Is Ontario Ready to Make History?

Electoral Reform

I spent much of yesterday doing my due diligence for today’s provincial elections. I’m not so worried about the results in my riding, but I’ve got a real bad feeling about the historic referendum that will also appear on a separate ballot — which, by the way, is the first this province has held since the one in 1924 on prohibition!

If you don’t know what I’m talking about — and apparently as many as 80% of Ontarians don’t — for god’s sake stop reading this right now and point your mouse at any or all of these links:

Another excellent resource is a televised debate that you can still catch on-demand via Rogers Personal TV — watching it in fact gave me the inspiration for this very post!

While there are certainly legitimate reasons not to vote in favour of mixed-member proportional representation — because it most directly benefits the NDP, and the murky issue of “lists”, for example — I’m much more worried that people will vote “no” for entirely the wrong ones, such as:

“This means I have to vote twice in every election from now on? Why should I have to do more work?!”

“I’m a mother of two/small business owner/any other white-bred TV ad cliché… I’m too busy to participate in the future of democracy! Can’t someone do it for me?!”

“I want a government with less politicians, not more! Like Hitler’s Germany…”

I really really hope I’m wrong on this, and that tomorrow Ontarians vote to pave the way for future governments that can stand eye-to-eye with the most progressive democracies in the world. But like I said, I got a bad feeling…

15 Comments

  1. AC:
    I’ve noticed this election has attracted the least amount of interest of any election I’ve seen so far. Maybe it’s the time of the year or none of the parties generating any excitement (Hampton’s outburst about media focus on the wrong things was the only interesting thing aside from Tory’s strategic error about private school funding and his efforts to downplay it), or maybe McGuinty fixing the election date took any drama out of it?
    I’d hate to see the trend of declining voter turnout continue, but I’d be surprised if this was the election to reverse it….

    Ed

  2. Well, Rogers public access cable has actually done a pretty good job. Dale Goldhawk — remember him? — actually hosted televised debates with the candidates for every riding in Toronto. I wouldn’t have known who my local Green Party candidate even was otherwise, though with MMP I wouldn’t have to vote strategically for him, either…

  3. How did this election go so terribly wrong?

    Voter apathy at an all time high; I can’t blame Joe Citizen. The only issue brought up was that bizarre religious funding issue, and apparently the ENTIRE TORONTO CITY COUNCIL crawled under a rock. Didn’t they defer making a DECISION on the property tax increase after LOBBYING Queen’s Park and the candidates. Hello? Hello? (cricket, cricket).

    I am cranky and starting to sound like my father.

  4. It is very ironic that you feel the majority of citizens won’t vote for MMP (which they didn’t), yet somehow view that as failing democracy at the same time.

  5. Hi Chris,

    The point I was trying to make (and pretty clearly I thought) was that it would be a shame if the electorate voted “no” because they didn’t expect the question and/or didn’t understand it… And of course that seems to be exactly what’s happened!

    To quote The Star:

    While Elections Ontario steadfastly defended its pre-vote education program, many people remained unaware of the referendum, while others who did know about it still had trouble understanding it.

    One scrutineer said people arriving at her Toronto-area polling station to cast ballots for both a new provincial government and the referendum were clearly confused.

    “They walk in and say, `What do I do with this thing?’”

  6. AC:
    The volunteers at each polling station were also not permitted by Elections Ontario to explain the referendum to people, so they couuld only greet the “what do I do with this thing?” question with a blank look, presumably.
    My polling station was really well-organized, although I beat the rush by getting there at about 5:30. They had problems with volunteers bailing out, which raises more questions.

    Ed

  7. I was very disappointed with the education (or lack thereof) surrounding MMP. I hope that they raise the issue again with a little bit more explanation to the general public. As a student, the most I ever heard about it was on a 15 second commercial and where it was printed on the StudentVote and actual election ballots. Of course, I did do research and I spoke to a lot of people about it, but if I hadn’t cared, I would never have known. And, unfortunately, there are a lot of people out there who don’t care.

  8. AC:
    The government underplayed the referendum in the hopes it wouldn’t pass. McGuinty and his cabinet didn’t mention it other than saying they’d stay neutral. Only the NDP and Conservatives took their (obvious) positions on MMP, but other than what Elections Ontario (restricted by the rules), the government did nothing. I’m guessing the referendum was some sort of political reward, of sorts, to the movement to make a change, but with the results required for the government to act (60%, in a majority of the ridings), it needed a lot more than a simple majority of voters to agree with it.

    Ed

  9. Ed, I don’t disagree with you, but I do think that at some point people have to take some responsibility for educating themselves on this matter. As my post shows there was actually no shortage of information out there, you just had to do a bit of work (like click on a link) to find it.

    Have we really become so lazy that we can only process information that’s spoon-fed to us in back to back 15-second network TV spots? Oh wait, it’s North America — of course we have…

    :roll:

  10. Well, the major problem I found was that people didn’t even realize there WAS a referendum. Why research something you’re not even sure is happening, especially if you don’t care? Thats not my point of view, but I’ve certainly seen it. The big thing is getting the young people out to vote on the matter. Most of the young people I spoke to were agreeable with MMP (as was I, being a young adult myself. The most frightening fact for me is our declining voter turnout, and of course the “my one vote won’t make any difference anyway” statements.

  11. AC:
    I think part of the motivation for the referendum and MMP was to regenerate voter interest. This election had to be the most ignored one I’ve seen, based on how little it came up at work and with friends.
    We haven’t had a political leader or party come along and appeal to voters with a vision of something better in quite a while. I thought McGuinty and Tory were interchangeable, and Howard Hampton’s outburst about media ignoring the real issues was the only true spark of leadership I saw.. I must state that I’ve never voted NDP and never will, but Hampton showed he could see more than the nuts and bolts of running a government. The other 2 didn’t.

    Our next election will be federal–I wonder if the leaders and parties will do a better job?
    Ed

  12. I do think that at some point people have to take some responsibility for educating themselves on this matter. As my post shows there was actually no shortage of information out there, you just had to do a bit of work (like click on a link) to find it.

    I consider myself aware and intelligent but it wasn’t until I heard Andy Berry on CBC AM on the commute to work mention “first past the post” about two weeks ago and asked myself, “WTF is that?!?”

    The current government made a mockery of the election process and left most average citizens in the dark.

    And even after I went on the web and as you said “clicked a link” one of which was yours BTW, I was still confused with the newspeak political correct neutral definitions. It wasn’t until someone footed a bill for some radio ads (again, I’m clueless) but it was obviously a pro-MPP group who posed some simple questions like, “when was the last time you wanted to vote for a local MPP but didn’t want that party to form the government” or something to that effect, when I finally got it. But honestly that was like the Friday before the election and I spent the next few days explaining it to any one who would listen . I can tell you 100% of the people had no idea there was even a referendum or what the question was; although after my cajoling they were at least aware of the issue.

    I’m not a particularly political person but I vote every time and try to sincerely understand the issues, but this election was a boondoggle and a sham, and I can’t blame Joe Public for their alleged apathy.

  13. (the first paragraph is a quote from Andrew! I tried to be clever with my html but obviously failed. AC go ahead and edit!)

  14. At your service, Rick!

    In future you can use the “blockquote” tag, though all it does with this visual interpretation of WordPress is indent the quoted text a bit…

  15. thanks for the edit

    and blockquote tip

    (pressing Submit and hoping it works)


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