Democracy at Work: The Assembly's Decision

A video message from the Assembly to all Ontarians.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Ontario
• Citizens'
• Assembly
• election
• 2007
• referendum
• MMP
• electoral
• reform

[TheEndingDay]

It bothers me that so many of you don't know of this particular Citizen's Assembly. This is a constant attempt at making our electoral system more efficient, and has no partisan affiliation.

That so few of you understand what appointing someone means and would suggest that MMP does just that scares me. MMP increases accountability because not only would you have your choice of MP, the individual you elect in your riding, as someone to hold responsible, you would have the larger party as well.

[breakerexpress]

The people of Ontario want more transparency of the use of their tax dollars, at all levels of government. The Ontario public want to eliminate misuse, abuse and squandering of their money. Taking all of the potential costs above into account, it's likely that each of the 22 extra members would incur around $150,000 each which would mean an additional cost of about 3.3 million dollars a year. I'm glad it blew up in their faces because it was a bad idea in the first place.

[breakerexpress]

I agree wallyworlder, first off the people of Ontario didn't ask for this referendum and the associated costs in the first place. The change was pushed by small splinter parties like the ones these people represent in the video. The public spoke October 10th and want more accountability. They do not want paid MPPs that have no accountability not to ridings or constituents or any other defined entity or channel.

[lighthammar]

Check out:

nommp....ca -just copy/paste and earase the extra dots.

[wallyworlder]

sounds like a way for a party to place unelected people in positions of power without worrying wiether ontario voters want them or not can an unelected person become premier? how fair is that

also if the are more votes cast for a certain party in the city than in rural areas dont those people get the shaft? i like the system as it is let the partys earn the seats the old way the thing that really needs to be changed is voter turnout which is apathetic more voters = fairer representation

[rockadoodledoo2007]

In an ideal world, you might be right. However, most voters don't even know where their local representatives stand, much less an obscure list of people they have never heard of before. In MMP, there is only ONE list published, ONE list to vote for. What mechanism exists for a party to know which list members were not approved of by the electorate? NONE. Because of the take-it-or-leave it nature of this system, you might as well call the list members appointees.

[Slorrin]

They are not appointed. If 45% of voters want 1 party to reign, but elect only 40% of their candidates, the 5% is made up from a known list of who will be used.  Ontarians elect THOSE people from that list in this way. No one appoints anyone. Currently, the "first past the post" system means that minorities of voters select majority governments. That's not democratic at all.

[Slorrin]

MMP is the system used in germany, and held up worldwide as a model of fairness. I support this change, but fear that people older than 30 dont' generally realize how grossly unfair it is that 30% of people elect 70% of seats.

[lighthammar]

who (in the gov't) gave this company the task of pushing an mpp system?

How will adding 20 more seats (added expense) benefit?

I found the website, i did not see any comparison of any other system of gov't.

Switzerland uses Direct Democracy. That is the only accountable system.

Now, if a party gets enough seats, they will be able to fill in the rest of the seats with corporate stooges. Ontario For Sale-Cheap. Simular to the assholes at Montebello, Quebec. NAU/SPP

[rockadoodledoo2007]

Precisely my point. The public debate on this issue was virtually non-existant. This is a choice between nothing and a poorly chosen alternative. After the unveiling of the "question", polls showed that 50% of people had no idea this debate was going on, and 80% did not understand MMP. This public information campaign should have taken place before we chose a model - not after. If the solution to our democratic woes is appointed MPPs, I'll take the status quo anyday.