[fvc-wat-disc] The Record column by Luisa D'Amato

[Jennifer Ross]

Yes, very disappointing.  I couldn't believe you guys were tweeting it to
make people read that piece of rubbish.  I'm sorry you had to be the
poster-boy for "but I did get a second viewpoint" journalism.

On Tue, Jun 28, 2016 at 4:11 PM, Bob Jonkman <bjonkman at sobac.com> wrote:

> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> I get quoted in today's column by Luisa D'Amato:
>
>
> http://www.therecord.com/opinion-story/6743051-d-amato-despite-brexit-we-need-a-referendum-on-electoral-reform/
>
> > D’Amato: Despite Brexit, we need a referendum on electoral reform
>
> > Bob Jonkman, co-chair of the Waterloo Region chapter of Fair Vote
> > Canada, says there is barely time to put a new system in place,
> > let alone ask people what they think of it
>
> Ms. D'Amato and I had a 20 minute conversation yesterday and that's
> only a brief and under-representative quote of what we spoke about.
> Among other things, I expressed my opinion that a referendum on
> Electoral Reform isn't necessary because:
>
> 1) Parliament (and provincial legislatures) may change the electoral
> system with a vote in parliament, as they have done for every other
> electoral reform issue such as giving the vote to women (1917-1918) or
> First Nations people (1960!)
>
> 2) A referendum on electoral reform is not a constitutional
> requirement. The only issue that affects consitutionality is seat
> allocation to the provinces, and that requirement is easily met by not
> extending electoral boundaries across provincial lines. (We didn't
> discuss it, but there have been many electoral boundary changes,
> notably before the 2015 election, which didn't go to a referendum and
> were perfectly constitutional)
>
> 3) That an effective and equal vote is a right, and that the
> First-Past-The-Post system violates that right, and rights issues are
> never decided by referenda.
>
> I spoke of the rarity of referenda in Canada, that the only national
> referenda have been on issues like prohibition (I thought that was in
> the 1930's, but it was in 1898), and the separation of Quebec (1992).
> Ms. D'Amato pointed out that we had a municipal referendum on
> fluoridation, and pointed out the many provincial referenda on
> electoral reform.
>
> We talked about the 2007 referendum in Ontario -- that example is a
> great reason to avoid referenda on these topics. Although the McGuinty
> Liberals made it an election promise in 2003, the Citizens' Assembly
> wasn't formed until 2006, leaving them only six months to become
> experts in voting systems and make a recommendation. Elections Ontario
> did not have enough information documents available; Fair Vote
> Waterloo members went door-to-door, and we ran out. Elections Ontario
> themselves were prohibited from giving out information on the proposed
> voting system, and when voters went to the polls in October most
> didn't even know there was a referendum on.
>
> I expressed dismay that it took the Federal Liberal government eight
> months to form the current All-party Parliamentary Committee, that the
> Committee's proposal is due on 1 December (and consultations need to
> wrapped up by 1 October), that the time it would take to move a bill
> through parliament could be as much as year, what with debate,
> multiple reading, and senate approval, and that Elections Canada will
> need a year to re-tool for a new electoral system.
>
> And that whole conversation was distilled down to the one sentence.
>
> - --Bob.
>
>
> - --
> Bob Jonkman <bjonkman at sobac.com>          Phone: +1-519-635-9413
> SOBAC Microcomputer Services             http://sobac.com/sobac/
> Software   ---   Office & Business Automation   ---   Consulting
> GnuPG Fngrprnt:04F7 742B 8F54 C40A E115 26C2 B912 89B0 D2CC E5EA
>
>
>
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
> Version: GnuPG v2
> Comment: Ensure confidentiality, authenticity, non-repudiability
>
> iEYEARECAAYFAldy2gMACgkQuRKJsNLM5eq0swCgwhi2U81NsvIinMHdreeIk8gU
> o5oAnid3SBuTwZ/Q3yJY8RQYQbotVp02
> =uabk
> -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> This is the fvc-wat-disc mailing list
> Post a message: fvc-wat-disc at listserv.thinkers.org
> Unsubscribe:
> http://listserv.thinkers.org/mailman/listinfo/fvc-wat-disc_listserv.thinkers.org
>



-- 
No other Western democratic country concentrates as much political power in
the hands of one person as Canada does with her Prime Minister.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.thinkers.org/pipermail/fvc-wat-disc_listserv.thinkers.org/attachments/20160629/1bff8cf8/attachment-0002.htm>