The Citizens Assembly has finally received some press coverage in the form of this Ian Urquhart column. While the majority of the assembly has voted to explore mixed-member proportionality, "...the devil is in the details – such as how big the Legislature should be overall, how many seats should be allocated for members chosen the old way (by riding), and how many for those plucked from party lists to ensure proportionality."
After a weekend of debate, "the assembly voted to continue working on two MMP models–one with 100 riding seats and 33 add-ons for proportionality, the other with 107 ridings seats and 36 proportional add-ons.
But several dissenting members also extracted a commitment from the assembly's beleaguered chair, retired judge George Thomson, to keep other options open, including 90 ridings and 30 add-ons." Additionally, the assembly also voted to consider one other alternative system, the single transferable vote (STV).
Hopefully the mixed-member system is endorsed and put to a referendum this fall. It will make our democratic system more responsive, more accountable, and much more democratic. First-past-the-post is archaic and no longer reflects voter preference in a multi-party system.
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I had a rather lengthy discussion on this topic with Greg from Democraticspace on my blog available here:
http://paulitics.wordpress.com/2007/02/22/on-changing-our-electoral-system/
I'm definitely a supporter of proportional representation, but one thing that shouldn't be glossed over is the type of proportional representation which is adopted. I for one feed that MMP is nowhere near the best PR system available - that said, it's still a hell of a lot better than what we have now.
Anyway, give it a read if you're interested in an STV supporter's point of view.
Thanks for the link Paul. I agree that STV is the best proposal for Ontario (I'd lean toward pure PR, but I think the province is too diverse and geography large for that to work the way I invision it). Regardless, like you say, MMP is much better than what we have now, which is why I support it.
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