Today Mitzie Hunter MPP Scarborough-Guildwood and Ontario Liberal Party Critic for Democratic Renewal and Electoral Reform issued the following statement:
“Doug Ford quietly slipped a nefarious measure into a bill that will remove the power of municipalities to use ranked ballots in their local elections. This will take the power away from cities and towns to decide how they choose their own leaders.
“The first bill I introduced as an MPP was Bill 166, the Toronto Ranked Ballot Elections Act, 2014. Only years later, the City of London became the first municipality in Canada to implement ranked ballots in their municipal elections, with impressive results.
“It’s not clear who, if anyone, asked for Doug Ford to sneak this provision into legislation. However, it is clear that there is grassroots popular support for ranked ballots. Citizens do not need their Premier to dictate how they chose their own local leaders. This is the second time that Doug Ford has directly interfered with municipal elections, after impeding an election already underway in Toronto.
“Doug Ford has a responsibility to respond to the pandemic, not to meddle with our democratic institutions.
Doug Ford did not consult the people. He is using his majority government, which was elected with 40% of the vote, to continue to stifle the diversity of voices in our electoral systems.”
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