Apolitical Staples

Your proposal is very similar to one of my hobby horses. I originally toyed with the idea for Senate reform (see http://wiki.xdroop.com/space/Senate+Reform/January+2006+Premises for an example of a run against the last Federal election, along with notes about the problems of that result).

I have considered re-running the scenario against the results from the last provincial election, but Elections Ontario doesn’t make the results available in an easy-to-parse format, so more hackery would be required. Not impossible hackery, just of the type that I don’t have time right now to do.

But I agree whole-heartedly that the parties should not be permitted to submit lists. Anyone sitting in the Legislature, especially anyone with policy-making power, should be able to point to a group of citizens who voted to them as providing legitimacy to their presence.

Personally I prefer the absolute number of votes as the ranking criteria, not percentage of possible voters — using the absolute number of votes means that for this test every vote has the same weight (which is what democracy is theoretically all about) and it encourages everyone to vote for their party, as every vote could matter both for party proportionality and for getting their candidate into the legislature as a PR representative.

I’d advise we not wait for the ‘perfect’ PR system and just get MMP passed on October 10th. The way I read the legislation, there will be an opportunity for public input to the final form of MMP prior to implementation. I think leaving out the extra MPPs in the event of an overhang was a mistake, but I won’t throw the baby out with the bath water over it. I’m voting for MMP on the basis that anything proportional will be better than what we have.

I’m not worried about open lists as I already have trouble being fully informed about 3-4 candidates and would NEVER have the time to work out who on a list of 50 or so people was best. I’m happy to let the parties put forward their best people….and if they suck, I won’t vote for that party.

If you do not like the people who are near the top of a party list, then don’t vote for that party. I’ll assume that those of you who are Blogging Tories will agree that the Ontario PC Party will be able to create a great list of candidates that Ontarians will support.

For the last time, Greg, it’s the old-fashioned closed lists you don’t like, not party lists in general. There are many, many ways of compiling a party list, including primary elections, or be composed of those who ran in riding elections but lost by a tiny portion of the vote. It could be assembled at the regional or even the riding association level. ‘Party list’ does not equal ‘the kind of party list proposed in Ontario.’

If you don’t like the way the current proposed Ontario system compiles party lists, then fine, say that. But would you please stop equating the term “party list” with that particular system? It’s confusing people.

IP, it is pretty plain to see that I am talking about the proposed Ontario system, seeing as I quoted their document and all.

Why not just take the top failed candidates for a given party in order of highest percentage of vote obtained. This would probably result in a number of 2nd place finishers from the election with significant public support being chosen. (it would probably eliminate recounts in close elections since both would be in)