MMP: What went wrong
Oct. 11th, 2007 03:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sabotabbyWhile I'm happy that I don't need to utter the phrase "Premier John Tory" today*, I am rather frowny-faced at the defeat of the proposed Mixed Member Proportional in the referendum yesterday. Only five ridings, all in Toronto, voted in favour of it. It needed 60% of the vote to pass and got 36.8%. As one MMP advocate I spoke to yesterday put it: "The system we're trying to overthrow isn't doing us any favours."
The handful of commercials advertising the referendum included the tag-line "Make sure you understand the question." I think if Ontarians had understood the question, they'd have voted in favour of it. The problem, as always, boils down to education, exposure, and the inertia built into electoral politics.
Because my circle of friends largely supported MMP, with a few exceptions, I was unaware how most Ontarians viewed the referendum until my parents—both well-educated, politically aware individuals—asked me to explain what this whole thing was about. Then yesterday, I was discussing the referendum with my classmates, and quite a few of them had no idea what the whole thing was about. One of the major problems that activists—electoral activists included, apparently—have is an inability to step outside of their bubbles.
As far as I can tell, here's what went wrong:
Stupid acronym
Not only does no one know what "MMP" (Mixed Member Proportional, the proposed new system) or "FTTP" (First Past the Post, the current electoral system) stand for, "MMP" sounds like "MPP" (Member of Provincial Parliament, the individuals that we elect in the provincial election). A catchy name would have stuck better in people's memories.
Media blackout
Referendums are a big deal in Canada, but you wouldn't know it from paying attention to the national and corporate media. They were too busy talking about John Tory's ridiculous Sky-Fairy-based education idea.
Toronto-centric
The current set-up strongly favours the rest of the province at Toronto's expense. So if Torontonians already have good reasons to support a change, why focus the grassroots campaign in Toronto? People outside of Toronto heard little or nothing about this.
The word "referendum" has a specific meaning in Canadian politics, and thus confuses people.
I wish I could say that I was kidding about this one. Basically, you say "referendum" to a Canadian who doesn't understand politics (which is to say most Canadians) and they think "Québec separation." A not-insubstantial amount of my classmates' friends and relatives believed that this referendum that they kept hearing about was another attempt at Québec separating.
Voter disenfranchisement meets piss-poor weather
I've lived in the same place for two years, and voted in one or two elections since moving here, but do you think I ever get my voter registration card? I do not, and judging by the time I spent at the polling stations last night (I went to four different polling stations as part of my selling out to the NDP), at least half the people showing up to vote didn't get their cards either. And these people were, like me, motivated enough to brave the storm, explain the situation the District Returning Officers who were not particularly nice or well-trained, scrounge up some ID, fill out a form, make sure that the DRO spelled their names and addresses correctly on the form (my name is not that hard to spell, people!), show ID to a second DRO, and swear an oath.
Wording and translation
There are a lot of people around here who don't speak English that well, and I listened to their conversations at the polling station. They literally did not understand the question. It was not particularly well-phrased, and election workers were explaining it even more clumsily as: "Are you happy with the current system or do you want to try a new one." I also don't think that there were a lot of informational materials translated into languages other than English or French.
Basically, I don't blame people for being confused. The whole campaign was an object lesson in how not to try to get political change to happen. And this election was a victory for the status quo.
* PWNED!
The handful of commercials advertising the referendum included the tag-line "Make sure you understand the question." I think if Ontarians had understood the question, they'd have voted in favour of it. The problem, as always, boils down to education, exposure, and the inertia built into electoral politics.
Because my circle of friends largely supported MMP, with a few exceptions, I was unaware how most Ontarians viewed the referendum until my parents—both well-educated, politically aware individuals—asked me to explain what this whole thing was about. Then yesterday, I was discussing the referendum with my classmates, and quite a few of them had no idea what the whole thing was about. One of the major problems that activists—electoral activists included, apparently—have is an inability to step outside of their bubbles.
As far as I can tell, here's what went wrong:
Stupid acronym
Not only does no one know what "MMP" (Mixed Member Proportional, the proposed new system) or "FTTP" (First Past the Post, the current electoral system) stand for, "MMP" sounds like "MPP" (Member of Provincial Parliament, the individuals that we elect in the provincial election). A catchy name would have stuck better in people's memories.
Media blackout
Referendums are a big deal in Canada, but you wouldn't know it from paying attention to the national and corporate media. They were too busy talking about John Tory's ridiculous Sky-Fairy-based education idea.
Toronto-centric
The current set-up strongly favours the rest of the province at Toronto's expense. So if Torontonians already have good reasons to support a change, why focus the grassroots campaign in Toronto? People outside of Toronto heard little or nothing about this.
The word "referendum" has a specific meaning in Canadian politics, and thus confuses people.
I wish I could say that I was kidding about this one. Basically, you say "referendum" to a Canadian who doesn't understand politics (which is to say most Canadians) and they think "Québec separation." A not-insubstantial amount of my classmates' friends and relatives believed that this referendum that they kept hearing about was another attempt at Québec separating.
Voter disenfranchisement meets piss-poor weather
I've lived in the same place for two years, and voted in one or two elections since moving here, but do you think I ever get my voter registration card? I do not, and judging by the time I spent at the polling stations last night (I went to four different polling stations as part of my selling out to the NDP), at least half the people showing up to vote didn't get their cards either. And these people were, like me, motivated enough to brave the storm, explain the situation the District Returning Officers who were not particularly nice or well-trained, scrounge up some ID, fill out a form, make sure that the DRO spelled their names and addresses correctly on the form (my name is not that hard to spell, people!), show ID to a second DRO, and swear an oath.
Wording and translation
There are a lot of people around here who don't speak English that well, and I listened to their conversations at the polling station. They literally did not understand the question. It was not particularly well-phrased, and election workers were explaining it even more clumsily as: "Are you happy with the current system or do you want to try a new one." I also don't think that there were a lot of informational materials translated into languages other than English or French.
Basically, I don't blame people for being confused. The whole campaign was an object lesson in how not to try to get political change to happen. And this election was a victory for the status quo.
* PWNED!
