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Canada, like many developed countries, has fallen victim to a pattern of disregard towards voting. In the 2011 federal election only 14 of the 24 million registered voters (61%) actually cast a ballot. These numbers are even worse at the provincial level, where the 2011 Ontario General Election saw a 49% voter turnout.
It is extremely sad to see something as fundamental to a democracy as voting being disregarded by so many people. With the 2014 Ontario General Election coming to a close we can now take a look at the results and what they mean for Ontario.
Having managed to gain 10 seats from the PCs, Kathleen Wynne and the Liberals managed to pick up a majority. What makes this win interesting though is that she was able to do so with only 38.7% of the popular vote. With voters quite evenly split between the three major parties (Liberal, PC, and NDP) one would think this election is a perfect example of why Ontario (and most places that rely on First Past the Post election systems) needs to introduce some electoral reform. People are afraid of change. And it’s this fear that’s keeping Canada from taking the necessary steps towards changing the way we elect Members of Parliament. The current First-past-the-post (FPP) system is a hugely flawed electoral system that has been used in Canada for far too long, and is in need to replacement. This replacement comes in the form of Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) voting, a system which eliminates essentially all the faults found in FPP.