Voting system delivered “false majority” to Liberals

June 18, 2014 · 0 Comments

Ontario’s voting system took only 38.6% of the votes to manufacture a majority for Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals. Locally, Chris Ballard got 43.8% of the Newmarket-Aurora vote. Both are not a simple majority.
Ontarians did not vote for a Liberal majority, but a Winner-Take-All voting system gave them one anyway, and distorted of the voters’ wishes.
This voting system fails to reflect how voters really voted, but instead highlighted how the parties played the voting game.
The Liberals increased their share of the popular vote by only one percent over the 2011 election, but that was enough to give them a majority.
This voting system has given a false majority to both the Conservatives as well as the NDP at different times in the past. Ontario has not had a true majority government since the Liberals won it in 1934 with 50.4% of the popular vote.
In a democracy, governments should have a mandate from the voters. Proportional representation ensures each party’s share of the seats reflects its share of the popular vote.

Dan Desson
Newmarket