FPTP vs MMP

[Colin McGregor]

--- John McGregor <mr.mcgregor-bJEeYj9oJeDQT0dZR+AlfA at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> Christopher Browne wrote:
> > I'd tend to expect MMP to give fringe parties
> appalling amounts of
> > power/control, as majority governments would be
> replaced by a need to
> > build coalitions where the last little bits to
> head in would get power
> > out of proportion to their representation.  That's
> the sort of thing
> > that has happened in places like Italy and
> Israel...
> My concern runs is that an unpopular governing party
> could remain in
> power by vastly increasing it's plurality in its
> traditionally 'safe'
> seats. eg. the Liberals in Toronto and London; the
> NDP in areas with
> large numbers of organized labour like Windsor,
> Sudbury and Oshawa; and
> the Conservatives in the 905 area; -- could all get
> out the vote in
> order to offset their performance at the polls in
> areas where they are
> distinctly unpopular.

My key concern is (as with Christopher Browne) the
splintering of the legislature into umpteen different
political parties and you will have weird unstable
coalition governments almost all the time with the
tiny one note parties having WAY too much power.

A secondary related (but still significant) concern is
that it takes power away from the people and gives it
to the political parties. Let us assume you have a Ms.
X who is seen by the VERY vast majority of people as a
total dirt bag. Let us also assume that Ms. X is loved
by the power brokers of party Y (ie: she knows where
ALL the political bodies are buried (she helped bury
many of them) and is an effective fund raiser). Well
under FPTP Ms. X is most unlikely to get to the
legislature, but under MMP, the party can put her into
office and the general public can not say boo about it
all. 

Currently, you do get some nasty folks running in
party stronghold ridings that get elected. Key point
that the dirt bag MPPs are always in the end
responsible and always answerable to some voters, NOT
to the political parties (i.e. the current system
isn't perfect but it is clearly better than what is on
offer with MMP).

As stands with the FPTP system everything TENDS to
window down to two large more-or-less middle of the
road parties and one smaller balance-of-power party
that is a bit further from centre. Yes, you sometimes
get a party into power that takes a step off the deep
end into weird political waters. But current
arrangement USUALLY delivers more-or-less middle of
the road effective, responsible to the people
government, while MMP appears (based on experiences in
places like Italy/Israel) to deliver on extremist,
ineffective, responsible to the parties, not the
people government.

I am willing to consider changes to the government of
Ontario, but those changes must deliver power to the
citizens and not the parties...


Colin McGregor

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