This fall voters will have the opportunity to change the way politicians are elected. If enough voters answer yes to a referendum question, the province will switch to the mixed member proportional system proposed by the Citizens’ Assembly.

Voters will be asked the following question on a separate ballot:

Which electoral system should Ontario use to elect members to the provincial legislature?

The existing electoral system (First-Past-the-Post)

The alternative electoral system proposed by the Citizens’ Assembly (Mixed Member Proportional)

If a majority of voters select the alternate electoral system, the province will switch to a “one party, two votes” system that allows voters to mark two votes on their ballot - one for a party and another for a local candidate.

One Ballot, Two Votes

At the party level each party would submit a list of candidates that it would like to see elected to represent the whole province, with names shown in the order the party wants them to be elected. This list would then be published so that all voters could see the candidate each party puts forward.

“Voters will also be able to see whether a party’s list has a good balance of men and women, includes candidates from all of Ontario’s regions, and reflects the diversity of Ontario’s population,” notes the Citizen’s Assembly on Election Reform website.

Parties would also put forward local candidates and voters would vote for both a party and a local candidate on their ballot. The party vote determines the share of seats a party wins in the legislature.

To compensate for any lack of proportionality, if a party doesn’t have enough local members elected to match its share of the party vote, it gets to “top-up” its seats in the legislature using the list the party put forward before the election.

The Citizen’s Assembly on Election Reform website provides this example to illustrate the new system:

“For example, imagine a legislature with 100 seats. If a party receives 25% of the party vote, it is entitled to about 25 seats. If it elects only 20 local members, the top 5 members from its list are elected to bring its total share of seats in the legislature up to 25%.”

A party must have at least 3% of the party vote across the province before its list candidates will gain a seat in the legislature.

For more information on the proposed electoral system, visit the Citizen’s Assembly on Election Reform.

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