GreenerPolitics

TORONTO - Ontario’s voting system works badly and should be reformed by
referendum on October 10, says a leading member of the Conservative Party.

Big business in Ontario needs a better voting system as do Ontario’s
taxpayers, voters, parents, church and community volunteers, investors,
employees, employers, farmers, seniors, students “and funders of our
Parliament and Government,”

Senator Hugh Segal said today in a call to action delivered to the Economic
Club of Toronto.

On election day, Wednesday October 10, Ontario voters by referendum will
choose between the status quo, First Past the Post (FPTP), or the reform
alternative, Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) representation.

Segal, who represents the Kingston region in the Senate of Canada, ran
through a long list of status quo failings and MMP advantages to conclude
that Ontario voters should use the referendum “to take the government back
from the governors and make it clear it is we who will decide, now and in
the future, who will govern and who will be elected.”

Some so-called majority governments in Ontario have been based on the
support of as little as 24 per cent of the electorate, he noted, simply
because the FPTP voting system ignores all votes which are not cast for
winning candidates.

When a majority of voters are ignored and the resulting parliamentary
majorities are “accidental” and “unintended,” he said. “This in no way
helps the legitimacy of our democratic system.”

Instead it leads to disruptive policy lurches as one illegitimate majority
government is replaced by another “king of the road” and then another, Segal
argued. “This room understands better than most the relationship between
corporate profits, efficiency and proper governance,” he told the business
audience. “You understand that legitimacy and accountability are not
trivial.”

“Wild swings in government and regulatory policy every four years is simply
bad for everyone as individuals and business as a collective,” he continued.
“Artificial and illegitimate majorities do not help business or political
stability.”

Mixed Member Proportional representation will iron out the wild swings by
always giving each political party the influence conferred on it by voters
- not more and not less, Segal argued.

Senator Segal gave short shrift to defenders of the status quo who say the
MMP ballot, which offers each citizen a vote for a local representative and
a vote for a provincial party, is too complicated for the average Ontarian
to understand.

“How dare you attack the intelligence of Ontario’s voters?” he demanded.
“We all deserve more credit than that.”

He dismissed the scare campaign against MMP’s 39 provincial list seats which
the new system needs to give all voters fair representation at Queen’s Park.
Political parties will have to be fair and open in nominating their list
candidates, he suggested, because the provincial list will reveal to all
Ontario what a political party is really about.

“Any of the parties which do not seek out the best candidates and build
their list on balance, competence and quality will be crushed like a bug,”
Segal predicted.

He expects parties under MMP voting rules to use their provincial lists to
show “the full face of Ontario — gender-balanced, rural and urban,
multi-faceted ” with candidates “from all walks of life and all the rich
hues and diversity of this province.”

Any party foolish enough to stacked its provincial list with the unworthy
candidates of a “back room gang” would “pay a serious price with electors,”
Segal said.

Segal praised the way the MMP two-vote ballot eliminates the FPTP pressure
for strategic or negative voting. “The separation (of local and provincial
vote) allows the voter to voice either approval or disapproval - something
not possible under the First Past the Post system,” he said.

“Individual electors need not “hold their nose” and vote against their
conscience in order to obtain their desired outcome - or the least
objectionable outcome.

“A reasonable and thoughtful society need not be subjected to the ‘lesser
of two evils’ approach when making the most central decision of the
democratic future for the next four years.”

Segal said keeping First Past the Post voting in Ontario would be retrograde
because the current system will continue to elect representatives and
governments not supported by a majority of the population.

“This in my mind does not constitute democracy,” the Senator said. “We have
a rare chance here in Ontario to show leadership and take the simple
position that every vote counts; that governments should not be chosen by
accident; that the electoral system should not guarantee distortion and
misrepresentation of how the voters actually voted.

“We have the chance to modernize, democratize, legitimize and upgrade the
democratic process in Canada’s largest, most diverse province, ” he
concluded. “It is time to step into the sunshine here and vote for a
stronger democracy.”