MMP Supporters Do Their Homework/MMP International

To: Andy Barrie, CBC - Metro Morning program
Re.: Correction request re false statements by David Fleet
Dear Andy:

On your program today, Mr. Fleet made several statements that could easily be refuted if someone pays attention, ... but most listeners and voters will not, I fear. Therefore, at least the most glaring factual ones should be exposed, to - hopefully - raise the flag for those who can easily be mislead by demagoguery, unsubstantiated claims, misinformation, and simple lies. Let me draw your attention to two false references now. Mr. Fleets claims that (1) MMP (or proportional representation) was not selected in the newly democratizing countries of the former Soviet bloc, and (2) that most of the democratic countries in the West use the same or similar electoral system than Canada.

Please check it out yourself at the website of the International Institute for Democracy and electoral Assistance (http://www.idea.int/esd/world.cfm ), and you will see the following: Out of 26 countries listed there that can be considered as part of the former Soviet bloc, actually not even one picked a Canadian-like system. Two countries (Albania and Hungary) have MMP, 13 countries picked List Proportional Representation (that is even farther from the FPTP model than MMP is), 7 countries picked Parallel Systems (again, with strong element of proportionality in it), and four countries selected so-called Two-Round Systems.

After looking at the post-Soviet group, I checked out two more things.
Where exactly is the FPTP system used, beyond the ones (Canada, US, UK, India) that Mr. Fleet mentioned, and what kind of system is used typically in the countries of Europe and the OECD.

Yes, the list of FPTP users is long (47 countries), from Anguilla to Zimbabwe, with such bastions of democracy as Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Nigeria, Sudan, Uganda, Yemen, ... just to give a few examples that somehow Mr. Fleet forgot to mention. There is no European or OECD country in that list, beyond the ones already mentioned. I didn't make a detailed summary of what systems are used in Europe, but clearly some kind of proportional representation seems to be a norm, ... my impression is that List Proportional Representation is probably the most often used.

I found it interesting how well the trick of offering a bluff worked again this morning: neither You nor Wayne Smith rejected the factual claims off the cuff, probably because you try to stick to what you know about. However, this is not a requirement for some. Allegedly, when one of his generals cautioned Napoleon once that the facts contradict one of his statements, Napoleon's answer was: It's all the worse for the facts!
It's time to turn this around by publicly unveiling ignorance and/or shameless lies. It should be all the worse for the liar.

As a very last point, in this particular situation, and in the whole Referendum debate more attention should be given, I think, to the credibility of the recommendation of the Citizens Assembly. This representative group of ordinary Ontario citizens invested a lot of time and effort into studying and debating a complicated issue, ... and at the end they come up with a strong majority recommendation. I'd challenge all the nay-sayers whether their level of literacy in this field is at least remotely comparable to that of the Assembly members. I'd give more opportunity for these members to speak, and would ask them also about why didn't they suggest to introduce even more proportionality in the system, that would make ours probably even more similar to the ones used in many advanced democracies.

Best regards,

Laszlo Kramar, Toronto