Random Access

Good for John Tory for raising questions about the form of the Mixed Member Proportional Representation system that we are being asked to pass judgment on in the referendum question that will be on the provincial ballot Oct. 10.
Yesterday, Tory said he had reservations about a system that could create “second-class MPPs” and allow 39 people nobody actually voted for to potentially sit in the Legislature.
There are obvious benefits to having our government at Queen’s Park more accurately reflect the actual support that parties receive across the province.
But we had better be very careful about how we tinker with the old first-past-the-post system that has generally served us well for a great many years.
If people get so upset now whenever the will of the local community is thwarted and candidates are appointed by party leaders (as in the case of the Liberal candidate in Mississauga-Brampton South in the current election), why would we want to officially enshrine that approach in our so-called democratic system?
Wouldn’t the corollary of “one man, one vote” be, “one MPP, one riding.”
Under the proposed system, the number of seats where MPPs would actually have to go to the public to ask for support would be reduced, so that 90 would be elected in the traditional method. That means fast-growing urban municipalities, such as Mississauga which are already traditionally under-represented in our ‘we’ll catch up with the actual population at a later date’ redistribution system, would be losers again. We would have five seats rather than six.
In a very Canadian approach that would allow you to actually vote twice and spread the glory around, you would mark your ballot for your candidate of choice in your local riding and then again for your party of choice across the province.
The additional 39 seats would be divided up depending on how the party vote was distributed, with the idea being that smaller parties could have a seat in the House although they could never get anyone actually elected in a single riding.
Pardon the broken record but, again, isn’t there something inherently wrong with putting people in government when no one marked a ballot for them?
And when we learn that the parties will fill out the party lists from which the additional MPPs will be chosen, we should get even more nervous. The temptation to mine the cult of celebrity in putting forth instant politicians who have done absolutely nothing to earn their political stripes will be much too tempting for the parties. All the media types who have always fancied themselves as politicians but never had the stomach for the actual work, will be lining up for a freebie.
So your ears perk up when you hear even party leaders disparage the idea.
Tory said yesterday that the MPPs not directly elected, will be “answerable only to the party establishment” and will, in effect, be appointed. If that gives one of the party leaders the jitters, surely we should all be concerned.
In trying to perfect democracy, we’d better be really, really careful not to violate its basic tenets.