The big lie about MMP

From a recent Vote for MMP email that we've been sending around:

The defenders of the status quo have been repeating a statement about MMP that is fundamentally wrong: that the new at-large seats would be filled by “appointment” rather than by election.

Set aside for a moment the obvious question: why would a Citizens’ Assembly of Ontario voters propose something so stupid? Because they didn’t.

Every legislator under MMP would be elected – put in office by attracting votes and removed from office by losing votes. All of the party leaders have already said their parties would use a democratic process to nominate their at-large candidates (standard practice in all MMP countries). Those candidates are then elected according to how successful they and their parties are at attracting votes.

Electing candidates to fill at-large seats, as well as riding seats, gives voters stronger and better representation than we have now – which is why the Citizens’ Assembly recommends MMP.

Here's a great release from the campaign on this issue. Hopefully the media will give it similar prominence as the defenders of the status quo's hysterical - and now clearly unfounded - claims about appointed candidates.

Coyne: "MMP does not mean appointed party hacks"

Another great - and timely considering the Liberals' announcement today - post from Andrew Coyne.

It's a concise and well-written piece that accurately describes how parties will choose list candidates.

"Appointed" List MPP myth debunked

A little birdy sent me an email from Don Guy at the Liberal campaign. Here it is:

We are committed to choosing all of our candidates through a democratic and transparent process. We are pleased that our party attracts people from all walks of life and we will continue to work to ensure our party reflects the diverse and multi-cultural nature of Ontario.

We are pleased to be the only party to meet its Equal Voice target of nominating at least 50% of women in our unheld ridings for this election campaign. And we remain committed to further improving the prospects of women candidates running for our party in the future.

So now that all of the major political parties in Ontario have committed to democratically selecting their list candidates under MMP, I expect that defenders of the electoral status quo will stop misinforming Ontarians by claiming they will.

Intellectual honesty would demand that, I'd think.

(More on this important issue at Scott's Diatribes, Democratic Space and Liberals for MMP)

Adventures in MMP - Northern edition

Sorry the blog posts were more sporadic last week but I had less time to write (and more sporadic internet access) last week as I did a little trip up to Northern Ontario to do some speaking engagements with some student unions in the North that have got behind the push for MMP.

Tuesday was a crappy day thanks to a really late Canadian. I’ve enjoyed my travels with VIA this summer but getting up really early, only to get to Union Station and find out the train to Sudbury was going to leave five hours late! By the time to got to Sudbury, rented a car (if you’re ever renting a car in Sudbury, go with Marc at Discount – top notch service!) and drove to Sault Ste. Marie – it was nearly 3:00 a.m. by the time I got tucked into my bed.

On Wednesday, I had the opportunity to speak to a small lunchtime crowd of students at Algoma University College over some pizza and fair trade coffee. We first had a very good presentation from the Elections Ontario referendum information officer for that riding – who should be commended for an informative and balanced presentation. We’d heard less than glowing reviews of the information officers’ presentations but I was impressed by how this retired teacher got across the material.

I was also joined at the session by recently retired Algoma political science professor Terry Ross and the very articulate local member of the Students’ Assembly, a high school Kid named Spencer.

Prof. Ross brought the discussion back the essential principles of democracy – equality and majority rule – and argued that while the status quo fails those principles, MMP ensures that all voters are equal at the ballot box and that we are ruled by governments that reflect the views of a majority of Ontarians.

Spencer echoed a call made by his colleagues in the Student’ Assembly and bemoaned the lack of education about the referendum and the persistence of myths about MMP.

After our presentations, we took questions from the students who stayed around for close to an hour and a half. As expected, many of them were concerned about the issue of Northern representation, which I’ll get back to later in this post.

Wednesday evening, I manned the literature while my friend June MacDonald, the driving force behind Women for Fair Voting gave a great presentation to the Zonta club. I thought June did a great job and I was really impressed with you this group of female leaders reacted to MMP. Many of them expressed concerns that voters are not sufficiently informed on the facts about MMP and were glad to take literature to educate their social circles. And after all, that’s how we will win this referendum – one voter at a time.

On Thursday morning, I caught up on some emails and drove back to Sudbury. I really enjoyed the making the drive back during the day. It was a really scenic drive and I’m glad to have made it while the Fall colours were out. I look forward to making the trip again in a time where I can be less worried about political things and can just take in the landscape.

When I got to Sudbury that evening, I spoke to a small crowd at Laurentian and met with a group of campus activists who are working hard to get the word about how MMP in Sudbury. It was also nice that some media were in attendance and I got to speak to the local cable station Persona 10 (you can find part of my presentation online here) and CBC Radio for Northern Ontario.

My trip up North was great but certainly indicated that Northerners are concerned about how MMP might affect their community. However, it was frustrating that the defenders of the status quo are pushing several unsupported statements to try and keep down support for a new and fairer voting system in the North.

As I said when I was up North, I may not be from that community, but I think I understand their concerns about their economic future. Being from PEI myself, I can relate to the concerns about the exodus of young people from resource producing communities. But it is crucial to note that the relative decline of North has occurred under the existing electoral system. So it would be appear to me that first-past-the-post isn’t exactly good for Northern issues. And I think there’s little concrete evidence to support the assertion that MMP would be any worse.

So to that end here are some of the myths about how MMP would affect Northern Ontarians.

MYTH - MMP would mean less attention paid to Northern concerns

On my drive into Sudbury, I heard a CBC radio story that has Sudbury mayor John Rodriguez lamenting the prominence of Northern issues in the ongoing election campaign. So again, it would appear that the current system is not good for bringing Northern issues to the fore it would seem. But why is this?

FACT – The current system leads to parties ignoring certain regions

Simply, the logic of winning elections under first-past-the-post – where all votes are most certainly not equal – ensures that parties concentrate their efforts on “swing voters” in coveted “swing seats”. As Greg Morrow noted in a great press release from Vote for MMP last week (which regrettably was ignored by the media), this distorts the policy priorities of parties:

“Under Ontario’s outdated voting system, the outcome of next month’s election will once again be decided by about 75,000 “super-voters”, whose lucky location and vote-changeability mean their votes count for a whole lot more than the other millions of Ontario voters, says election expert Greg Morrow of democraticSPACE.

“One would think that in a democratic system, the votes of all Ontario voters should count equally,” says Morrow, who also works with Ipsos Reid on election seat projections. “But in reality, under Ontario’s unrepresentative first-past-the-post voting system, only a small fraction of votes end up deciding the outcome one way or another.”

Based on past elections, an estimated 4.7 million Ontarians will vote on Oct 10. In a recently-published online report, Morrow estimated that only about 1.5% of voters will determine the outcome of the election. Under today’s FPTP system, “since the government is decided by a series of one-on-one riding battles, it will be determined by 5% of voters in the closest 30% of the ridings.”

Vote for MMP Chair Rick Anderson, an experienced electoral strategist goes on to explain how the status quo ensures that regions like the North can often be ignored at election time:

“Rather than court all voters in all parts of the province, the undemocratic first-past-the-post system encourages parties to focus on a tiny minority of strategically-targeted voters,” said Anderson. “A proportional voting system such as MMP gives equal weight to all voters, meaning that parties need to compete for votes in all parts of the province. Whether a vote is cast in Timmins or Toronto, for party A or party B, in a swing riding or a safe one - they will carry the same weight and value under MMP.”

“This deeply changes the way parties compete for votes - and how they govern when in power,” said Anderson. “Under first-past-the-post, parties know they can win overwhelming control of the legislature and governing agenda with as little as 40 per cent of the votes. When parties focus on swing ridings, other voters, other ridings, and entire regions become a less-than-equal part of the picture when the cold hard calculus of policy-making is applied.”

“It’s time to replace the two-tier democracy and ’super voters’ of our winner-take-all system, and modernize our democracy by adopting MMP on October 10.”

Frankly, it’s no wonder that the North is marginalized under the current system. The swing voters and ridings are just not in the North. As Morrow notes, the real fight is concentrated in Southern ridings between the Liberals and the PC, primarily in the 905 region.

But under MMP, the logic of winning elections would be completely different. Parties would not be able to take strongholds for granted, as it’s in their interest to get as many votes as they can in every riding. Also, parties would not be encouraged to ignore areas where they don’t expect to win local seats. Every vote, even when in a region where a party is relatively weak, is counted towards electing members at Queen’s Park.

MMP means more competition for voters – in all regions of the province. This will very likely mean MORE attention paid to Northern concerns.

MYTH - MMP will mean less Northern MPPs

As mentioned, this was a concern I heard repeatedly; however, there is NO BASIS for this claim. It would be accurate to say that we don’t know how many Northern MPPs there would be under MMP. There could be a slight decrease – or a slight increase – in the proportion of MMPs at Queen’s Park that come from North of the French River if we move to MMP.

The result will be influenced by two factors. First, how the legislature redraws the new 90-seat electoral map and, second, the proportion of Northern candidate on the party slates of “at-large” candidates.

But there are a couple of important things that we can be relatively sure of under MMP. First, it’s that we can expect to an increase in the absolute number of Northern MPPs. As the legislature size increases slightly, we can be very confident that there will be at least the current number of MPPs that have offices in the North.

Equally importantly, we can be very confident that MMP will be that Northern members are elected from all political parties represented at Queen’s Park. This is not an insignificant change. It will ensure that Northern voices are included in all party caucuses and that Northern issues are taken into consideration during party policy-making processes.

The existing voting system distorts election results in Northern Ontario. This becomes crystal clear by looking at the results in the last seven elections.

First, it took dramatically different numbers of votes to elected MPPs from different parties. The past seven elections saw NDP voters in the North get the best representation as it took on average 18,144 votes to elect a NDP MPP. On the other hand, it took almost 50 per cent more votes (26,826) to elect a Liberal MPP and 30,795 votes to elect a PC MPP.

Interestingly, we have seen more NDP MPPs from the North than Liberal ones, despite the latter party winning over 50,000 mote votes in the North than the NDP since 1981 (831,600 compared to 780,192). Since 1981, the NDP have sent 43 MPPs to Queen’s Park, while the Liberals have only elected 31.

Meanwhile, the PCs have only earned about 135,000 less votes than the NDP in the North (646,704 compared to 780,192), but have won less than half the seats (21 compared to 43)!

FACT – We don’t know what the new map will look like

On the question of the new map, no one, either in the pro-MMP or pro-status quo camps, knows what final shape it would take. It should be noted that in the last re-distribution the legislature did not increase the size of Northern districts, recognizing their already vast geographical expanse. It is certainly possible that they might make similar accommodations when redrawing the district boundaries for MMP.

From my perspective, it is very justifiable under MMP to have slightly less populous riding in less densely populated areas. Under the current system, where the legislature is shaped by 107 individual riding races, there are concerns about inequality of votes when some ridings are much larger than others. But under MMP, the shape of the legislature is determined the province-wide vote totals for each party. As someone who lives in a larger urban riding, I would have no problem with Northern ridings remaining the same size under MMP, because in the new system all Ontarians votes would count equally in electing members to Queen’s Park.

REASONABLE ASSUMPTION – Parties will fairly represent all regions in their at-large candidates

In terms of the proportion of Northern candidates on the party slates of at-large candidates, I think it is a faulty assumption to thing that Northern candidates would be under-represented.

All parties have previously committed to holding democratic selection processes for their candidate lists.

It is very likely that candidates will be chosen in regional conventions and with an eye to regional balance. We also know that those lists will be made public before the election. This means that voters in every region of the province will be able to look at the lists to see if parties have strong candidates from the region.
It is certain the regional media, particularly in the North, will be ready to critique the party lists and inform their readers about which parties have “fairly” represented their region. I would also imagine that other parties would be ready to inform Northerners if any part under-represented that region on their slate.

From my experience talking to Ontario voters form many different regions of the province, I just don’t think that parties will fill their at-large slates with candidates with those from the GTA. Frankly, because there’s no votes in that! The issue of representation for that region is not as important for voters from larger urban centres, but it is in rural Ontario and the North. A party that over-represents those areas is not likely to lose many votes because of that, but a party that doesn’t present strong provincial candidates from those regions they will be harshly criticized in those areas and likely lose votes because of it.


FACT – MMP will give every Ontario voter, no matter where they live, a vote that elects someone.

I don’t know why the defenders of the status quo are so afraid of this. But I hope this long post as has helped people understand why MMP will preserve strong local representation while improving voter choice and ensuring fair election results.

What might a 90 district Ontario electoral map might look like?

An MMP supporter in Guelph did this great site which tries to show how MMP might change the electoral district boundaries in Ontario.

I find it hard to see any huge changes between a 90-seat and a 107-seat map, but that's just this MMP supporter's opinion.

Vote for MMP in 15 languages

More great news from the Vote for MMP campaign last week.

We've now got campaign materials in 15 languages!

Thanks to the support of the Campaign for Public Education, Vote for MMP is proud to have available for download a one-page flyer about the mixed-member proportional system, MMP, in a variety of languages:

This is in addition to the larger Vote for MMP brochure that we have prepared in seven different languages:

Bengali Chinese English Farsi French Greek Spanish Tagalog

Italian Korean Portuguese Punjabi Tamil Urdu Vietnamese

in English, for photocopying in English, order from office in French in Spanish in Greek in Serbian in Hungarian in Tamil

Monday Night MMP link blast

As expected, the discussion of MMP is (finally) starting to increase in the media. There are a few pieces on note that have come out in the past few days that I wanted to bring attention to.

First, today’s Globe and Mail had a great column from Roy MacGregor, who shows why he’s one of the best in the business:

That second vote will be held on whether or not to approve Mixed Member Proportional, a political reform idea that sounds, unfortunately, like a bad title for a porn movie - which may explain the reaction of some shoppers to any mention of it.
It is a bad phrase that has simply not caught on. No one talks "MMP." Some know there will be a "referendum," but not much more.

"Can you give me a quick and easy explanation about the possible repercussions of the referendum question?" a politically aware woman from Northern Ontario writes in an e-mail. "Please keep in mind my attention span, like that of most other voters, is very short for this type of issue."

Quick and easy, I'm afraid, doesn't quite work.

MacGregor continues:

Those behind MMP have put up convincing arguments for MMP being a fairer system and a system that has worked elsewhere, such as New Zealand. It offers hope to the underdog and the marginalized.

One of the supporters' studies says that Ontario elections are essentially decided by 75,000 "super-voters" who just happen to live in tight ridings where the slightest shifts will decide who rules and who sulks. The predicted 4.7 million who will vote on Oct. 10, therefore, will have their government determined by 1.5 per cent of the electorate. Not fair.

Knowing Ontario's reluctance to embrace change, the MMP campaign includes a delightful skit featuring Don Ferguson of the Royal Canadian Air Farce greeting historical change - the 1888 drive to allow non-property owners to vote, the 1919 push to enfranchise women - with a cackling dismissal that to do so would "be the end of civilization as we know it."

It’s great to see MacGregor bring some much needed attention to the debate and we really appreciate the link and the shout-out to the Ferguson video, but I’ve got to disagree with him that you can’t explain MMP in a quick and easy way. I think that those who want to preserve the status quo are very keen to make MMP more complicated than it really is.

Simply, under MMP you get one ballot with two votes. One to pick your favorite local candidate and another to pick your favorite party. The overall standings at Queen’s Park will reflect how we vote on the second vote.

There you go, explained MMP in 39 words.

The other great MMP piece that came out recently was another column by MMPs "great right hope" National Post columnist Andrew Coyne. The column title tells it all - "PR:Debunking the fearmongers". Here are some highlights:

Indeed, apologists for the status quo have more or less given up arguing for first past the post on its merits. The pretense that it delivers "stable majorities" can no longer be sustained: recent elections in Ontario have produced, in order, NDP, Conservative and Liberal governments, none with a majority of the votes, yet each interpreting the support of its own minority as a mandate to impose a succession of radically different policy regimes on the rest of us.

As Coyne, notes the arguments against MMP are generally misinformed, disingenuous or some combination thereof:

So, to take up the first, we are told that changing the system will result in chronic instability, a series of minority governments, one falling after the other; or else that it will lead to chronic gridlock, a legislature divided into dozens of smaller parties, some extremist, who would use their bargaining power to hijack the political process, demanding that one or other of the mainstream parties adopt their agenda in return for their support. The spectre of Israel and Italy are often invoked, as if to cinch the argument.

We can dispose of the last easily enough. One: Israel and Italy are uniquely divided societies, and were long before they adopted PR. Two: Neither country has ever used anything like the mixed system proposed for Ontario, but rather adopted much more extreme forms of PR, with no threshold for support.

As for the more specific fears, they would perhaps be more tenable were we the first country ever to try proportional representation -- were it not already in use, in one form or another, in most of the democratic world. But in fact it is, and in no country have any of the scare stories come to pass ...

As for the prospect of extremist hijackings, that is supported neither by experience nor common sense, depending as it does on a number of increasingly unlikely conditions: that the extremist party has just enough seats to hold the balance of power; that none of the larger parties' members break ranks, but rigidly vote the party line; that, likewise, the mainstream parties are incapable of voting with one another to defeat the extremists; and, most importantly, that none of the parties, large or small, pays any price for their behaviour with the electorate.

In the last line, he says he'll be back with a second column to further debunk the fatuous arguments against MMP in particular. Can't wait!

Finally, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention to absolutely horrendous Toronto Star editorial over the weekend.

Vote for MMP rips apart their flimsy arguments in a couple of press releases.

Hat tip also to my friend Queer Liberal who cancelled his Star subscription over their baseless slurs against MMP.

Props to the first pro-MMP comic

Weltschmerz - see here.

All candidates will be democratically selected - even Tory admits it

Good news for Ontario democracy this morning. Because John Tory has now basically admitted that should MMP come into effect, his party will democratically select their province wide members.

In a recent interview with the National Post, Tory admitted the PCs will likely find a democratic way to develop its list of candidates." Quoting him directly:

“The history of our party is that the party insists on choosing its candidates democratically. Even the notion that the leader would appoint candidates is something that has been not well received when it’s come up.”

Also, in the news today, the Green Party of Ontario outlined its plans for selecting its provincial candidates. Quoting Frank DeJong:

"Under MMP, voters will expect each party to select its list candidates in an open and democratic fashion. We are committed to using a transparent and equitable process to produce a slate of qualified Green candidates who accurately reflect Ontario's diverse population."

Since Howard Hampton has already committed the NDP to a democratic candidate selection process, that just leaves Premier McGuinty to clarify how he thinsk his party should select its province-wide candidates.

McGuinty deserves credit for starting the Citizens' Assembly process, but I must admit I find myself agreeing with Tory when he says:

“He started this process. I would have thought that by starting it, he obviously was recognizing some need for change — why else did he start it?” Mr. Tory asked, adding that Mr. McGuinty want to “have it all ways.”

“For him to start the process and then express no opinion at all is another abdication of leadership….He’d like to have everybody think he’s on their side, because that’s politics as usual for Dalton McGuinty.”

We don't even need to hear your opinion on MMP itself Dalton, just do like the other leaders and commit to democratic candidate selection - that would take a big (and false) weapon out of the arsenal of the opponents of democracy.

Vote for MMP calls out Tory on his misinformation

It's great to see the Vote for MMP campaign hitting back at PC leader John Tory - the most prominent politician working to defeat democratic progress in the October 10 MMP referendum.

First, on Monday, the group called for Tory to ask for his name to be removed from list of opponents of democracy on the main pro-status quo website. Even more importantly, they called for him to assure voters that he would respect the results of the referendum should MMP prevail:

"It is regrettable that Mr. Tory's name is being used to sway voters one way or another in this important referendum," said Mr. Anderson. "When this process commenced, the Legislature was very wise to have placed redesign of Ontario's antiquated electoral system beyond the self-interest gamesmanship of competitive partisan politics. It would be a shame if today partisan politics are allowed to lower the level of thinking on this important matter in the way they unfortunately do on so many issues."

"We encourage Mr. Tory to have his name withdrawn from the anti-MMP website, and to state clearly to voters that their decision will be respected.

On Wednesday, Vote for MMP challenged Tory to commit to democratic nominations for PC list candidates should MMP come into effect next election, after Tory again intimated (erroneously) that list candidates would be appointed under MMP by telling Canadian Press that "I think the whole notion of having
appointed people may be heading in the opposite direction that we should".

Vote for MMP campaign chair Rick Anderson challenged Tory to commit to democratically selecting PC list candidates:

"We certainly agree with Mr. Tory that appointed candidates have no place in the province's legislature," said Rick Anderson, chair of the VoteForMMP Campaign. "No one is proposing that there be appointed candidates under MMP - unless Mr. Tory is intending that Conservative party province-wide list candidates would be selected in this undemocratic manner."

Most advanced democracies have moved toward some kind of more
proportional system, as the Ontario Citizens' Assembly has recommended
Ontarians adopt.

"In all countries where MMP is used, parties use democratic processes to nominate their list candidates - just as in Canada today the parties use democratic processes to nominate riding candidates," said Anderson.

"Mr. Tory's remark stands to confuse and mislead voters on the matter of whether candidates will be democratically nominated. Is he saying that the Conservative Party will not select candidates democratically? Is he accusing the other parties of this? Is he advocating that Ontario's Elections Act specify how parties select candidates, a matter heretofore left to parties in the expectation they will proceed democratically?"

It's a shame that the media hasn't pressed Tory to clarify these obvious questions when he trots out that lame talking point about appointed MPPs. Hopefully, now they will.

Measuring wasted votes

Just wanted to highlight a couple of great sites done my electoral reformers that illustrate just how many Ontario citizens' votes are "wasted", that is are not counted towards electing an MPP.

But first a little trivia. If all voters in Ontario who cast a wasted vote in the last election got together and held hands, starting at the base of the CN Tower and going up Yonge St., where would the human chain of ignored voters stretch?

a. Vaughn
b. Barrie
c. Sudbury
d. Hudson Bay

If you guessed D, you're right! Over 1.5 million Ontario voters in the election cast votes that elected no one.

If MMP passes on October 10, this number will likely drop down to under 5% of the voting population or around 150,000 voters.

The first site - www.wastedvotes.ca - was done by a frustrated voter in a safe seat who was tired of seeing his vote not elect anyone. It catalogs pretty extensively just how many wasted votes have been cast in recent Ontario and federal elections.

Finally, I just saw this site today, done by another young electoral reform activist with a background in geography. It graphically shows the number of wasted votes in any given riding.

The conservative case for MMP

I'm very pleased that one of my favorite Canadians political columnists is voting for MMP - National Post columnist Andrew Coyne.

In a great piece, he sets out a strong case for why conservatives should be voting for MMP. Here are some highlights:

In the broad strokes, the government of Ontario would look much the same under Mr. Tory as under Dalton McGuinty. It would do much the same things, at much the same cost, with much the same results ... Whoever wins, the forecast is for McGuintory governments, as far as the eye can see.

I’m not blaming either man. Both are simply responding to the incentives in our political system -- notably the method of voting. Sometimes known as “first past the post,” sometimes called “plurality” voting, it should really be called the “winner take all” system, since that captures its most essential dynamic.

He continues to describe how the current system often gives voters less salient choices come election time:

In such a system, as we have seen, victory or defeat can turn on the swing of one or two percentage points.

Living on a knife-edge does strange things to people. On the one hand, it leaves the parties in a perpetual fever of anticipation, convinced they have only to gain a few points in the polls to destroy their opponents. That is one reason the two federal conservative parties, Progressive Conservative and Reform, were so reluctant to merge. It is also the reason why minority governments tend, under our system, to be so unstable.

On the other hand, the consequences of losing a few points makes them excessively, almost neurotically cautious, unwilling to take the slightest risk or advocate the mildest change, but each hugging as close as it can to the median voter, the status quo and each other. Hence the dominance of the two brokerage parties, indistinguishable in philosophy -- alike, that is, in the lack of it.

Put the two together, and you have much of Canadian politics -- viciously partisan, yet unspeakably trivial; much ado about nothing much. McGuintoryism, in short.

Then, the kicker, he argues (cogently, IMHO) that despite progressives' enthusiasm for MMP, it is actually rock-ribbed conservatives who are most hurt by how the current system shapes our politics:

So the case for electoral reform, it seems to me, is one that conservatives, if not Conservatives, should find appealing. It is a cause that has tended, historically, to be identified with the left, not least in the current referendum debate; many conservatives have accordingly rejected it. Yet it is not the left that has suffered most under the current system. It’s the right ...

The spectrum of acceptable ideas for debate would noticeably broaden.

Moreover, because the “winner take all” dynamic would have been broken -- parties get roughly the share of the seats their proportion of the vote would suggest, rather than the highly leveraged payoffs observed under FPTP -- all parties would have less fear of taking risks. True, there would also be less upside: progress would only come by sustained advocacy over many years. Conservatives grouse that a Mike Harris revolution would be unlikely, but so would the NDP disaster that preceded it.

So conservatives, genuine conservatives, have a choice. Hold onto the current system, and hope for a Harris-style change of government every fifty years or so. Or take a chance on something new, and start changing minds today.

Another Coyne masterpiece and one that will hopefully increase the number of thinking conservatives like these three bloggers that support MMP.

Finally, I saw another piece today from a prominent Ontario conservative leader, Family Coalition Party leader Giuseppe Gori. It's much longer but is a good - and detailed - discussion of how accountability to voters is different - and, we would both ,improved under MMP

Lots of press on the referendum today

There was lots of press about MMP and the referendum today and I wanted to share some of the highlights.

First up is a great column by political scientist David Docherty, Dean of Arts at Wilfrid Laurier University. It's so good, I've just got to quote some great sections:

We are rarely given the opportunity to fully participate in democratic reform. Until now, most attempts at addressing the so-called democratic deficit have been in ways that we, as voters, do not directly feel. Improving the role of MPPs, directing more resources and power to legislative committees, and allowing more free votes are all important. But electoral reform -- determining how we choose the women and men to govern us -- is the single largest step we can take to reshape how our electoral and legislative system operates.

Docherty, who spoke to the Citizens' Assembly during the one weekend of their learned phase I observed in Toronto and really impressed me with his thoughtful points, argues that MMP would legislative scrutiny of the government significantly. He also dismisses the pro-status quo canard that list MPPs would be "hacks":

The actual individuals who will represent the party in Queen's Park will be chosen from a list created by the party. The method of choosing the list will be made public prior to election day so voters will know if the list was determined democratically or "in the backrooms" as some opponents have suggested. This provides voters with the opportunity to pass judgment not only on a party's platform, but on how they came up with their list of candidates, which is hardly undemocratic.

Further, the fact that the list compensates for the plurality system means that most list members will be in opposition, not in the government. As a result, unencumbered by constituency duties, these members will have more time to engage in the critical scrutiny function. We must remember that one of primary tasks of MPPs is to keep the government -- that is, the cabinet -- accountable for its actions. This means holding them to the fire to ensure that tax dollars are spent wisely and that needed services are provided to citizens.

He concludes by arguing that MMP would invigorate the political system, certainly among youth, who have been getting very engaged in the campaign for electoral reform:

[MMP] is not a panacea for all our democratic problems. It is not the single best system in the world: there is none. But it might just encourage some people who have checked out of our system to check back in.

I have talked to too many young citizens who are willing to vote but feel it is a waste of time. They feel the three major parties do not speak to them, and voting for a minor party produces no results.

If all mixed-member proportional does is get young people to vote, and if we end up with a few Green MPPs or one or two "Youth Party" MPPs isn't it worth it?

Our present system entrenches the status quo. Changing our electoral system is a bold statement that our democracy is a living institution. Let's not lose the opportunity to demonstrate this to the rest of the country.

Also, there were more great articles in other publications today. Rick Salutin argues (couldn't agree more) that voting for MMP is a "no brainer".

Ivor Tossell - rightly - complains about the lack of public engagement in the campaign. I don't think our site is "politics-as-usual", but I whole-heartedly agree that No MMP's site "reads like one long sneer, long on rhetoric and short on facts". Most importantly, Tossell accurately describes how Elections Ontario is failing democracy by pretending the Citizens' Assembly never happened:

This referendum is really a ratification of [the Citizens' Assembly's] decision. To make an informed vote, we don't merely need to know how MMP works; we need to know what made the Assembly think it's such a great idea compared to the status quo. And that's where this site falls down: To give a complete picture, it needs to broadcast the results of the process it set in motion, and it doesn't. By hiding behind a neutral stance, the Ontario government has hung its own election reforms out to dry.

Finally, there was a story in yesterday's Ottawa Citizen based on one of Vote for MMP's internal newsletters. It's always good to get press and as I'll argue in this blog, it's certainly fair to describe the campaign for the status quo as a "dirty tricks" campaign.

I'll end with a quote from my colleague and friend Steve Withers:

"These people are making these claims utterly disconnected from reality," he said. "They don't care what the truth is. That's why it's black propaganda and dirty tricks.

"It's just raw fear. They can't defend the present system, so all they can do is try to instill fear about the new one."

Mr. Withers saw MMP in action in New Zealand, where he lived until returning to Ontario this spring.

"It's bloody brilliant. This is why, when you see people sitting there telling half-truths about the party hacks and extremist parties, if you actually look at the real world, it's ... obvious it's complete rubbish."

One thought on the debate

No question about MMP, but a question about recall?!? Really?

Is that even an issue?

Knowledge of the referendum may not be universal, but I'm sure MUCH more people are talking about the MMP referendum than recall legislation.

Here's the question Vote for MMP had hoped Steve Paikin would ask:


"As you know, on October 10 Ontario voters will also be voting in an historic referendum regarding the Citizens' Assembly proposal to make our electoral system more representative through what is called the Mixed Member Proportional system, or MMP. Some opponents of electoral reform allege that some parties might undermine such a system by using it as an opportunity to appoint 'party hacks' to the Legislature, rather than nominating MMP province-wide candidates through democratic member-based nomination process such as parties follow today for riding candidates.

The question is this: If Ontario voters approve the adoption of MMP on October 10, will you assure voters as leader of your party that you would adopt an open, transparent and democratic approach to nominating the province-wide candidates, similar to the democratic methods used to nominate riding candidates today?"

Still waiting for an answer on this ...

More great videos for MMP

Won't have the time for another blog post today and I want to try and put in less than 11 hours at the office, but I wanted to share some more of the great web videos that have been popping up about MMP.

This first one is a great video made by some members of the Students' Assembly on Electoral Reform, who also recommended MMP for Ontario.



The second is another longer form video prepared by the same group, that takes to the streets to talk about MMP:



Finally, this last video was prepared by the great group of pro-MMP activists at the U of T Scarborough campus:

Great MMP video - "The end of civilization as we know it!"

Here's the best video about MMP I've seen so far, starring our friend Don Ferguson from the Royal Canadian Air Farce.

Pass this along to friends, particularly those who might not know about the referendum.

More on MMP and truthiness

Before I start my blog series discussing the problems with the debate over the upcoming referendum, I thought it might be good to give a little background on why I became so interested in the issue of electoral reform.

They say apathy and loss of civic interest characterizes my generation, but I’ve always been interested in politics. I grew up in a political home in Prince Edward Island, the kind of place where issues of the day were (and still are whenever I’m back) invariably discussed at the kitchen table. This led to a life-long interest in political affairs, particularly elections. My parents are both educators – in my view, the noblest profession – and always promoted critical thinking and open discussion.

I had the distinct pleasure of serving as a legislative page in both the PEI Legislative Assembly and the House of Commons, so I’ve observed more than my share of parliamentary debates.

I observed grown men and women two or three times my age behave like children. Sadly, in a 21st Century Canadian legislature, “debate” appears to be far too often characterized by misleading, personal and unwarranted attacks on political opponents rather than a respectful discussion of policy alternatives. At its root, this must be a reflection of the inescapable fact that, due to our outdated first-past-the-post electoral systems, our legislatures reflect neither how we vote nor our diversity. Thanks to our pre-democratic voting system, we are facing the challenges of a new millennium with political institutions that under-represent minority viewpoints, inflame regional tensions and prevent new ideas and perspectives from entering the legislature.

By the end of my year in the House, I knew that we could ask for more from our politicians and our democratic institutions, I just didn’t know exactly how to remedy this problem. In my second year at university, I learned more about the diversity of voting systems used around the world. It was like a bolt of lightning – we could demand more from our politicians and proportional representation was the way to best hold them to account. I sent in my membership form to Fair Vote Canada shortly thereafter and have been involved with the organization for years now.

The summer after second-year university, as a part of co-operative work placement, I worked as a research assistant at the Public Policy Forum, an Ottawa-based think tank. The main project I worked on, and certainly the one I enjoyed most, was on youth voter turnout – which as I’m sure you are aware is steadily in decline. I studied a good portion of the academic literature on this subject and had come to the inescapable conclusion that talking about increasing voter participation without fixing our broken electoral system is ignoring the real reason behind the problem. And when you think about it, does it not make sense that young Canadians of my generation, who are accustomed to unbelievable choice in most areas of their lives – from beauty products to colas to television channels – are being turned off by a political system that reduces the effective choices they can make?

So when my home province was holding a plebiscite on a form of mixed-member proportional in the Fall of 2005, I had to go back to get involved with the campaign. Over the course of three months, I had the great pleasure of working with a great group of supporters and doing my best to educate Islanders about MMP.

At a public forum in PEI moths after the plebiscite was over, I gave a speech that I’ve posted on my blog before, and I think much of what I said is relevant to the ongoing campaign here in Ontario:

I’m still disappointed that I obviously didn’t educate enough Islanders. I think we can all agree most voters felt did not feel sufficiently informed on the issue, many clearly didn’t feel it was worth their time – or would make much difference to them …

Because as much as I wish I could say otherwise, November 28th was NOT a bright day for Island democracy. I believe the plebiscite results reflect:
- lack of knowledge about MMP among many voters
- increased cynicism among voters
- deepening cleavages between urban and rural Islanders, ones stoked by the failures of successive generations of MLAs to take leadership on modernizing our voting system
- low turnout (likely due to lack of polls/voter info cards/lineups). The turnout was much lower than indicated in a survey done before the plebiscite.
- finally, it is difficult to even gauge support for changing our voting system among Islanders, as it seems every second thing the No side was “we support electoral reform, just not this model”

I guess the primary lesson I learned from this Fall was that it’s easier to tear something down than to build something up

It is easier for opponents of fair voting systems to misinform the public than it is for proponents to educate them on the functioning of alternative electoral systems ...

Again as I’ve said to members of the group in private discussion, the No side’s work during the Fall can be fairly described as misleading, incorrect, and designed to play upon Islanders’ misconceptions rather than their hopes for a more democratic future.

My experience in PEI made me very skeptical about the motivations of those opposed to electoral reform. And I see many of the same misleading arguments being used here in Ontario. Although I must note that the movement for electoral reform in Ontario is MUCH broader and deeper than it was on PEI two years ago. We have hundreds of times more supporters and a much more broad-based support network, bringing in people from all political perspectives.

In short, we're much better prepared to win this vote on MMP. But we still need your help and support.

As I will argue in this blog series, those opposed to MMP are either willfully misleading Ontarians about how it will affect our political life or just ignorant of how proportional voting systems work. I’m very proud of how the Vote for MMP campaign is sticking factual and verifiable claims about how electoral change will affect government and democracy in this province.

I would compare the public debate on MMP to two other controversial debates of recent years – the debate leading up to the Iraq War and surrounding climate change. In all three cases, we can see certain political interests and actors willfully distorting the facts to serve political ends.

In my mind, talking about “appointed party hack MPPs” is no different than talking about “weapons of mass destruction”. Pretending that MMP won’t affect women’s representation at Queen’s Park is logically analogous to asserting that CO2 emissions have nothing to do with rising global temperatures. They ignore the best available evidence and research - why? Because the facts don't support those interests' pre-ordained positions - invading Iraq, protecting the oil industry and preserving the electoral status quo.

The Citizens’ Assembly process inaugurated by the current government could have been a shining example of deliberative democracy. But deliberative democracy necessitates informed and reasoned decision-making. We already know that most voters aren't aware of the referendum and even less feel informed. So unless the Ontarians can see through the spin and misinformation about MMP, it will be difficult to say that the October 10 referendum is a triumph for democracy - regardless of the results.

Vote for MMP dominating on Facebook

Saw this piece on the Globe and Mail's "Campaign 2.0" blog and I just had to share it.

Apparently, the pro-democracy forces at Vote for MMP have the largest Facebook presence - woot!

Despite the fact that few people even understand what the proposal involves, the "Vote for MMP" group -- which is devoted to stirring up support for the "multi-member" representation model -- had a whopping 1,939 members at last check, more than all of the major party groups combined.

While I could go without the gratuitous reference to the lack of understanding about MMP (which certainly wouldn't have anything to do with the lack of attention the Globe has paid to the issue, so well described here), it's great to know that there's so much support for MMP on Facebook.

Although I'm not surprised, this confirms the great reaction our campaigners are getting on campuses all across Ontario. Once young voters learn about MMP they seem to instinctively understand how it's better than the status quo.

And by the way, the group is still growing at leaps and bounds - it's now at 2,193 members! That means it's growing at more than 100 people every day!

If you want to join the group - click here.

UPDATE: Once I finished this post, I was alerted to the Infoscape Research Labs' excellent report on the online election campaign - which echoes Ingram's blog piece.

Best article yet on the referendum

Just wanted to also give a shout out to a former colleague, who's written the best piece on the referendum I've read so far.

In a recent piece in the Walrus, Daniel Aldana Cohen captures, in a beautiful narrative, the problems with the current system, the need for reform and a hopeful (and evidence-based) look at how MMP would change our politics for the better.

Top notch work - that could teach most of the Toronto based commentariat a thing or two about balanced and informed coverage.

MMP and truthiness

I've been planning a blog series for the rest of the campaign. I've sketched out a bunch of ideas but was looking for a way to tie them all together.

Then today, on the train to Toronto, as I was taking a break watching an episode of my favorite satirical news program - it dawned on me!

I'll have to do the series exposing the "truthiness" of the arguments against MMP.

As the American Dialect Society definied it when they named it 2005's "Word of the
Year", truthiness:

refers to the quality of preferring concepts or facts one wishes to be true, rather than concepts or facts known to be true.

So I look forward to exposing the truthiness of the arguments against MMP over the next three weeks. It should be educational, as I'll provide references and evidence debunking all the wild accusations made against the Citizens' Assembly's recommendation.

As one of my colleagues notes often, if MMP were a person, they could sue the people organizing for the status quo in the referendum for slander. Their arguments either gloss over, or plainly ignore, the best evidence and research on voting systems and electoral behaviour.

And as one of my favorite bloggers noted last week, I've been proud to be associated with an organization and a campaign that "[more than] any non-academic organization ... argue[s] so much from research findings rather than trying to play on raw emotion". Wish I could say that about our truthy opponents - but then again, if they weren't distorting the facts, they'd have to admit that MMP will work just fine for Ontario.

To paraphrase Colbert, opponents of MMP don't trust books. They're all facts, no heart.

And opponents of MMP won't let facts get in the way of defending the status quo.