Thursday, October 11, 2007

Ontario Referendum

The Referendum on a form of Proportional representation was defeated soundly in Ontario's October 10th Provincial Election. Comments were few, but the general opinion seemed to be that the voting public really did not understand what it meant, so they voted for the "status quo". Here are some figures sent to me by a transplanted Saskatchewanian, now living in Ottawa. "In the current 'First Past the Post' System, Liberals were awarded 66% of the available seats with only 42% of the popular vote. The Tories were awarded 24% of the available seats with 32% of the popular vote: the NDP were awarded 9% of the available seats with 17% of the popular vote; the Green Party received 0% of the available seats with 8% of the popular vote". The observation is made that the greatest number of seats go to the winning party; a number not indicated by the number of people voting for them. Consider this further observation, " If all votes were considered equal, and the seats were divided according to the number of people voting for each party, the new Ontario Legislature would look like this: Liberals: 45 seats; Tories: 34 seats; NDP: 18 seats; Green: 9 seats; Other: 1 seat". The observation is made that this new legislature does not accurately represent the voting population. It will take time and effort by more than a few knowledgable committed people to change the system, and come up with a representative system that "accurately reflects the way people vote". With a Saskatchewan election now a reality, it is interesting that you never hear proportional representation mentioned here. It would be a good question to ask those candidates who will be knocking on your door soon!!! P.S. Thanks David in Ottawa.

No comments: