For those of you keeping score, Ontario recently launched its Citizen's Assembly on Electoral Reform (which I imagine is similar to the British Columbia Citizen's Assembly on Electoral Reform).
Ontario's Citizen's Assembly is made up of 103 randomly-selected Ontarians. In order for the Assembly properly reflect Ontarian society, 51 of the members of the Assembly will be men, and 52 will be women, as well as at least one member will be Aboriginal.
Members of the Assembly are randomly selected by Elections Ontario and every registered Ontario voter was eligible to chosen (with the exception of elected officials).
Beginning in September 2006, members of the Assembly will meet about twice a month for eight months with public meetings to be held across Ontario. Following these public meetings, the Assembly will recommend either keeping the same out-of-date first-past-the-post electoral system, or recommend that a new one be put forward to a referendum
Together, they’ll examine our current electoral system and learn about other systems. They’ll meet with people at public meetings to be held across the province. And then, depending on what they learn and hear, they’ll recommend either keeping our current electoral system or adopting a new one following approval through a province-wide referendum. The final report of the Assembly is due by May 15, 2007.
Wouldn't a Citizen's Assembly be a great idea for the Province of Alberta?
It's something the Alberta Liberals have been pushing for and it would be even better if a Tory leadership candidate got behind the idea.
Imagine that, TRUE CITIZEN INVOLVEMENT IN ALBERTA POLITICS. Wow.
It's tough to imagine.
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
citizen's unite!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
6 comments:
what are you talking about? we have true citizen involvement in Alberta - it's called buying a Tory membership.
STV all the way baby!
I have pen fiend from New Zealand, and they have Proportional Representation and they do not like it..too many fringe partys, and nothing gets done,. They don't seem to worry about their constituents. They are a much smaller country. so I do not think it will work in this country. As far as Ontario, i don't know.
I'm not totally convinced that PR is the best alternative to our current system. I think I might rather prefer a preferential ballot system.
Preferential ballot is no better than first-past-the-post. PR is what we need.
PR strengthens parties. Preferentian entrenches strong parties. Only STV allows for independents and proportionality in equal measure. Plus Jack Layton hates it. So there's 3 reasons.
Post a Comment