Ontario open to big changes in municipal elections
Ontario's municipal affairs minister says he is open to changes including letting municipalities use ranked ballots.

thestar.com
April 27, 2015
By David Rider

Big changes are on the horizon for how Torontonians and residents of other Ontario municipalities elect their mayors and councils.

Ted McMeekin, Ontario’s municipal affairs and housing minister, told the Star he plans this fall to consult towns and cities and hopes to oversee passage next spring of reforms including allowing them to use ranked ballots in the 2018 civic elections.

“We’re going to make that happen,” Ted McMeekin said of his Liberal government passing legislation allowing municipalities to opt for abandoning the century-old “first-past-the-post” system.

Other reforms on the table including shortening the “ridiculous” marathon 11-month municipal election time frame, McMeekin said in a wide-ranging interview Monday at Queen’s Park.

Under first-past-the-post, whoever gets the most votes wins. In Toronto races with multiple competitive candidates, councillors take office with as little as 17 per cent support. Many are elected with fewer than half the votes.

With ranked ballots, voters select candidates in order of preference.

If no candidate gets a majority of first-place votes, the one with lowest support is knocked out of the race and their second-place votes redistributed. The runoff continues until there is a winner with majority support.

Proponents argue the system has fostered, in cities including Minneapolis, racially diverse councils and winners with broad-based support, while discouraging negative campaigning that alienates some voters.

City council asked the province to allow the change in 2013 and backed it in March. Mayor John Tory backed it in March. However Premier Kathleen Wynne seemed to suggest she needed a new council vote, leading some to question the province’s commitment.

McMeekin, however, signalled full steam ahead as part of a periodic review of the Municipal Elections Act.

“The Jan. 1 filing date is ridiculous,” McMeekin said of the current date in which candidates can file their papers at the start of the election year, kicking off a campaign that doesn’t end until election day in late October.

“Maybe the first of June, or something,” would be a better election start date, the minister said, adding he has spoken about that issue with local politicians including his “good friend” Mayor John Tory.

McMeekin also has underway reviews of efforts to combat homelessness and a 10-year housing plan that he hopes will result in co-ordinated strategies in the 2016 Ontario budget. Asked if that could aim provincial funds at Toronto’s $2.6-billion social housing repair backlog, McMeekin said: “In my opinion you can’t have a long-term housing strategy without dealing with the affordability of repair.”

But he wants Ottawa to return to social-housing provision. “We’ll be engaged whether the feds are engaged or not, but it would sure be handy to have a federal partner...Here’s the problem - we don’t even have a table to have that discussion,” McMeekin said, because Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper seems loath to engage with Ontario’s government.

McMeekin wants to work with mayors on possible changes including using incentives to get private developers involved in building social housing.

McMeekin, who took over the portfolio after last year’s election, said he is also open to talking municipal finance reform, noting many municipalities complain they can’t fund services primarily through property taxes.

“I’m probably in that camp but we’re not going to make changes willy-nilly,” and can’t authorize “revenue tools” that siphon revenue from the provincial and federal governments, said the Ancaster-Dundas-Flamborough-Westdale MPP and former Hamilton council member.

He mused: “I’ve always wondered (what) if we had a 1 per cent surcharge on all the (income and sales) taxes, and had that dedicated to the urban issues” - a windfall that would delight municipalities. But even floating ideas requires federal participation, he added.

Touting his Smart Growth for Our Communities Act that would hand more powers to local governments, McMeekin said he sees the province’s role as deciding what is “sacred”, such as protecting green space, and then “getting out of the way.”

“Beyond that (I want to) build relationships with municipalities so that they really are trusted partners.”