You can compare the current leadership race for the Ontario liberals to a schoolyard race. There is still time for somebody to get tripped. It’s a mixed race. It’s the boys against the only girl. Call her Cinderella, if you wish. She is running against her two wicked stepsisters and her fairy godmother’s coachman.
Obviously, we are talking about Mississauga mayor Bonnie Crombie. She thinks she is in for a first-ballot win. Which is possible—if she gets lots of her party sign-ups to vote. Crombie might be the only candidate who really understands the mathematics of the race. By no stretch of the imagination can this be called a ‘one member-one vote’ election. The last riding anybody needs to have new sign-ups is their own riding. As soon as you have 100 members, you have hit your limit. More voters than 100 is just diluting your relative strength.
What particularly annoys me about ranked balloting is when there are a larger number of candidates, the less likely the best person wins. If people would stop to think about it, they would realize that it is a method of picking the best-known candidate, not the most qualified candidate. It is a chance for your second or third best to win. The deeper you get into the count, the less likely that any substantive thought or consideration goes into the choices.
And the most amusing aspect of this degrading count-down is that by the time you get to the fourth or fifth count, you can be letting less than half your voter base make the decision. How many people can even guess who is their fourth or fifth choice?
But don’t pay any attention to me. Do your own countdown on this race. The first ballot will see up to 12,400 votes allocated to 124 electoral districts Those with less than 100 members will have all their voters counted. Voters in strong riding associations have to share their votes on a percentage basis. If there are 300 members voting, for example, each of their votes will only count for 33.3 per cent.
And there is another problem with this that nobody seems to be concerned about. There is no membership fee involved. Of all the mistakes Justin Trudeau has made as leader of the liberal party, I think that was about the stupidest. I bet the candidates’ people went to the easiest people to get memberships. What motivates these freeloaders to vote? Good luck candidates!
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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry
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