Newmarket-Aurora candidates share thoughts on electoral reform

YorkRegion.com
Oct. 14, 2015
By Chris Simon

There’s no need to reform the Canadian electoral system, Newmarket-Aurora’s incumbent MP says.

Conservative Lois Brown says the first-past-the-post system - where the candidate with the most votes in a constituency wins and all the other ballots cast are disregarded - has served the country well for nearly 150 years. It is also used in some of the oldest democracies in the world and does not need to be altered.

“It served us well,” she said recently. “It’s the system used by the three oldest democracies in the world. We are going to continue to support that.”

First-past-the-post is used to elect MPs to the House of Commons in the United Kingdom. It also helps elect the United States congress, and is used in many countries that were once British colonies.

However, other local candidates disagree. The New Democrats are in favour of mixed-member proportional representation. Though there are variations to the MMP system, basically, the number of seats a party earns in Parliament is largely reflected by the percentage of votes it gets in an election.

“We’re the only party prepared to introduce a new electoral system in Canada that will be more fair and make sure everybody’s vote counts,” NDP candidate Yvonne Kelly said. “You’re basing the representation on the proportion of the vote you get. It’s ludicrous that 39 per cent of the vote across Canada would enable a government to make all the decisions and have a majority. We absolutely believe that system’s time has come and gone.”

The system has been studied the “world over” and would best suit the country based on its geographic size and demographics, Kelly said.

Brown said mixed-member reduces MP accountability, because the party leader ‘appoints’ politicians into office.

However, Green candidate Vanessa Long also believes in proportional representation, though her party wants the matter studied before any firm decisions are made.

“The preference...is for MMP,” she said. “If 10 per cent of the population votes for the Greens, 10 per cent of the parliament is Green. It allocates seats based on what votes are actually cast for. The system we have now unfairly grants power to a very unbalanced segment of the representatives. There are very few democracies left in the world that still use this system because it actually excludes voices from the conversation.”

Locally, Brown has been elected even though only a minority of the eligible voters in the riding supported her, Long said.

In 2011, Brown won the riding by earning nearly 54.3 per cent of the ballots cast, though only 63 per cent of eligible voters turned out.

An all-party committee would be struck to investigate various ways to improve the electoral system and voter engagement - including ranked ballots or mandatory voting laws - if the Liberals win the Oct. 19 vote.

The committee could even consider online voting methods, Liberal candidate Kyle Peterson said.

“We’re hoping to examine all these without pre-judging and come up with a solution that works for all,” he said.

“We’re committed to changing first-past-the-post, if that’s the decision of the committee.”

Several attempts to reach Progressive Canadian candidate Dorian Baxter for comment were unsuccessful.