ELECTORAL REFORM
Reform could open up municipal election
Ranked ballot on voting day is ‘no-brainer’
Voters in Cambridge will be asked this fall if they’d like a ranked ballot in the 2022 municipal election.
This is a huge opportunity that shouldn’t be wasted.
It may seem like a dull and complicated bureaucratic decision, but it’s actually one of the few tools we have that will blow through the thick wall of incumbent advantage.
Take a look at the current group of Cambridge councillors on the city’s website. They’re overwhelmingly white and older. They may be doing an excellent job, but they don’t reflect the diversity of the people they represent.
Cambridge isn’t alone. Our cities, townships and regional council are all the same.
One of the reasons for this is that once someone gets elected, barring a massive scandal, he or she has a pretty easy time getting re-elected after that.
For example, Cambridge Mayor Doug Craig has had his job since 2000. He has won five elections.
That’s a good thing if you like the job he’s been doing. But if you think the city should have different leadership, you face an uphill struggle. Craig is nearly impossible to beat.
Incumbents have name recognition. But also, if several candidates line up against them, it splits the opposition vote. An incumbent can win with a very small percentage of the vote.
A ranked ballot means the voter would list the candidates in order of preference instead of choosing just one candidate.
Once all ballots are counted, if no one gets more than 50 per cent of votes, the person with the fewest votes is dropped from the list. The second choices of the voters who supported that candidate are then counted, for a new tally. This continues until one candidate emerges with a majority.
“It’s such a no-brainer,” says Matthew Piggott of Kitchener, an advocate of electoral reform.
It puts the candidates on a more level playing field, and encourages newcomers to enter the race.
Even if they aren’t well known, they can ask voters to consider them as their second choice, which could give them a powerful advantage.
Piggott said legislation from the Ontario government in 2016 made it possible for municipal elections in Ontario to use ranked ballots. Only two cities, Cambridge and Kingston, are putting the question to voters.
Only London decided to introduce a ranked ballot in 2018 without holding a referendum.
Piggott thinks that’s partly because that city got a rare fresh start in 2014. In that municipal election, 11 new councillors were elected out of 14 total seats. Most of the rookies were under 40.
He sees electoral reform as a key issue for younger Canadians, who want a system that’s more open to newcomers and reflects the voters’ opinions more fully.
This is also how political parties elect their leaders. If it’s good enough for them, why isn’t it good enough for us?
And perhaps most importantly, it offers a way forward in the wake of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s broken promise to change federal elections.
This proposal represents a new way to move past our flawed system where the person with the most votes — but not necessarily a majority — gets all the power.
Perhaps we can start rebuilding support for electoral reform. This time, from the bottom up.