VOTING REVIEW: Municipal Elections Act

NRU
April 6, 2016
By Leah Wong

Proposed changes to the Municipal Elections Act could have voters ranking candidates rather than selecting just one in the 2018 municipal elections. Purportedly offering an improvement to electoral turnout, experts are uncertain ranked ballots alone will boost chronically low turnout in municipal races.

On Monday Municipal Affairs and Housing minister Ted McMeekin proposed amendments to the act that would give municipalities the option of using ranked ballots. The amendments would also shorten the campaign period by four months, regulate third-party advertising and improve transparency for campaign finances.

In a press conference at Ryerson University he suggested jurisdictions that utilize ranked ballots have increased civic engagement and higher voter turnout.

“At a time when voter turnout is going down in many communities it’s time to look at ideas that can reverse that trend,” McMeekin said.

If passed, the proposed legislation would allow municipalities the option of using a majority voting system (ranked ballot for single-member races) or a proportional representation system (ranked ballots for  multimember races). In single-member races a run-off system would be used until one candidate earned at least 50 per cent of the vote, while in multi-member races candidates would need to meet a threshold of votes based on the number of positions available.

These systems would prevent candidates from winning a race with a small percentage of the vote, something that is common in crowded races.

“In the recent municipal election in a [Toronto] ward very close to where we stand today, a councillor was elected with only 17 per cent of the vote,” McMeekin said. “That should raise some flags.”

York University political science associate professor Dennis Pilon doesn’t see the change having a significant impact on participation levels, though he feels proportional voting systems are fairer and lead to more transparent results than the first-past-the-post system.

“There are a number of things that affect municipal politics that are different than the other levels of government,” Pilon told NRU. “The most important one is the high levels of public indifference.”

While mayoral elections in Canada’s major cities tend to draw a lot of attention and higher voter turnout, elections in other municipalities commonly draw low voter turnout. In the 2014 election voter turnout in Toronto was 60 per cent, while Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area municipalities had an average turnout of 35.6 per cent.

Pilon predicts the proposed changes to campaign finance rules will have a greater impact on municipal elections.

The government’s proposed changes include allowing municipalities to ban corporate and union donations and set clear limits on what candidates can spend post-campaign on gift s and parties. Toronto is presently the only municipality that has the ability to ban corporate and union donations.

A new report from Campaign Fairness by York political science associate professor Robert MacDermid, York environmental studies student Jenny Lugar and Campaign Fairness manager Claire Malcomson shows that candidates that receive financial support from the development industry are more likely to get elected than those who don’t.

“The report really points out that it’s developers that run city halls everywhere,” said Pilon. “And not just local developers. The money that is coming to politicians to run for office is coming from developers that don’t even live in the area.”

In addition to the source of funding, Pilon said there is a problem with the public’s ability to track who is financing their local candidates. He said that Canadians should look to the United States for examples on how to track finances better. In the U.S. information about the financing of election campaigns is published in real time.

“When someone gives money, very quickly it’s up on a website so that people can see who is funding who.”

If the legislation passes the province will set a framework for how municipalities have to consult with the public on ranked ballots, how the ballots will be counted and which offices on council can be elected using ranked ballots. McMeekin said the province has already ruled out using ranked ballots for school board elections.

Pilon suggests that municipalities that choose to consult on different voting systems should focus on how a different system could impact results rather than the technical details of how a ranked ballot would work.