Monday, August 13, 2007

You down with MMP? Yeah, you know me...*

*Not an endorsement of MMP.

Vacation. Sorry.

But Q did a great job of keeping you Hipsters using your melons in my absence.

I've really been off the grid politically since I started a new job just over a year ago. So, it gives me a great chance to view political events from a vantage point that is not overtly partisan.

I am continually amazed by how little attention/coverage the proposed electoral reforms are getting in the run up to the October 10th Ontario election. This isn't just the case of some election cycle, where candidate A is trying to unseat candidate B; the McGiggles government has put changes to the people that will almost completely change the way we elect our respresentatives here in Ontario.

And the coverage has been almost non-existent. By my recollection, I have seen only one article on the proposed reforms in the last 6 months. Now, maybe that's because I don't read the Red Star which spends pages and pages of weekend ink writing about these kinds of issues. Is it just me? Now to be fair, Facebook, as usual, is all over this issue. Groups gallore! So, the issue has been covered in the social networking scene, such as it is. But everywhere else its just not there.

The challenge I fear is that the proposals are fairly complicated - or at least the potential repercussions are. It will be a lot for the average voter to digest while they are working, getting the kids to school, shopping, watching Gilmore Girls reruns (oh, that's my household - thanks honey), or whatever.

I have a message for all you electoral reformers out there - this is not on anyone's radar screens. I spend a lot of time with folks who are up on current events but are fairly non-partisan (or at least not hacks). No one is talking about this issue. NO ONE. Heck, I would consider myself fairly up on things politically and all I know about MMP is that it involves party lists, which I think sucks. In fact, I actually couldn't tell you right now what MMP stands for.

So the two camps really have their work cut out for them. Not only do they have an election to contend with (a real clash of the titans, to be sure), they have to explain fairly dry reforms to them as well. I hope this important debate gets the attention it deserves.

Ah, who am I kidding??? May the best slogan win!

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