X Marks the Spot

(If you haven't already, read yesterday's blog entry first.)

So, the Ontario Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform has proposed a new electoral system.

On October 10, as part of the provincial election, we will vote on whether we like their proposal better than our current system.

Here's the Assembly's proposal.

It's call the Mixed Member Proportional system.

With this system, you get to mark two "X"s on your ballot.

The first "X" will be for the candidate in your riding who you want to represent you in the Ontario legislature.

The MPP for your riding will be the person on the first ballot who gets the most votes. This is exactly like our current system.

The weirdness comes in on the second "X," where you vote not for a local candidate but for the party of your choice, whether Liberal, Progressive Conservative, New Democratic, Marijuana, whatever.

That's the voting part. You choose the candidate you like. You choose the party you like.

Then the counting begins.

First, they figure out who wins the ridings.

In our current system (as of the October election), there are 107 ridings. In the new system, there will be 90 ridings. Those 90 ridings will take up 70 percent of the seats in the legislature.

That's the easy part.

Next, the counters will figure out the percentage of the popular vote each party received based on that second "X" you placed.

If the Liberal Party received 48 percent of the popular vote, but only has 36 percent of the seats from the ridings, they will get to choose more members to fill many of the remaining seats in the legislature.

Those people who are elected on the second ballot will come from a previously-published list made by each party.

There will be 39 such members, and they will represent the whole province, instead of particular ridings, and they will sit in the remaining 30 percent of the seats in the legislature.

In total, after all the counting is done, there will be 129 MPPs.

That's 22 more than we will have this year, but actually one less than we had from 1987 to 1999.

The end result will be a legislature that more closely reflects the desires of the voters.

If the Liberals end up with 48 percent of the vote, they will have roughly 48 percent of the seats.

That is the whole point of this new format - to make every vote count.

Tomorrow, in what promises to be a lively and vibrant post, we'll discuss some of the pros and cons of the new system.