Labelling the move as part of provincial pandemic recovery legislation, the Ford government plans to revoke the power of Ontario municipalities to hold ranked ballot elections.
The provincial government introduced the Supporting Ontario's Recovery Act on Tuesday, which includes changes to the Municipal Elections Act that, if passed, would remove ranked ballots as an option for municipal council elections.
The government stated that the move would make "the electoral process consistent across municipal, provincial and federal elections."
"Now is not the time for municipalities to experiment with costly changes to how municipal elections are conducted," the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing said in an emailed statement to Blackburn News. "Our new proposed changes would bring predictability to municipal elections, at a time when Ontarians are focused on their health and safety... This consistent process would also ensure municipalities avoid unnecessary higher costs associated with ranked ballots."
With the ranked ballot voting system, candidates are ranked by the voter in order of preference. In the event a leading candidate doesn’t get 50 per cent of the vote, the last-place candidate is taken out and their votes are re-allocated to the remaining candidates, based on the second choices on those ballots.
Under the traditional first past the post system, voters select just one candidate for councillor and one for mayor, and the candidate with the highest number of votes wins.
During the 2018 municipal election, London became the first and only city in the province to implement the use of ranked ballots for electing municipal politicians.
In opposition to the Ford government's decision to scrap the ranked ballot system, London Councillor Jesse Helmer started a petition on Tuesday, urging the province to reverse its decision.
"It's a very bad idea to take ranked ballots away as an option at the municipal level," Helmer said on Twitter. "Collecting more info from voters about who they support makes our democracy stronger. It encourages new people to run."
Helmer also accused Premier Doug Ford of protecting incumbent politicians by collecting less information during municipal elections.
"Cambridge and Kingston are poised to join #ldnont in using ranked ballots," he wrote on Twitter. "Other [municipalities] are heading in the same direction. This is about stopping electoral reform from spreading."
