Referendum satire and some facts

I hope you enjoy this. My apologies if it offends your partisan interests but with less than two weeks left in Ontarians’ election campaign I can certainly use some laughter.

See: http://www.weltschmerz.ca/blog/

Also from the same site this excellent piece:

I’m getting frustrated and fed up with the arguments of the anti-MMP forces. We have the opportunity of a lifetime — to actually make our province more, not less, democratic. To make our votes matter. Don’t believe all the propaganda about giving powers to “power brokers” and candidates chosen by party bosses. In fact, MMP means you have two votes — for your party and your local candidate. He or she doesn’t have to be from your party choice. You can make a more nuanced vote, dispense with useless strategic voting and actually have that nuance reflected in the outcome. There is far less potential for power abuse than under the first-past-the-post system, which saw Mike Harris trash many aspects of Ontario, despite the fact that 55 percent voted against him. How democratic is that?

Also, under the MMP system, the NDP could not have gotten in power in the early 90s under Bob Rae, with only 37.6 percent of the vote. In general, as Linda McQuaig argues, governments would better reflect the will of the people.

MMP will stop the province from lurching from left to right to left and not getting anywhere. It’s long in use in Germany, where it has produced stable coalition governments — hardly a “banana republic,” as the anti-MMPers are claiming Ontario will become. And it will give the Greens some well-deserved power, likely giving our environment more protection.

If you’re undecided, check out the sites and articles below before making up your mind. The system as it is isn’t working. We need a change.

Ontario’s Referendum

On Oct. 10, we’ll be asked to chose between the existing, first-past-the-post system, and a form of proportional representation, Mixed Member Proportional (MMP). MMP ensures that the election results actually better reflects the will of the people, unlike the current system, where a government can totally redesign the province when 60% of citizens are against doing so, as Mike Harris did. MMP will avoid such abuses of power.

For more information, go to the Citizen’s Assembly web site. This randomly selected group of 103 citizens spent months studying electoral systems and came out in favour of MMP.

The CBC has an excellent and neutral overview.

Rick Salutin says the referendum is a no-brainer.

The Star’s Rosemary Spiers deftly handles a lot of the criticisms of MMP here.

The Globe’s Ivor Tossell, in his overview of web resources on the referendum, says that “the media more or less ignored the subject until Labour Day, then lurched into gear and started complaining that the man-on-the-street doesn’t know what’s going on.”

It’s not only many on the Left who think the first-past-the-post system sucks. The Post’s Andrew Coyne effectively shows how undemocratic our voting system actually is, calling the resulting governements “legalized coup d’etats.”

Weltschmerz on Paper

Weltschmerz appears in print in Ontario and Alberta. It ran in Toronto’s Eye Weekly for 11 years. If you would like to see this cartoon in your paper, please write a letter to the editor. Editors wishing for information on Weltschmerz, please email lind at lindtoons dot com.

From Scott Tribe’s blog:

John Tory: show some leadership on MMP