Ontario Plans Referendum on Voting Reform

The Ontario government has announced legislation that will see a referendum on the recommendations of the Ontario Citizens' Assembly on voting reform. This is a good thing, because the Assembly will likely recommend a system of Proportional Representation. There are a number of problems however.

First, the Assembly does not report until May 15 of 2007. This leaves less than five months to educate the people of Ontario on the option chosen by the Assembly. The BC experience shows that five months is not enough, especially if one of the more complicated PR systems is chosen, for example single transferable vote.

Second, an artificially high bar has been set for the success of the referendum. The government will require that 60% of voters province-wide, and 50% of voters in each of at least 60% of ridings, vote in favour of the referendum before it is considered passed. It is the height of hypocrisy that a government elected to a massive majority of seats with a total of less than 50% of the vote and won more than 50% of the vote in less than 60% of the ridings. By their own standard, they do not have a mandate to govern.

Taking these two issues together, this bill needs major tweaking. It is good that we are being given a chance to vote on our electoral system, but we need more time after the report is made. I would much prefer to see a special referendum vote on the issue, perhaps in the spring of 2008. This would mean there would be time to have a proper debate and to make sure that everyone is educated on the pros and cons of the proposed new system. There would also be time to take to implement the new system before the subsequent provincial election, presuming that the next Ontario government is not a minority that falls prematurely. The requirements for success of the referendum also need to be lowered. Much more realistic is a simple majority of province-wide votes along with a simple majority of voters in a simple majority of ridings.

At least the Ontario government is on the right track here, and I hope they are willing to tweak the law to take into account the concerns that I mentioned above.

Cheers

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