Ontario Voters were Cheated Again.

 Doug Ford, the winner of the recent Ontario election self righteously declared he has a mandate that includes new highways, a tunnel and control over bike lanes amongst others.   Does he really have a mandate? The listed policies are ones that he advocated in his campaign, but not necessarily ones favored by the other parties.  Mandates are pretty serious, but the term is much abused.  http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2023/01/do-elections-guarantee-mandates.html

 Our current electoral system is known by many as "first past the post" meaning only the one who gets the most votes wins.  Only a plurality is required, not a majoirty.

One of the most important details is that only approximately 45% of eligible voters actually were able to get to the voting polls.  You might think of the other 55% as lazy and I am sure many would have some sort of excuse.  On the other hand many of them were actually smart.  They knew that their favored party was extremely unlikely to win.  In individual ridings it is only the winner who gets to go to the Ontario Parliament and vote on legislation.  All the votes for the losers get virtually nothing for their efforts.  Their candidate will not vote on any legislation.  We don't know who the non voters would have chosen, but it doesn't really matter. much.

Getting back to those who did vote there was as almost always, a distortion.  The Conservatives were able to get 43% of the votes  which translated to 64% of the seats meaning they don't require the support of the other 56% of voters who were only able to obtain 34% of the seats that could oppose the party who got the majority of seats.  So in a very real sense the votes of the losers don't have much impact.  It must be said that they are allowed to voice their opinions, but their actual votes don't add up to make the difference.    

Politics is really about getting elected to make policies.  In the recent election there were a few odd results.  The Liberals got almost 30% of the votes, but only about 11% of the seats.  A bonus for them is they now qualify as an official party with some signficant benefits, but although they might have been the official opposition, that honor goes to the NDP who got only about 18% of the votes, but over 21% of the seats.  Many observers commented that they were more efficient.  In truth they were concentrated in enough ridings to overcome the overall voting of the Liberals.  The NDP will get a chance for better media coverage.

Next, a confession.  My first choice is the Green Party because I believe climate change is the most critical issue for our future.  There is some support from the other two progressive parties, but not as much effort.  The Greens did get almost 4% of the overall vote, but ended up with only 2 seats.  So their impact will be based on speaking in the Parliament Building.  In a tight minority government they might have some influence on legislation, but not so much in a majority government.

Voters have a big decision to make--who would they prefer to win their riding and who do they actually vote for.  A lot try strategic voting which often boils down to who they don't want to win.  They then try to guess who has the best chance to defeat the unwanted candidate.  Sometimes this might work, but often it just distorts what the people really want.  The so-called progressive parties find themselves split against the conservative party leaving the false impression that conservatives have the most public support and in this particular case have a mandate.

Proportional representation offers a different outcome.  There are many variations, but essentially it means a party gets as much legislation power as it gets a voting percentage.  In the recent election no party would have gotten majority control and definitely no mandate.  To some people that sounds frightening, but in actual fact such systems offer benefits.  For starter your vote actually COUNTS.  To get any legislation passed elected candidates will have to talk to one another and cut down insults.  International polls pretty consistently show that proportional representative governments make more progress in such issues as the environment, pollution and most interesting to me is they top the happiness surveys.  Part of the reason is that each individual has some real power.

What does all this mean for YOU.   If your candidate won your riding your efforts paid off.  If your candidate's party won a majority hopefully the promised agenda will be carried out.  If we have a minority government your candidate will be listened to.   If your candidate did not win your riding all your effort resulted in virtually nothing.  If your candidate's party won a majority hopefully the promised agenda will be carried forth.  If you have a minority government your candidate's party may have some influence on what gets decided.

 Politics is more than policies, it is getting elected so that policies can get enacted.  The established party usually gets to decide when an election can be held and of course they have ideas on which time best increases their chances of being re-elected.  My opinion for this election is that the party in power thought they had an issue they could exploit.  In this case American threatened tariffs even though that is mainly a concern of the federal government.  Others speculated that there was some bad (even criminal) news coming out soon that could be avoided with an election.  Generally speaking conservatives have learned their supporters are more steadfast in their opinions and are stronger motivated to deal with bad weather, so winter is an advantage. 

Proportional representation is avoided by those who got their power through the current electoral system.  That also includes most of their financial supporters.  They are happy that most people appear ignorant of proportional representation.  Look at it closely--it gives you more power.

One source for information is https://www.fairvote.ca/