City council den of snakes put their interests ahead of voters
Flip-flopping band of turncoats killed hard-won ranked ballot before motion even had a chance
The last and only time we’ve seen Councillor Justin Di Ciano do anything remotely useful was Wednesday at city hall. He introduced the Blue Jays mascot to lead city council in serenading the pennant-winning baseball team with the popular theme song, “Okay, Blue Jays.”
The councillor from Etobicoke may want to stick to that role; Jays fans all over the country are prone to break into song frequently over the next month.
Check that. Judging from the flipflopping band of turncoat councillors Di Ciano orchestrated a day later at council, the Jays had better ban him from their playoff games — lest he starts directing fans to sing “Here Come the Yankees.” What a snake. What a den of snakes — especially councillors Michelle Berardinetti, Gary Crawford, Glenn De Baeremaeker, Mary Fragedakis, Cesar Palacio, Anthony Peruzza and Jaye Robinson. Just two years ago they voted with the majority of city council to reform the way we vote in city elections. On Thursday night, they quietly reversed field and overturned one of the truly commendable exercises in local democracy.
Since 2006, “community choreographer” Dave Meslin has carefully led a campaign to end the current farce that last October resulted in Christin Car- michael Greb winning Ward 16 with just 17 per cent of the votes cast. Some 16 contenders splintered the vote in a ward without an incumbent.
Incumbents Frank Di Giorgio and Ron Moeser had no excuse but won with 29 per cent and 27 per cent of the ballots cast in their wards.
Imagine. Tens of thousands of ward residents are not eligible to vote. Barely half of those eligible show up to vote.
And of those who did vote, seven in 10 voted against you. But you are the ward’s representative? Outrageous.
Polls show the public want that changed. Since 2009, Meslin has been advocating a way to effect the change.
Essentially, a “ranked ballot” allows you to select a first, second and third choice. The winner can’t succeed by splitting the vote and slipping up the middle, with fewer than the majority of votes. Grab more than 50 per cent of the first-place votes and you are in. Otherwise, the counting continues, accounting for voters’ second and third choices. The counting is done automatically. You don’t have to re-vote.
With that system in place, mayoralty voters might have been less concerned about Doug Ford slipping up the middle for a victory because the anti-Ford vote was split between John Tory and Olivia Chow in 2014. Theoretically, it means you could have voted for Chow, if you chose, and indicated Tory as your second choice.
Instead, many voters were forced to vote strategically — just to prevent an outcome they felt would be particularly damaging.
It would also end situations where a candidate emerges as a winner with less than 20 per cent of the vote because support is splintered among many candidates.
Rarely do citizens get to stickhandle through the bureaucratic maze of rules, regulations, jurisdictional roadblocks, intergovernmental inconveniences, political gridlock and self-protectionism that has created the impenetrable fortress that keeps incumbents in office.
Using a mix of skill, patience, public and media education, advocacy, social media, and incremental indoctrination, Meslin and his group of volunteers managed to knock down the fortress. Premier Kathleen Wynne is onside. Mayor John Tory is. Council agreed by a 26-15 vote in 2013 — after public deputations and debate.
This week, Di Ciano, backed by a foul faction of the new council, attempted to turn back the clock even before it is set.
He argues that the proposed voting procedure is too complex (Di Ciano must consider Oakland, Portland, San Francisco and Minneapolis residents smarter than his). Queen’s Park should ensure public consultations before allowing it, the motion says. (Wish Di Ciano took his own advice and sought such consultation before proposing a motion to reverse a council decision that came after public consultation.)
Worse, council voted to ask the province to abandon the option, period. In other words, not only does Toronto council not want it for its election, it doesn’t want it for any municipality in the province. Such arrogance.
Citizen backers of the reform would do well to show the other side of the honourable, classy campaign they’ve mounted for years and gear up a grassroots, scorched-earth attack on the councillors who want to halt progress in our electoral process.
As most of us know, it is near impossible to defeat an incumbent at city hall. The rules favour the councillor already in the job. It’s a closed shop. Coupled with other idiosyncrasies, the key portal to our democracy is shut tight for too many.
Maybe ranked ballots will help to change that; maybe not. But to foreclose on the option is hubris worthy of status quo incumbents. Royson James usually appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Email: rjames@thestar.ca