I think I would like a balanced electoral system.  Partially representative, partially constituant would allow other parties to get voices in parliament.

yeah!  flighting yogis finally getting a voice in parliment---the world is such a better place..we can now all rest in peace

Joking aside (the flighting yogis need to get 3% of the popular vote to get a seat) do you think it's right that the liberals have a majority with only 42% of the vote?

Yes! Rather have an experienced screwed up party than an inexperienced one just think of all the lessons that they have already (hopefully) learned!!

Everyone's inexperienced at the beginning... Dalton wasn't experienced as a premier when he was first elected, which in my opinion makes your point moot.  

As for lessons learned... yeah he learned how to not keep promises.

Actually, I think that's part of the list of requirements when you're talking about the liberal party.

Yeah, print a platform that sounds nice and appealling and then use it for toilet paper.

I find it interesting how few politicians are saying anything about the referendum.

Quite frankly, I find it predictable...the more misinformation provided by the media and well intentioned do gooders will prevent any genuine discussion on the issue(s) from taking place before the October election... or from a vague/badly written referendum question being ratified before October election.  In the end, a referendum is not legally binding and mere political tokenism... In terms of Ontario political history, I find the timing for this referendum particularly interesting and wonder if it is not a political smoke cloud from dealing with more pressing controversial issues

"Which electoral system should Ontario use to elect members to the provincial legislature?
1) The existing electoral system (first-past-the-post)?
2) The alternate electoral system proposed by the Citizens' Assembly (Mixed Member Proportional)?"

I don't know about you, but that doesn't seem vague to me... But then again, I understand what is being asked of ontarians and what each system entails.

The fact that the referendum has hardly been talked about makes for one lousy smoke screen.

What is "The alternate electoral system proposed by the Citizens' Assembly" specifically?  I didn't see a breakdown on that web site when I looked, just a lot of what's wrong with the current system.  I'd hardly take option 2 until I knew what it really was.  Heck, the alternate system could be "Joe Clark wins.  Everything."

Let’s analyze the 2003 election for the 103 seats in the legislature to get an idea of the differences between the two election processes.  Liberals got 46.4% of the vote for 72 seats (70% of the seats), the conservatives got 34.6% of the vote for 24 seats (23% of the seats) and the NDP got 14.7% of the vote for 7 seats (About 7% of the seats).  Adding that up that only comes to 95.7% of the vote leaving 193,381 votes not for the major parties.  

The existing system is called the first-past-the-post and refers to the fact that once it becomes clear that one candidate has the most votes and the others cannot catch him/her then he/she is elected, even if she/he did not get the majority of the votes.  This allows a system where the liberals get 46.4% of the vote and then get 70% of the seats!  Doesn’t seem fair.

Now, the alternative called Mixed Member Proportional will increase the seats to 129.  90 of the seats will be constituent based (still first-past-the-post) and 39 seats will be proportionally decided.  What this means is we will have to vote twice on the same card.  Once for the candidate of our choice and once for the party of our choice.  These do not need to be for the same parties.  You can vote however you wish.

So, re-examining the 2003 results we would get this picture.  Liberals would get 70% of the 90 first-past-the-post seats or 63 seats and 46.4% of the 39 proportional seats or 18 seats for a total of 81 seats.  Conservatives would get 21 and 13 respectively for a total of 34.  NDP would get 6 and 6 respectively for a total of 12 seats.  The three remaining proportional seats would be, most likely, divided between the big three parties in some matter. (for this case we’ll say equally).

Then the Liberals would have only 63.6% of the seats, conservatives 27.1% of the seats, and the NDP would have 9.3% of the seats.  This, in my opinion, makes the legislature more reflective of actual voting results.  Now, the fact is the green party at 2.8% of the vote would only need .2 percent more (in the case of the 2003 election only 8995 more votes) and they would have a seat in the legislature.  This is more democratic and better reflects voter wishes.

Avoid the bull, go to the source:

http://www.yourbigdecision.ca/

http://www.citizensassembly.gov.on.ca/en/default.asp

other links:

http://www.tvo.org/cfmx/tvoorg/citizensassembly/

Quoted from Chiquita

Avoid the bull, go to the source:

Flippant remarks such as this take the fun out of debate.  Though I suspect you did it to antagonize me... well done.