It’s time to take election reform seriously
Albert Einstein, who knew something about time and place, said “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.”
So, welcome to electoral insanity — the Ford Nation brought to Ontario by its first-past-thepost (FPTP) style of democracy. Thus premierdesignate Doug Ford, who was just elected by 40 per cent of voters who didn’t care that he doesn’t have a plan, has now been empowered to reverse or nullify the progressive plans of the 58 per cent who voted for Ontario to not become the populist regressive Nation of Ford.
Such is the sorry state of politics in Ontario. Once again, the legitimate power to rule determined by FPTP means that there is a disconnect between a majority government and its corresponding match with actual Ontarians.
Actually, since only 58 per cent of the eligible individuals cast their votes, it means that just 23 per cent of them voted for Ford. Consequently, his victory is representative of less than a quarter of the population. Yet Ford has a mandate to do whatever he politically chooses to do. And, although this is not illegal, it most certainly doesn’t add up democratically.
There is an urgency for the public to hurry up and discover that the math governing our elections makes a travesty of our democratic principles. Tony D’Andrea, Toronto Most parties end up in a position to regret their failure to enact proportional representation when they had a chance. It is the Ontario Liberals’ turn.
If the McGuinty Liberals in 2007 had enacted the system recommended by its own Citizens’ Assembly, then the Liberals would today have 19 seats instead of only seven seats under our winner-take-all dysfunctional system. That is because the seat count would be based on the popular vote.
At the same time, Ford’s PCs would not have the 76 seats that gave them a majority, but only 41. The NDP would have 34 seats instead of 40 and the Greens would have five seats instead of one.
While Ford’s PCs would still be able to form a government, it would be a minority with 41 seats. Or the NDP and Liberals might form a coalition with their combined 53 seats.
It is time that electoral reform is taken seriously. In the end, it is in every party’s best interests to make every vote count. Linda Silver Dranoff, Toronto