No MMP wants Ontario voters to be uninformed about the referendum

Let's file this under ridiculous press releases.

Apparently, No MMP, the backroom political operatives for the status quo, are upset that Vote for MMP has been distributing brochures produced by the Ontario Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform.

I'm not going to comment at length on this because my friend Matt Guerin, the Chair of Liberals for MMP says it so well in the comments on Cherniak's blog:

The people of Ontario funded the independent and fair process of deliberative democracy with the Citizens' Assembly. The Assembly was made up of ordinary Ontarians selected at random by Elections Ontario.

Their decision has been put to a vote for all Ontarians. To deny Ontario voters access to printed material on the Citizens' Assembly's deliberations and findings is unconscionable.

Furthermore, doing so would look like the government is unethically manipulating the referendum process in favour of the status quo.

Of course this would suit status quo lovers just fine. The more ignorant the populace is about the question, the less likely they'll vote for change.

The government promised an education campaign in advance of the October 10th referendum. Ontario voters have a right to information on the Citizens' Assembly's proposal and its deliberations. Not everyone has access to the internet, so printed material widely available is essential.

However, I will note the irony of the No MMP media contact, Joseph Angolano having once expressed support for the Ontario Citizens' Assembly process, giving it as a reason, in fact, for voting for McGuinty in the last election, as reported by Dr. Dawg, in a blog that for some reason is now offline?

Seems strange to cite the Assembly process as a reason to vote Liberal one year and then try and suppress public knowledge of their work in another. But such is the logically incoherent life of an MMP opponent.