MMP: The Commies aren't coming (probably)

Over numerous discussions on the Ontario referendum, I have noticed an interesting trend: many people are worried that the MMP system will hold the Parliamentary door open for Communist party members in the Commons. This is an interesting, and surprising, objection. I have two reactions I want to briefly outline:

1) Remember that a party is only eligible to win List Member representation in the House if it wins 3% of the Party vote or more. I did some poking around online, and have discovered that the Communist Party won exactly 2,187 votes in the last Provincial election, or 0.05% of the province-wide vote. So not even close. I agree that a Communist candidate is more likely to pick up a seat under MMP than under the current system. But let's not get nuts here: the Communist Party would have to do 60 times better in future elections to make the grade, which could fairly be called 'unlikely.' Unless global capitalism collapses. In which case the Communists might elect a guy.

2) And besides, if Ontarians vote for them, shouldn't the Communist Party get the representation it deserves? If we truly value democracy, we can't design our electoral process to exclude parties we find distasteful. Preserving FPP to prevent fringe parties from winning seats is the tyranny of the majority come to life.

Now, don't get me wrong: I am not a communist, Mr. Chairman. Indeed, far, far from it. Just ask my portfolio manager. And indeed, I don't think any old party should be able to run for office. Neo-Nazis, for instance, should be restricted from the ballot, as should any party that promotes violence. But the Communist Party is a legal and registered political party in Ontario, meaning they have conformed to the rules of the game. And if people want to vote for them, well then dammit, they should be given every seat they're entitled to. And if our current system doesn't reflect the true will of the people, then it might be time for a change.

Of course, if you don't value democracy in the first place, that's a discussion we can have too. Far be it from Frökspoke to ever defend an argument on purely ideological grounds.

Commie.

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Here's another item of interest that was brought to my attention on the comments section of this blog. Marilyn, a faithful reader (I assume) critiques MMP by asking:

Who loses the elected seats? If history is any indication, these seats would come from the less populated parts of Ontario. This would give even more power to the 905 area.

Wow, great comment Marilyn! Thanks for bringing this up. I hadn't even thought about this.

Indeed, under MMP, the number of riding seats will decrease from 107 to 90, meaning 17 Members will, theoretically, be out of work. And indeed, I don't know how the new, larger ridings will be drawn up. I can only assume that a Parliamentary committee will redefine the ridings according to a standard population target, and the parties will hold new candidate nominations for each. This means some current Members will get squeezed out, and yes, maybe from Northern or sparsely populated areas of Ontario. I imagine the parties will probably compensate squeezed-out Members by making them List Candidates, but I can't say for sure.

So something else to keep in mind for when you vote on the 10th. Thanks again Marilyn.