Steve Withers, an
expat Ontarian living in
New Zealand has returned to Ontario to encourage us to adopt the Mixed Member Proportional vote.
Our cousins down under adopted MMP 11 years ago, ditching first-past-the-post. He shares how MMP works in reality. Here is an exerpt from his article:
"I live in the Otaki riding, north of Wellington, on the west coast of the North Island. Otaki is a mainly rural riding. The largest towns are Levin and the north end of Paraparaumu. The local MP is Darren Hughes of the Labour Party. Local Labourites selected him as their candidate. He has offices in the main streets of Levin and Paraparaumu.
Not far away in both towns are the riding offices of Nathan Guy. He is a list MP for the National Party. He came second to Hughes in the local race, but was high enough on the list that he was also elected by his party's vote nationally.
So the voters of Otaki have two MPs, one from each major party, competing head to head to serve them.
But wait, there's more. Sue Kedgley, a list MP from the Green Party, also serves the Otaki electorate as well as the other nine ridings of the Wellington region. Her ads are in the weekly give-aways inviting Otaki voters to talk to her on issues of concern.
Why do they do this? Because under MMP, every vote counts everywhere. The politicians can't ignore anyone. The whole idea of winning an election by pandering to swing voters in a few marginals becomes obsolete."
Withers goes on to point out:
- most democracies in the world use a form of proportional representation,
- MMP provides governments that are just as stable as under our present system,
- minority governments don't sign their own death warrants in hopes of getting a majority because it's not guaranteed they'll get it.
This is a golden opportunity to get rid of our phony "majority governments" and provide true democracy to Ontario.
To volunteer with Vote for MMP-Ottawa please contact me.
