VOTE NO ON MMP!

During this year's Ontario election, voters will also be asked to vote on a referendum to change our electoral system from our traditional 'first past the post' system to one that provides for some Members of Provincial Parliament to be 'elected' based on the percentage of votes their party has received.

While I do not deny that the first past the post system has problems (truly no one should be 'elected' with 26% of the vote, etc, just because they have 'more' votes than anyone else, as can happen in some ridings), the MMP system does not really solve any of the overarching problems with accountability and electoral governance it just introduces new ones.

The first past the post system suffers from legitimacy concerns because it is based on electing the candidate who has the most votes in any one riding even if that candidate comes away with a very low percentage of actual vote. Again, someone winning a seat to represent an entire riding, even if that represents the will of well less than half of voters in that riding is clearly a problem.

However the proposed MMP system wants to change our system to the following:
http://voteformmp.ca/en/how_mmp_works
How it works

Mixed-Member Proportional (MMP) is very simple - one ballot, two votes:

you vote for the local candidate of your choice
you vote for the political party of your choice

You can vote for a local candidate from a different party if you prefer. The "local candidate vote" determines which candidate will represent your district, just like now. The "party vote" determines what share of all the seats each party will receive.

Under the new MMP system The provincial legislature will shrink to 90 riding MPPs and 39 at-large MPPs who represent their party's 'percentage' of the popular vote.

This system is fatally flawed and does not help democracy. Why?

1. MMP shrinks the number of riding MPPs to 90. This means that ridings will have to be enlarged leading to MPPs that will have to serve a larger territory and represent a larger number of voters leading to increasingly impersonal service by your MPP.

2. MMP allocates 39 seats to 'popular percentage' MPPs who represent no one. Because the 39 seats will be allocated based on popularity not territory or population those MPPs are not accountable to any constituency and no one group of people will have voted them in.

Who are these people accountable to? No one but their Party and a provincial election statistic. That is not democracy. Since statistics cannot hold opinions it means the extra percentage MPPs will only exist to do the will of their party and not the citizens of Ontario. This is NOT democracy.

Due to this I would urge every voter who actually wants improvements in our voting system to VOTE NO to the MMP system of voting. We should ask Elections Ontario (and not some unofficial and partisan interest group) to go back to the drawing board to find the most equitable and democratic form of elections and resubmit a number of options, not just ONE option, to the people of Ontario.

Personally I would like to see a system where a candidate needs at least over 50% of the vote to win a riding. Should any candidate not achieve this, then a run off would be held between the top two candidates.

This in my view is the most equitable and democratic way of deciding who represents a riding.

Cheers,

P