Referendum ads ‘a hip way of telling the public nothing’
Ask most people on campus about the upcoming referendum question and you will often get blank stares and maybe an awkward shrug. Understandably, this may be the response of a demographic with historically lower voter turnout. But young people are not the only ones who are unaware. Other citizens, from all walks of life, don’t know the impending question, which appears to be the result of an information drought and not simply negligence. (back to story...)
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The Citizens' Assembly proposed a simpler yes / no question - something like:
Do you support the Ontario Citizens' Assembly recommendation for a new voting system - MMP?
It was the McGuinty cabinet that took it upon themselves to
a) vest the power for the question with cabinet and not the legislature (or CA)
b) craft their own "impartial, neutral, clear" question. (quote marks mine).
Whatever the question, a public education campaign is vital. The government refused to distribute the Citizens' Assembly brochure to every household in Ontario. They even stopped printing it a few weeks ago. Instead of handing off public education to the Democratic Renewal Secretariat which was responsible for the CA process, McGuinty gave it to Elections Ontario for a "neutral" campaign in which voters cannot be told the reason why the CA came to the conclusions they did about FPTP.
The more voters hear about MMP, they more they like it because of its many benefits for voters. There's still time to spread the word. This is a winnable campaign, if not an underdog campaign.
I should have been up here reading long before the day of the election, but like many people I know and talk to, this election seems to be one of mixed feelings (will I or won't I). I believe a vast amount of the population is tired of the three main parties throwing barbs(and very sharp ones at that),to their opponents with the same old banter. ALWAYS it is the previous government who has failed the people, not the existing one. Will this new form of government be any different?? Probably not---just more of them. I will most certainly vote today, but I don't think the 6.8 million dollars has made me and a lot of other people in the country any the wiser on this referendum vote.
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Ottawa
September 30, 2007 at 3:31 p.m.
Thank you for writing a very good article. I wholeheartedly agree that the information surrounding the referendum has been dismal. I particularly thank you for including links to other sites so readers can find out for themselves about the referendum. I would like to make two points.
1. There is a small error in your article. The members of the Ontario Citizens' Assembly did not in fact vote unanimously in favour of MMP - 92% of the members voted in favour (see pg 19 of http://www.citizensassembly.gov.on.ca...). Still an overwhelming majority but not unanimous.
2. Could you please add a link to http://www.voteformmp.ca. The changethesystem.ca link you provide is a good one and geared to students, but the http://www.voteformmp.ca site has more information available and is the main site for Fair Vote Ontario.
Thank you for helping raise awareness of democracy.
Jay Fitzsimmons
Ottawa