Themes from Consultation Meeting in Windsor

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: 25

Thoughts about Principles

Accountability

  • The issue of members crossing the floor should be addressed.
  • I don’t know how you ensure the accountability of members who are nominated by a party.

Effective parliament

  • We should consider the impact of members voting along party lines.

Effective parties

  • We have had two parties run our country for its entire history; surely there are more than two ideas about how to run the country. Other parties should have a chance to break the “duopoly” that exists.
  • We don’t need to change the electoral system to encourage new parties. New political groups can start locally.

Fairness of representation

  • We need a system that reflects our diversity. We should have fair representation of women, minorities, and Aboriginal peoples.
  • We could create special constituencies for underrepresented groups.
  • Anything we can do to increase the representation of women and minorities is healthy, but anything that mandates it is a dangerous precedent.
  • Our system is not set up to exclude anyone (e.g. minorities). It’s up to them to get involved.
  • We should have proportional representation (seat share should equal vote share).
  • Urban and rural voters need to be represented.
  • We should be able to say: “That is our government.” We all must be represented.

Simplicity & practicality

  • Simplicity is very important. People aren’t going to participate in something they don’t understand. If people can’t understand the system, it can’t be legitimate.
  • Simplicity can be traded off for other principles.

Stable & effective government

  • Governments should have long enough terms to operate effectively.
  • Coalition governments can make budgeting difficult, because parties can’t agree on spending. Taxes end up being too high.
  • Difficult decisions should not be made by single-party governments with minority support. They should be made by coalitions of parties with the support of a larger proportion of the public.

Stronger voter participation

  • Low turnout means the will of the people is not expressed. How meaningful is a 60% result out of only 40% participation?
  • Quality of votes is as important as quantity of votes, if not more. Compulsory voting is unfair to those who really care.
  • Simply switching the electoral system might make voter participation worse.

Thoughts about Ontario’s Current Electoral System

Participants highlighted these advantages of First Past the Post:

  • Our system is simple, stable, and cost-efficient.
  • Our system produces majorities that are able to do what they want to do.
  • In our system, we have a direct connection to our representatives. I know who I voted for. I can go to my representative between elections to voice my concerns.

Participants highlighted these disadvantages of the current system:

  • The current system leads to strategic voting.
  • The current system does not reflect our diversity.
  • Our system makes it difficult for small parties to win seats.
  • Our system produces false majorities, which adopt policies that aren’t supported by the majority of the public.

Thoughts about Other Systems

Participants made these comments about other systems:

Mixed Member Proportional (MMP)

  • MMP is simple enough to be understood by most people.
  • If we had an MMP system, we wouldn’t have had a majority government in the last 35-40 years.
  • MMP would allow more parties to win seats.
  • MMP would eliminate strategic voting.
  • I would like to see some form of MMP, because it is a proportional system that empowers voters, not party elites (unlike List-PR ).

Proportional Representation (PR) systems

  • In any PR system with closed lists, there is no connection between the representatives and the electorate. Representatives are more loyal to parties than to voters, and the party leadership has too much power.
  • People are just as cynical in countries with PR as here.
  • Parties may have too much power under PR, but they already have too much power now because party leaders approve candidates.
  • If we switch to PR, the major parties will likely fracture. In one year we will have 10 parties and radical parties will win seats.

Single Transferable Vote (STV)

  • People didn’t vote for STV in BC because it was too difficult to understand.

Two-Round Systems

  • It might be helpful to emphasize more of a majority, but I can’t imagine having two elections.

Other Thoughts

  • I find electronic voting systems without paper trails disturbing.
  • Only 1% of people are involved in political parties. The party nomination process is like a preliminary election. If more people were involved at all stages, the system would work better.
  • We should consider direct election of the Premier.
  • There is no system that will guarantee good government (good policies). It is not the output that is important; it is the process.
  • We should have the same electoral boundaries federally and provincially. If we had two members from each riding, this wouldn’t change the number of seats.
  • I favour an increase in the size of the legislature. Smaller ridings would make it easier for members to represent their constituencies and benefit everyone.
  • We should consider recall.

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