Democracy Delayed: Ontario's Referendum

I could cry and moan about how unfair the referendum was, about how the government stacked the deck against reform, about how Elections Ontario managed to at once quash the discussion around the issue and fail to educate the public, about how various writers, commentators, and so-called intellectuals confused (or in some cases out and out lied to) the public over the past few weeks, but I'd rather not. It's pointless, it's unproductive, and moreover it's exactly what the status quo regressives are waiting for --I can hear the words "sour grapes" and "sore losers" on their tongues already.

Here are the facts:

1. The Citizens' Assembly's recomendation of MMP failed at the ballot box.
2. The need for electoral reform, by some means, is greater than ever.

As encouraging and hopeful as I was in front of my volunteers, I was never sure whether MMP would fly at the ballot box. But I was sure of what we could expect from the election results: the greatest number of wasted votes ever cast, the lowest voter turnout in the province's history, and (as election day drew closer) a more distorted majority government than the one we just had. Like everyone else I will have to wait until the official and final results are available from Elections Ontario, but thus far all three predictions look like they will come true.

The question is, where do we who know the value of a vote, who wish to continue striving for a more democratic society, go from here? Of course, the pub! But after that, I'm afraid there is more work to do.

First, we can expect the government to claim that there is now a strong message from the people that they wish to keep first-past-the-post, simply because they did not want mixed member proportional. This was no doubt why the government decided to word the referendum ballot this way as opposed to a simple "Do you want to adopt mixed member proportional? Yes/No." So we can expect to have to demonstrate that the public was uninformed when they made their decision and simply decided to stick with the devil they knew. This won't be difficult to prove, but we should prepare to prove it as we will no doubt have to argue along these lines when advocating for continued progress toward electoral reform.

Second, we need to continue campaigning. Not for MMP, but against first-past-the-post (and simultaneously for reform). Not a political campaign, but an educational campaign. It's quite clear that Elections Ontario was either unwilling or unable to answer the questions that the public had before referendum day, and we can expect the same when another referendum is held in the future. So we'll have to answer those questions for the public ourselves and we'll have to start now if we want a broad understanding of "first-past-the-post does not work" among the Ontario public before the next referendum.

Here's the good news: we can do both at the same time!

First, everyone who was involved in the "Vote for MMP" campaign should join (or start) their local chapter of Fair Vote Canada (if they haven't already). And then (I'm going to pitch this to the Fair Vote people and see what they think) we should all start organizing local presentations (or information/discussion nights) on the failings of first-past-the-post and the need for electoral reform. But every presentation should contain a small and unofficial referendum post mortem where you can ask the questions: "Did you feel informed before you made your decision? Did you feel Elections Ontario and their material was useful in helping you make your decision? Are you in favour of electoral reform even if you weren't in favour of MMP?" And so on. But have ready petitions and drafted letters for folks to sign.

Here in Guelph, I plan on contacting our local Citizens' Assembly representative and Referendum Resource Officer to see if they have any useful thoughts that they could document and share on the process. This might be something that other groups want to pursue as well. I also plan to develop various PowerPoint presentations (and other media) for different audiences (students, seniors, etc.) and make them available to anyone who wants them. After all the presentations I gave during the election, this shouldn't really take all that much time either.

There, now doesn't that feel better than complaining? After all, everyone knows what's better than getting mad.

Democracy now!