Provincial Wards

Proponents of a municipal ward system might do well to observe the system now in operation at the provincial level of government. The riding system, based on electoral districts and using the FPP voting, is being touted as the better option by those who are campaigning against the referendum on Mixed Member Proportional system. The current system has many of the attributes of a ward system.

Some voters seem to think that their chosen elected representative should bring wealth and prosperity to the riding – no matter the cost to the province (or country) as a whole. People decried Mike Harris as having done less for the Nipissing riding than he could have, especially when he was the Premier. Now we have another group claiming Monique Smith has done little for the riding. I am not sure whether these people felt they were owed something for their hard work in electing a member of a party (pork-barrelling) or whether they should have been tossed a few plums (patronage). Maybe they would never be satisfied.

An argument against a municipal ward system is that councillors ought to be concerned with the conditions of all streets in the municipality not just the sad condition of Pothole Lane which runs through the centre of their ward. It is a valid argument. Our council must work for the betterment of the whole community since it is as a community that we fail or prosper. Working together, much can be accomplished – witness the success of Hockeyville. Working for the common weal is in our best interest over the long haul.

Why is it then that when we vote at the provincial or federal level we want our elected officials to look after our needs before all others? We are so focused on this wrong-headedness that we will look at the polls and throw our vote behind a front-running party so we will have a Member sitting in government, not in opposition. Perhaps this does not matter when the main parties are so similar in their announced positions, but when there was a real difference between conservative and liberal values, it was important to state your convictions at the polling booth. Now, if you want to make a point about the environment you consider the Greens or Oranges and in our riding, essentially waste your vote.

Enter the Mixed Member Proportional system. The upcoming referendum of a new system of electing our provincial government has emails from the No MMP group flowing like spam. Judging from their talking points, they have either not given serious thought to the question or they are using scare tactics to warn people off the proposal.

Somehow, the anti group thinks that voting for a party is not voting, saying the MMP members will not be elected. If you vote for the Liberal Party and they get a proportion of the total vote, did you not elect the people on your party’s list? Under the current system, you get to vote for one member. However, under the proposal you still get to vote for one, plus you vote for 39 more members. Now your vote has no effect beyond the local candidate, but under MMP you have a much bigger voice. Is that is not more democratic?

If you do not like the idea of the party making a list of open members, which will be available before the election, you must really like the way it is done now – the party picks the local candidates for you! If the Party does not approve of the local member (who has been vetted by the party) they can withhold their blessing. As for the members not being as accessible, what makes you think that all the ‘list’ candidates will be from far away? We could end up with two or three people from our riding, not one! These members are just as accountable as the ones under the present system, and we know how well that works.

Did ‘we’ ask for this change? Yes, we did. There has long been a cry that people get into office with far less than 50% of the vote; that your vote did not count; that people stay away from the polls because of these reasons. A change was needed to strengthen democracy and concerned people fought for a chance to try a better system. The government – all parties - agreed.

Perhaps the MMP system is not the best solution to our lack of democracy in electing a member with less than 50% of the votes, but it may be a good first step. Voting for a party, that is, voting on political philosophy, not persona, may give the province (country) a better system of governance. We need members who are not beholden to a geographic electorate but to a province-wide, best for the electorate member. The MMP proposal is the first step in doing away with the ward system now operating at the provincial level.