RENEWING DEMOCRACY
ELECTORAL REFORM
People are losing faith in our form of democracy. This method often results in the election of majority governments representing an overall minority of the voters, and, sometimes even with FEWER total votes than the first runner-up. What kind of democracy is this? The Green Party believes that Ontario's electoral system should be updated to a system of proportional representation (PR) as used by most other democracies. Currently, we have a First-Past-The-Post (FPP) electoral system.
In Canada, FPP also tends to aggravate the already serious problem of regionalism and severely distorts popular representation.Under a system of proportional representation, the number of seats a party receives is based on the total number of votes it receives.
This method of voting not only reduces strategic voting; it has also been shown to increase the representation of women, and interestingly enough, the representative power of back-bench Members. It also increases the voting participation rate because every vote counts. With the appropriate vote-percentage threshold (i.e. over 5% of the total vote before a Party qualifies for seat allocation), this system has proven itself to be a stable and effective form of government in many countries. It is a red herring to say it produces unstable government by looking at only a few political examples that do not have the appropriate vote threshold.
- Strike a Royal Commission to investigate FPP inequities and present possibilities for electoral reform. Ontarians would then have the option to vote on any new proposed electoral system through a referendum.
- Fixed-term elections, so that the ruling Party cannot simply call an election when it is most favourable for it. Not only is this unfair in a democratic system, frequent elections cost tax-payers much more.
- Except for Budget Bills which are confidence votes, allowance of free votes for all Members of the provincial Parliament. After all, if we are living in a so-called “Representative Democracy”, should not our M.P.s and M.P.P.s represent the point of view of their constituents? But, in a free vote, surely a Member could vote “according to conscience”, whether or not this coincided with the (majority) view of constituents.
- Ban on corporate and special-interest donations to political parties (and include their leadership and candidacy contests in this ban).
- Tightened campaign-spending limits and disclosure during and between elections, and for all Party leadership races. In addition, the Greens would place limitations on government power in order to reduce the problem of patronage. We propose that an independent non-partisan agency be established and charged with the responsibility of determining the salaries of both elected and non-elected officials, and, for ensuring that appointments to tribunals, boards, and senior civil servant positions be made through a transparent qualification and selection process. No more inside tracks, patronage plums or other dubious employment practices.
"Where money plays a decisive role in politics, it turns unequal economic
power into unequal political advantage and undermines the principle of 'one
person, one vote'." 2002 UN Human Development Report.