Three policies for the Premier to Consider: improve democracy, make education truly public and look at the way we tax the public.

Rivers 100x100By Ray Rivers

June 29, 2014

BURLINGTON, ON.

 Premier Wynne made a number of commitments during the recent Ontario election.  Here are three more I think she needs to look at.

1: Improve Democracy

 Traditionally the candidate with the highest number of electoral votes wins the election.  This works well when there are only two political parties but not so well in our multiparty system.  The last provincial election provides an example, where Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals won a majority government with 58 seats but with less than 40% of the vote.  This vote splitting among the parties is pretty common place, as Stephen Harper and Jean Chretien also won majorities with less than 40% of the popular vote.

werv

Is the way we count the ballots working for us?

Some jurisdictions have introduced proportional representation, a complicated system engineered to moderate the political advantage of vote splitting.  However, voters in referenda recently in B.C., as well as Ontario rejected a move to that system.

Another option involves use of a preferential ballot whereby voters rank their electoral choices in priority. If no candidate gets 51% of the total vote, then the second ballot choices are counted until someone wins, etc.  The federal Liberals passed a motion at one of their policy conventions to introduce this system should they form government.

With preferential balloting the winning candidate will always have the support of over half of the voters as their first or second priority choice.  There should be fewer minority governments as a result, since the impact of third parties in splitting votes will be diminished.  And policies may tend to become more moderate as parties opt to please a broad swath of the public rather than just their own partisan base.

The province also needs to consider implementing electronic voting via the internet to encourage greater voter participation. Less than 60% turnout in a general election is unhealthy for a nation and province that prides itself on government by the people.  Australia makes voting compulsory with legal penalties for failing to exercise your franchise.

Electronic voting should also reduce the the high cost of elections and facilitate quicker results.  Finally, government may find it useful to include referenda questions on delicate issues as guidance in policy setting, a practice rarely used in Canada.  And as for trust-worthy, well, we trust the internet for our banking, don’t we?.

2. Make Public Education Truly Public

 There is a condition in the Canadian constitution, originating from the British North America Act of 1867, which enables provinces to retain Catholic schools as part of their educational system.  That clause was added at the insistence of Quebec, which ironically has now eliminated its own Catholic schools, as indeed has Newfoundland.

Somehow when the political parties in the last election talked about cost cutting the elephant in the room was our redundant Catholic education system.  Duplication at the board level, under-utilized classrooms in older areas, four school buses when there could be two – these are just the most glaring examples of waste.

Classroom - young kids

Is a separate and a public education system something Ontario can afford? Doesn’t exist in most of the other provinces.

Public education is a great equalizer in our society.  We may not all be born equal but the class room is a wonderful place for children coming from income, ethnic and religiously diverse households to grow together, better understanding each other and each other’s point of view.  Hopefully that provides a formula for a more tolerant, understanding and competitive future for our youth.

3. Raise Taxes to Stem the Red

Ontario has the lowest cost-of-services delivery of any jurisdiction in Canada.  Yet we are still running a deficit and our debt is piling up.  It’s obvious we need to fix the revenue side of the balance sheet.  And that means taxes.

There has been lot of talk about carbon taxes.  B.C. and Quebec generate revenue in addition to encouraging energy conservation, though these taxes.  In the case of B.C. the tax is revenue-neutral, offset by reductions in other taxes.  And revenue neutral is not going to help us with the bottom line, is it?

Road tolls have also been bandied about and the 407, though being the greatest rip-off ever invented by man, is a system that works.  Applying that formula to all divided highways and charging a reasonable toll would bring in a lot of revenue, in addition to helping the motorist better understand the value of the time they spend commuting.

Inheritance tax

Are inheritance taxes something the government wants to bring back? Great cry from the wealthy if that ever happens.

Is it time to bring back inheritance taxes?  It’s not like the deceased will complain about paying death taxes.  Why is it that we don’t tax lottery and gaming winnings as income?

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Ray Rivers writes weekly on both federal and provincial politics, applying his more than 25 years as a federal bureaucrat to his thinking.  Rivers was a candidate for provincial office in Burlington where he ran against Cam Jackson in 1995, the year Mike Harris and the Common Sense Revolution swept the province. He developed the current policy process for the Ontario Liberal Party.

 Background links:

Catholic Schools     More Schools       Even More Schools      Even More

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5 comments to Three policies for the Premier to Consider: improve democracy, make education truly public and look at the way we tax the public.

  • Tony Pullin

    Raising taxes?
    Lets say I have a child who receives a weekly allowance of say $20. He/she comes to me later in the week and says “dad, I ran out of money”. I say, “what did you do with it?” He/she says, “I bought some tunes for my iPhone, bought some gum for my friends so they will like me, then threw the rest into the fountain while wishing for a bigger allowance.” Then I say “gee son/daughter, I guess we better have a closer look at the revenue side of your allowance. Seems your spending is bang on!”

  • greg.fabian

    Ray, instead of raising my taxes why not solicit all Liberals to dontate to the Ontario opportunities fund.

    There is an area on page 4 of the T1 General tax form which states “You can help reduce Ontario’s debt by completing this area to donate some or all of your 2013 tax refund to the Ontario opportunities fund.”

    I trust that you have donated a substantial portion of your refund.

  • greg.fabian

    Yes, of course taxes need to be increased. I have not yet heard a single person say their taxes are too high. So everyone must be begging for an increase.

  • D.Duck

    Improve Democracy:
    – voting in your local riding for the representative you like should not mean that you also indirectly indorse that representative’s leader!!
    – elected officials should be allowed to vote for what is in the best interest of their constituents, their province and their nation. They should not have to tote the party line and vote as mindless lemmings just to oppose the opposition.
    – all votes (at any gov’t level) should be transparent and record vote.

    Make Public education truly public:
    – completely agree. One system paid by tax payers with a unified nation wide curriculum. Reduce the school boards and number of trustees. If you wish another educational option then you must pay extra for that privilege. I give it 10yrs more, before the Catholic school system pulls out of the public funding trough. By that time their new schools and playing fields will be the envy of our tax dollars.

    Raise taxes to stem the red:
    – first & foremost…….the gov’t (at all levels) must become fiscally responsible with our money and be held accountable if they are not!! They just cannot continually reach into our pockets when needing a little extra cash. It sickens me the billions lost to irresponsibility, mismanagement and over-rides. If I ran a business this way, I would be out of business AND the gov’t is a business.
    – Wynne will raise taxes! Just wait till all those making over 80K are considered rich and are now to be taxed at a higher rate. With one hand she will increase their union salaries (as promised) and with the other will take the money back with a higher tax on these same union workers.

  • John Coakley

    Ray:
    Right on! We agree on a lot of issues (despite the fact that you are a *#+ Liberal). Perhaps there is a reason for the NDP to absorb the Liberal party, after all. I love your column and look forward to getting it.

    Cheers.

    John C.