Over the past few days many people have stood up with regards to the referendum debate and have basically said that we should vote for this system. Well to me personally I say no. We have only one pledge from a party leader so far that he will allow a party convention to choose the list of Candidates that they will run and that is Howard Hampton. I am assuming that John Tory who recently declared in a story in one of the major papers that he had the same concerns that I had regarding this system.
The truth is the MMP-system is a flawed voting system, it rewards the Leaders and Party Hacks of every party and it allows them to continue to force things to go their way or the highway. And even if this passes what is not to say that the major parties will not follow the Hampton Precedent? As much as I dislike the FPTP system, I feel that MMP is inadequate. I feel that personally we should have Instant-Runoff Voting. It works in Australia and I do personally feel that people need to achieve 50% to win, I feel it's only fair that way.
2 comments:
Can you show me a country where parties do not choose their list candidates in an open and transparent fashion?
And do you really think an Ontario party would be so foolish as to choose their list in smoky backroom and pack it with "hacks".
If McGuinty and Tory did that (and I've got to think you're politically astute enough to see this), I think we'd see Premier Hampton win the election.
John Tory's concerns are a sham designed to fear-monger.
If he wants to remove that concern, all he has to do is come out and declare the Tories will also follow Hampton's lead and democratically elect their list members. He's not doing so because he's anti-MMP and he wishes to propagate that fear... but its pretty silly for a party leader to be warning what party leaders might or might not do.
Quite frankly, I think your fears are groundless, regardless whether he makes that commitment or not. The precedent is there in other countries who use MMP that they use democratic methods to choose, and the pressure to also do so will be very strong on parties here.
I think you should read the article by Linda McQuaig in today's Star on why she says progressives should support MMP whole-heartedly.
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