For immediate release
October 7, 2011

Even a broken clock is right twice a day, says Fair Vote Canada (FVC), a national, multi-partisan, citizen’s movement for electoral reform. Sometimes you get the government you vote for. Sort of.

The results of Ontario’s October 6 election are, as usual, horribly distorted:

• With about 35% of the votes, Tim Hudak’s Progressive Conservatives got 37 seats, more or less what they deserved—about 35% of the ridings on offer. But the steepness of the winner-take-all precipice was illustrated by the fact that just 37% of the votes, a mere 2% more than the PCs, gave Dalton McGuinty’s Liberals 53 ridings, just one achy breaky seat short of a “majority” government.
• Andrea Horwath’s NDP is ecstatic to have picked up seven more seats for a total of seventeen, but a closer look at the numbers shows they have been short-changed as usual. With almost 23% of the votes, they should have won yet another seven seats.
• The Green Party got enough votes to have earned three seats, but they were shut out again, and a voice for those voters will continue to be missing in the Legislature.
• Geographic representation is once again horribly skewed, with the Liberals under-represented in rural areas and the PCs shut out of Toronto.

And yet, the power structure is fundamentally correct.

“No one party has all the power,” says FVC president Shoni Field. “To make the Legislature work, the parties must work together, for a change. This Legislature will be able to do only those things for which there is a broad consensus among voters. The Government will be accountable to the Legislature, just like it says in the textbooks.

“That’s what the people of Ontario voted for. For once, it’s what they got.”

However, the situation is unstable. When absolute power is just a heartbeat away, why cooperate? That’s for losers. And with first-past-the-post voting, you’re either a winner or a loser. Inevitably, there are just a few winners and lots of losers.

“But an unstable situation is also a dynamic situation,” says FVC executive director Wayne Smith. “Change is possible.

“Now, we know Dalton McGuinty will brook ‘No coalition, no accord, no agreement, formal or informal, or any other linkage of any kind.’ He said so, and a politician’s word is his bond.

“Still, when it’s time to write the Legislature paycheques and he comes knocking on Andrea’s door, she should insist that movement on proportional representation be the first topic of discussion.”

“Did I mention the turnout?” Smith adds. “Voter turnout will probably fall below 50% for the very first time, shattering the record for futility set just four years ago. Voter apathy is at an all-time high. Most of us live in safe seats under the current system. If you’re a Conservative in Toronto or a Liberal in rural Ontario, Why bother voting at all?”

“There’s no time like now to build a better democracy,” says Field. “Why shouldn’t they always have to work together? Ontario needs a modern, fair, proportional voting system, and minority government provides an opportunity for reform.”

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Contact:

Shoni Field, President
Shoni.Field@FairVote.Ca
604-720-0541

Wayne Smith, Executive Director
Wayne.Smith@FairVote.Ca
416-407-7009

http://FairVote.Ca