Sunday, September 02, 2007

Why I am against MMP....

Well, its been official for about a week, I joined the no-MMP facebook cause. I am in favour of the status quo. I have my reasons, mainly because of my own personal and political interest.

But here is why I prefer the status quo, MMP doesn't go far enough, its a compromise system, and I think if we are going to change the system we shouldn't compromise we should do something radical and democratic. The preferential choice system that Jason Cherniak supports has it's merits, as the Liberals would be able to capitalize on our second choiceness. Proportional representation also has its merits.

But MMP just doesn't satisfy my suburban view, I was just thinking how my strange suburban riding would probably grow to be 3 times it's size, and increasing the size of ridings wouldn't work, if the list politicians only had offices at Queen's park.

I really tried to wrap my head around this MMP idea, and no one really gave me a good reason as to why it is better. I also felt that it came across as a compromise, that is so typically Ontarian. So, I am against it as a suburban Liberal, it doesn't mesh with my point of view.

Secondly, tomorrow is my last day of lazy freedom, back to helping children on Tuesday! And lastly, I would love to see more open debate in the mainstream media about this referendum. I did a straw poll of a group of my non-political friends, and none of them knew about the upcoming referendum! The best way for this vote to work properly is if everyone knows what it is about.

4 comments:

Oxford County Liberals said...

Well, at least you're being honest about your reasons - of being nakedly partisan - of why you prefer Jason's Preferential Ballot system, that others who are anti-MMP are not as forthcoming about.

I think your thinking however is not very inspiring for those who are trying to make our system of government more representative and more democratic of what the populace actually votes for.

Also.. those who think preferential ballot will somehow cement the Liberals winning all the time seem to have forgotten their political history in this province - of 40 straight years of Conservative rule.

The other thing that I find absurd is your "MMP doesnt go far enough' reasoning. By that standard, you shouldnt be choosing Preferential ballot - because it is nothing more then FPTP-lite. It does nothing to address the under-representation of certain segments of the society that many of us who are pro-MMP want addressed, and it certainly doesnt help with making the vote more proportional to the actual voting results.

Finally, the CA picked this "compromise" because of the concerns raised about losing too much of the local candidate angle in a PR system. Any more radical change of system would involve less local representation and systems more indicative of purer PR. IF you don't like this compromise, it seems to me you dont want any system that has PR in it... and THAT would be the real uncompromising way to reform the voting system, not something that merely tweaks and helps preserve the status quo in Preferential ballot.

Jason Cherniak said...

I don't support any sort of list system...

Jamie Callingham said...

sorry Jason. Changed it to preferential choice.

Wayne Smith said...

Under this MMP proposal, your riding will be about 19% larger. However, you will have access to not just one MPP, but forty. There will be MPPs from every party in every area of the province.

Most list MPPs will have constituency offices, just like the riding MPPs, and they will all consider themselves "your MPP."

The reason MMP is better is that, under the current system, most of us vote for people who do not get elected, and we end up with a government that most of us voted against.

Under MMP, every voter will get a vote that actually helps to elect someone, every time. Everybody will be represented fairly. This will enable us to hold parties accountable to voters, and government accountable to the Legislature.

MMP will also also be fairer for under-represented groups like women and minorities.

Wayne Smith