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Green Party describes how it would select list candidates under MMP

Tip: YouTube Videos On MMP and The Referendum

YouTube has a number of videos tagged “MMP” in its “News & Politics” selection including videos of speeches and debates.

It’s A Trap!

An article in The Canadian online paper states that the pro-MMP campaign is actually run by big business because there will be more smaller right-wing parties gaining list seats than left-wing ones:

The proposed MMP system will work very well for well organized and financed right wing special interests that support such issues as religious fundamentalist schools, destroying labour laws; anti-immigration/racist groups, and other fascistic groups that “can’t get their way” in the current political environment. Such groups are much more likely to get MMP’s 3% threshold for political representation, than competing progressive groups, i.e. anti-poverty activists. Such currently disenfranchised activist groups have much less money to spend on sophisticated campaigns.

Let’s ignore the conspiracy theory – is it likely that ANY extreme groups – left or right could gain a seat under the list portion of MMP? If so is this worst than the possibility that they could win a local riding?

Note: This posting was updated October 4, 2007 to make the article link better source of useful discussion.

Will MMP Result In Smaller Party Gains?

One issue concerning MMP is whether it will result in smaller political parties gaining seats via the list members. While smaller parties such as the Green or Family Coalition Party have not gained any seats in riding elections they may get enough votes under MMP to gain seats. Writing on the “I, Ectomorph” blog Andy notes what could happen under MMP.

In FPTP elections, the voters who cast ballots for microparties are limited largely to a “hard core” of committed supporters willing to “throw away” their votes (as the MMPers would say) and even then to the even smaller group of core supporters fortunate enough to reside in a riding in which the microparty managed to field a candidate. Under the Ontario MMP system, every voter in the province would have the opportunity to vote for any of the microparties in the race, and to do so in the knowledge that their vote can make a difference, not to mention without sacrificing the ability to support another more mainstream party at the riding level. So it may be that microparties that typically win 0.5% or 0.75% of the provincial popular vote now would, under MMP, be winning 1.5% or 2% of the party vote (or even reaching the threshold of 3%).

For MMP supporters these potential smaller party wins are a gain for democracy, for opponents they could be single issue parties holding the balance of power and demanding that the government adopt fringe ideas for their support.

Globe and Mail Backgrounder and Request For Debate Questions

The Globe and Mail has started a weekly series on the referendum. Part 1 provides background and asks for readers to send in questions for experts from the two sides to answer on September 20th.

Will any debates occur?

I have looked but have been unable to find any news of TV or in-person debates between the pro and anti-MMP sides either on a provincial or local level.

Online, Liberals For MMP have details of an online debate that occurred August 3 between two bloggers, Scott Tribe for Mixed Member Proportional and Cameron Holmstrom against MMP.

Have any TV or in-person debates been planned or suggested? Would this be even possible under Election Ontario’s rules? Do others think any forms of debates would be useful?

MMP and Faith Based Parties

In an opinion column in the Globe and Mail Report On Business, Neil Reynolds uses Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory’s pledge to extend public funding for religious schools to non-Roman Catholic schools as an example of the impact that a move to MMP could have:

Assuming he [Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty] acted on this response, he would award legislative seats to any religious and ethnic party (or, indeed, any special-interest party) that got 3 per cent of the popular vote in any provincial election.
Ontario’s Catholics and Protestants could have their own political parties. They could, indeed, have several of them, all with their own MLAs.
By these rules, an Islamic party would presumably have a good shot at electing its own MLAs in the next election, which will come no later than October, 2011.

Such a party could be formed with the explicit goal of ensuring public funding for Islamic schools. After an election in which it received one or more list seats it could negotiate with the major parties trading the votes of its MPP(s) in exchange for this funding.
If you believe this will is a positive step than it is a reason to support MMP. If you are opposed to such negotiations then this and not the rather facile opposition to more MPPs or the means by which party lists are drawn (does it matter? – MPPs vote by their party line nearly always) is the key reason to oppose MMP.
Reynolds thinks the latter:

Using the Ontario reforms, he shows how a mythical religious party with 10 per cent of the popular vote (“the Party of the One True Religion”) could not only win 10 per cent of the seats in the legislature but, at the same time, effectively deny a majority to any one of the major parties. In this case, holding the balance of power, POTR would align itself with whichever party delivered the most benefits to its adherents.
Holy cohesion, Mr. McGuinty. Are you paying attention? The teacher just yanked your ear really hard.

Update:

Vote For MMP has a response by Dr. Dennis Pilon of the Political Science Department, University of Victoria, B.C.

John Barber Wants Reform At Federal Level Instead

In a commentary (subscription-only) in the Globe and Mail’s News section, John Barber states that the apathy around the referendum means that a move to MMP will be defeated. Furthermore even if passed, the weakened role of Ontario within Confederation in relation to B.C. and Alberta means that Ontario citizens will be second-class no matter the type of provincial government.

Is Barber right in suggesting a total lack of public interest, and in suggesting that reform in Ontario is less important than that federally?

How New Zealand Parties Select Their List Candidates

Having used the MMP system since 1996 New Zealand is often used an example by MMP supporters. As such I wanted to find out more about how the various political parties pick their list of candidates for party seats and after much Googling found that the ruling Labour Party selected its 2005 list via an internal meeting of party officials. The Green Party has a page describing how to get on their list with the final decision by the Candidate Selection Committee while the Maori Party constitution leaves the final decision in to the Electorate and National Councils. I was unable to determine what the main opposition National Party does.

These list selection processes sounds quite anti-democratic. On the other hand I already know who my Liberal candidate for the next federal election is as she was handpicked by the riding association and Stéphane Dion.

The Star’s FAQ on MMP

As a sidebar to its article reporting that few people know about the referendum, The Toronto Star looks at the pros and cons of MMP. Key questions:

Q What are the advantages of MMP?
A Smaller parties like the Greens, the Family Coalition, and the Freedom Party would have a chance at winning seats in the Legislature even if they cannot win a riding outright. Any party that wins at least 3 per cent of the popular vote will be awarded “list” seats. It would mean the end of majority governments when a party has won less than half the vote and prevent scenarios like former NDP premier Bob Rae’s landslide victory in 1990 with 37.6 per cent of the vote.
Q What are the disadvantages of MMP?
A Critics charge the 39 “list” MPPs would not be directly elected and the parties could use the lists as a sort of Senate to reward party apparatchiks, financial donors or others. As well, it would likely spell the end of decisive, majority governments since no party has won 50 per cent or more of the popular vote since 1937.