces consensus and discussion among members.
  • PR might increase the representation of women.

Other Thoughts

If the Assembly recommends a new system

  • I am afraid that what happened in BC is going to happen in Ontario because of the high referendum threshold.
  • A threshold of 50% plus one might be okay (either of ridings or of the popular vote).
  • Maybe we need a new system just for Northern Ontario.

Size of the legislature

  • I am willing to increase the size of the legislature if there is an advantage (a trade-off); I don’t think the size of the legislature should be an issue.
  • A larger legislature would represent more people.
  • Can’t we combine some electoral districts? We have too many representatives.

Other comments

  • We have to deal with regional offices in Sudbury; we are disconnected from our services (e.g. school boards, health networks).

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