Okay, I don’t know how many of you have heard about or been following the Ontario election, but I think that this is really important and promising. In addition to the standard vote, on this ballot, the Ontario population is voting on a revolutionary referendum to challenge the standard electoral process for election to the Ontarian Legislature. The option that is being put before the people is to change or not to change from the old first past the past system to the mixed-member proportional system currently in use by a number of countries in Europe and New-Zealand. A chill of happiness went up my spine when I read about this system and the possibility for change in Ontario, there is so much possibility, opportunity.
There are better description and analysis of MMP elsewhere, such as CBC, or Wikipedia, but this is the basic just of it. Every voter gets two votes on every ballot under MMP. The first vote is for a normal, FPTP representative for their individual constituency. The second vote is a little bit more complicated. In addition for voting for a regional candidate, each person has one vote for the party they like the best overall, in the province. These votes are then tabulated, and the % that each party got of the popular vote is recorded. In the Ontario system, there would be ninety constituency seats in the legislature, plus 37 extra seats that are appointed as extra seats. These extra seats are appointed to parties if their total number of seats in the various constituencies is less than the proportion of people that have voted for them. The representatives appointed to these seats are taken from a list created by the party, however, all parties must make public these lists before the election, and they must make public the method through which they made the list.
This method means more proportionality, and more minority governments, and more compromises, less bashing bills through that only one party wants. The main problem with democracy is that the majority can overrule the large, large, minority, even if one more person votes in favor of one side, the other half’s opinions mean virtually nothing, and minorities can all too often get stepped over. However MMP goes a long way to solving some of these problems, it also forces more participation in the political system, as anyone who wants to have their voice truly heard, will have to join a political party in order to have a voice in the lists for the extra seats.
In primitivist circles, politics is rarely given any thought, and for good reason, it is usually, a large, inefficient machine that does more harm than good, but that doesn’t have to be the case, and it can’t be if there is going to be any hope at all. Politics is, for good or ill, one the forces with the greatest impact on our world, so we really need to put more focus on it, even if it is only voting once every four years and joining a political party with occasional input. Yes we need to focus on our own lives, but we are not yet free of the system, so as long as it can impact us, which will be along time yet, we need to take some interest in the political system.
1 Comment
September 16, 2007 at 3:25 pm
Good statement. And when you say “The main problem with democracy is that the majority can overrule the large, large, minority” you might add that the majority of MPPs are usually elected by less than a majority of voters. So 40% of voters elect 60% of the MPs and get 100% of the power, which of course is then concentrated in the Premier’s office.
Except in 1999 when 40% of the vote gave Dalton McGuinty only 33% of the MPPs. First-Past-The-Post can be pretty random. And when John Gerretsen (Minister of Municipal Affairs) was first elected in Kingston in 1995, he found himself the only Liberal elected between Toronto and Ottawa by 137,000 Liberal voters, and facing across the floor a strong PC majority — elected by only 45% of the voters.
The remarkable thing is that McGuinty, Gerretsen and the others didn’t forget, once they won power, that our system needs to be looked at. They went ahead with an independent Citizens’ Assembly. And Gerretsen is supporting the MMP recommendation, while McGuinty (as Premier) is neutral.