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The Government of the Province of Ontario , Canada , established a Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform in March 2006. Modelled on the British Columbia Equivalent , it reviewed the First Past The Post electoral system currently in use to elect members of the Ontario Legislature , with the authority to recommend an alternative. In April, 2007, the Assembly decided to recommend that Ontario adopt a form of Mixed Member Proportional Representation (MMP). This option was chosen over the Assembly's runner-up option, Single Transferable Vote , by a vote of 75-25. From April 2006 to June 25 , 2006 , 103 Ontarians were selected at random to analyze the electoral system. This group is composed of 52 women and 51 men, including at least one Aboriginal person. All registered voters were eligible for selection to the Citizens' Assembly with the exception of elected officials, party officers and candidates. Under chairperson George Thomson , the independent body of citizens meets twice a month since September 9 , 2006 (six weekends in the fall of 2006 and six from February 17 to April 29 ) to examine the current electoral system and deliberate on alternatives. Queen's University Associate Professor of Political Science, Jonathan Rose, led the Assembly in the Learning Phase in the fall of 2006. The Assembly also held public meetings across the province between November and January under the direction of Susan Pigott. This process ends with a final report due on or before May 15 , 2007 . Once the Assembly has finished its consultation with the public and sufficiently explored alternative electoral systems it will decide, by Majority Vote , what recommendations it will make to the people of Ontario. If the Assembly recommends a new electoral system the government has pledged to hold a Referendum on the issue on October 10 , 2007 , the date of the Next Provincial Election . The referendum result will be binding if passed by 60% of the vote overall, and by 50% of the vote in each of at least 64 of the 107 electoral districts (i.e. 60% of them.) This threshold was decided by the Ontario cabinet, despite the recommendation of the Select Committee that it require only 50% support in 71 of the 107 ridings. As background, the Assembly members have the Report of the Select Committee on Electoral Reform. It was made up of Members of Provincial Parliament (MPPs) from the Liberal , Progressive Conservative and New Democratic parties. The committee studied electoral systems and issued a report to the Ontario Legislature in November 2005. It recommended the Assembly be provided the latitude necessary to recommend whatever electoral system is consistent with Ontario's (and Canada's) constitution. It assessed several alternatives. The report noted that both First Past the Post (also known as Plurality Voting System ) and the Alternative Vote (also known as Instant-runoff Voting ) have weak proportionality and weak representation of social diversity. It noted that a new system would work better if the size of the Legislature were increased to, for example, 133 seats. (It had 130 seats until 1999.) It noted that Single Transferable Vote (as used in Ireland) would require multi-member constituencies which, particularly in rural and northern Ontario, would cover an enormous amount of territory. It noted Mixed Member Proportional Representation (MMP) (used in Scotland, Germany and New Zealand) has good proportionality and strong encouragement for representation of social diversity. In the Prince Edward Island Electoral Reform Referendum, 2005 , an MMP proposal with province-wide closed lists was rejected, receiving only 38 per cent of the vote. In the British Columbia Electoral Reform Referendum, 2005 a few months early, a Single Transferable Vote (STV) scheme received nearly 58 per cent support, with 77 of 79 districts approving, and narrowly missing even in the other two. The Ontario vote is considered crucial also by advocates of Canadian Federal Electoral Reform because without a system working in at least one of Canada's larger provinces, it seems unlikely that there would be much pressure to try an untried scheme on a larger scale. In light of the Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform, it was decided to include the thoughts of people who could not yet legally vote. The "Students Assembly on Electoral Reform" met for five days at Deerhurst Resort. It concluded that Ontario should switch to the MMP (mixed member proportional) system. These findings were presented to the Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform on February 17, 2007. EXTERNAL LINKS
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