[fvc-wat-disc] MMP questions

[Paul Nijjar]

 	I have some questions about the proposed system for Ontario that I 
would like to clear up for the information night, and I hope people on the 
list have been following the decision closer than I have:

 	0. Is there protection against the "decoy list" attack in this 
system? If so, what is the protection?

 	1. My understanding is that parties need not run any riding 
candidates in order to to appear on the party ballot in every Ontario 
riding. Is this correct? If so, what criteria are used to determine what 
parties appear on the ballot?

 	2. If the referndum passes, will it be re-evaluated at some set 
date? If so, how will the evaluation be done?

 	3. Does marking only one checkmark on the two-checkmark ballot 
spoil the ballot?

 	4. Will list MPPs have the option of opening offices in 
constituencies? Will this be mandatory? Will people be able to take their 
concerns to either the riding MPP or some list MPP?

 	5. Can list MPPs defect to other parties or sit as independents?

 	6. Are there any geographic representation guarantees for the list 
MPPs? Could they all come from North Bay, for instance?

 	7. Does this version of MMP offer any guarantees against 
second-place majorities? (My guess is that it does not, partially because 
we got rid of overhangs. However, I could be wrong.)

 	(If these questions sound familiar it is because many of them were 
raised in the Law Commission of Canada's report.)

 	While I am here, maybe I can ask some questions not direcly 
related to the new system, but which I would like to know in preparation 
for public speaking:

 	0. A big reason we are going with a closed-list system is to get 
more women elected. But if you look at
 	http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm
you will see that other countries using MMP systems don't do that well. 
Germany and New Zealand do okay, but others (Bolivia, Venezuala, etc) do 
poorly. This undermines the argument that parties will be ashamed to run 
unbalanced party lists. Other than saying "Ontario is sophisticated and 
civilized" what is the response to this?

 	1. Will people who are Ontario citizens out of province on Oct 10 
be allowed to vote in the referendum?

 	2. Are there any known cases of second-place majorities where the 
party that finished second in seats actually got over 50% of the vote?

- Paul

--
Paul Nijjar - http://www.fairvotecanada.org/WaterlooRegion
Next electoral reform info night: Tuesday May 8, 7pm