FVO slams referendum threshold

FAIR VOTE ONTARIO SLAMS REFERENDUM THRESHOLD AT COMMITTEE HEARING (Feb. 5, 2007)

Joe Murray, Fair Vote Ontario (FVO) Chair, and Patrick Boyer, lawyer, former Progressive Conservative MP and FVC National Advisory Board member, called on the Ontario Standing Committee on Legislative Affairs to scrap the supermajority referendum threshold in Bill 155, the Ontario electoral reform referendum enabling bill. Boyer asked Committee members to support the Select Committee on Electoral Reform’s proposal for a simple majority threshold. The complete FVO presentation is available here.

Dr. Dennis Pilon, University of Victoria political scientist and FVC National Council member, spoke to the committee via teleconference.

“Apart from the recent PEI and BC referendums, no voting system change decision in Canada was ever subjected to a super-majority rule. In fact, the establishment of all Canadian federal and provincial voting systems was by a simple majority vote of the designers‘¦[and] all western countries have seen the establishment of their voting systems or any changes in their voting systems handled either through a simple majority vote of parliament or a simple majority vote in a referendum.‘

Dr. Pilon's complete presentation is available here.