The Inhumanity of MMP

[Evan Leibovitch]

Marcus Brubaker wrote:

> The Citizen's Assembly was tasked with *electoral* reform, not
> parliamentary or democratic reform.  They're job was to look at the way
> people's votes get translated into MPPs.  Recalls or an elected Senate
> were outside the scope of their mandate.

Obviously. Rather than allow the CA to answer the general question of
"what's wrong with the process?", the mandate was limited to a problem
assumed by the political elite. No wonder the result is as bad as what
we're being offered.

> Feel free to present some real evidence of political bias, but until
> then I think the assembly stands as fairly neutral in my book.  Plus, I
> don't know if you've noticed but people from all sides of the political
> spectrum have backed this proposal.  For instance, from the right wing
> of the spectrum there is Andrew Coyne.

I'm making the point that the bias is not necessarily towards or against
a particular political leaning, but rather in favour of political party
power at the expense of the electorate.

> This isn't a vote about what could be, it's a vote about what the
> proposal does and doesn't do.

Very true. I just wish that, given the rarity of such votes, the options
presented actually reflected reforms that the electorate wants. This
whole CA process has been contrived.


> I'm not expecting this to pass tomorrow, but to believe that this vote,
> whichever way it ends up, will be an educated one is preposterous. 
> Frankly, Elections Ontario and the entire government of Ontario have
> dropped the ball on even making people aware that anything was
> happening, much less explaining what's being voted on.

That's what happens when you contrive a vote on something that nobody
cares about. The fact is that this referendum proposes to fix something
that most people don't consider broken. Even as people get educated
about the issue they still are not convinced the system needs repair.

Don't confuse ignorance with apathy.

- Evan

PS: Last night's Rick Mercer Report did a nice piece on the vote the
video of it is available at http://www.cbc.ca/mercerreport/
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