Ontario Liberals are thinking about letting cities ditch first-past-the-post voting

In what seems like a perfect—albeit belated—Valentine’s Day gift to Toronto election-reform activists, premier Kathleen Wynne is apparently seriously considering giving cities across Ontario the power to use ranked ballots in municipal elections.

Ranked ballots replace the classic “check-box-next-to-someone’s-name” style of voting with a numbered list. A voter ranks his or her favourite candidates. If a voter’s first choice loses the election, then their second choice is counted; if their second choice loses, then their third choice is counted, and so on. Vote splitting is no longer as much of a concern, because everyone votes for multiple candidates. As an added benefit, people who want to vote for fringe candidates can do so without feeling as though they’ve wasted their ballots, because they can always rank mainstream politicians as their second or third choices.

According to the Globe, it’s not clear exactly when Wynne’s government will attempt to table a ranked-ballot bill. At the moment, first-past-the-post is the only allowable voting system, and a number of laws would have to be rewritten to accommodate the new style of balloting. Even if Queen’s Park does manage to make the change, it will be up to individual city governments to decide whether to implement ranked ballots locally. It’s likely that Toronto wouldn’t be able to make the switch before 2018.