Voting Reform in Ontario

DerrickDerrick Posts: 475
edited September 2007 in A Moving Train
I know there are quite a few Ontario natives on these boards, and I'd like to know if you are as excited about the proposed changes to voting as I am?

(For the Americans, Ontario is Canada's largest province in terms of population and economy.)

yourbigdecision.ca

or in plain english:
Currently, Ontario elects Members of Provincial Parliament (MPPs) using the single member plurality, or first past the post, system. In this system, each voter gives one vote to a candidate in an electoral district; the candidate with the most votes wins and is charged with representing all voters in the electoral district. In most cases, the party with the highest number of elected candidates is asked to form a government.

The Ontario Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform has proposed a mixed member proportional representation system. In this system, a voter casts two votes - one for a candidate (or 'local member') and one for a political party. The local member is elected in a first-past-the-post style election and represents the electoral district, while the political party vote determines, in conjunction with the number of elected local members belonging to each party, how many list members a party receives. A list member is a candidate on an ordered list that a party issues before the election; if the MMP formula determines that a party can have more seats than it won locally, it receives a "top up" number of list seats. Under this new system, the Legislature would have 129 seats: 90 local members (70% of the Legislature) and 39 list members (30% of the Legislature).

After local and list members are assigned a political party's overall share of seats will roughly equal its share of the party vote, thus the results are proportional. The conventions as to which party is asked to form a government would remain unchanged.

The referendum is to be held concurrently with the 2007 provincial election and, if passed, will be in effect in any subsequent election.

or in super plain english, instead of your vote counting for jack shit if your local dude loses, you can still vote for a party and that will mean something...albeit a small something.

orrrr....if you like a party but hate your local rep for that party, you can vote for your favourite local candidate but still also support your favourite party.

Anyways, I think it's good...what do you think?
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • surferdudesurferdude Posts: 2,057
    Derrick wrote:
    I know there are quite a few Ontario natives on these boards, and I'd like to know if you are as excited about the proposed changes to voting as I am?

    (For the Americans, Ontario is Canada's largest province in terms of population and economy.)

    yourbigdecision.ca

    or in plain english:



    or in super plain english, instead of your vote counting for jack shit if your local dude loses, you can still vote for a party and that will mean something...albeit a small something.

    orrrr....if you like a party but hate your local rep for that party, you can vote for your favourite local candidate but still also support your favourite party.

    Anyways, I think it's good...what do you think?
    I doubt it will pass. BC tried this a few years ago and the voters just didn't want it.
    “One good thing about music,
    when it hits you, you feel to pain.
    So brutalize me with music.”
    ~ Bob Marley
  • I think this system makes PERFECT sense.
    Believe me, when I was growin up, I thought the worst thing you could turn out to be was normal, So I say freaks in the most complementary way. Here's a song by a fellow freak - E.V
  • ...or instead of this complicated math, just go for multiple representatives for larger districts, with proportional representation as a goal. Then your vote counts. A party get 10% of votes in a district of 10, they get 1 rep. And so on.

    Peace
    Dan
    "YOU [humans] NEED TO BELIEVE IN THINGS THAT AREN'T TRUE. HOW ELSE CAN THEY BECOME?" - Death

    "Every judgment teeters on the brink of error. To claim absolute knowledge is to become monstrous. Knowledge is an unending adventure at the edge of uncertainty." - Frank Herbert, Dune, 1965
  • not4unot4u Posts: 512
    Liberal, NDP(cause i got high hopes, but i'll never vote for them yet, becuase it is true, we gotta keep the greater evil out). Won't vote conservative even IF i like thier character.
    we don't want war, but we still want more?
  • The more control the people have over it the better.
    Progress is not made by everyone joining some new fad,
    and reveling in it's loyalty. It's made by forming coalitions
    over specific principles, goals, and policies.

    http://i36.tinypic.com/66j31x.jpg

    (\__/)
    ( o.O)
    (")_(")
Sign In or Register to comment.