A referendum is an event when the government asks voters an important question. All voters are asked to indicate which choice they prefer, using a ballot.

Yes, a long time ago. In fact, five were held in Ontario between 1894 and 1924. Ontario electors have also voted in two federal referendums, held in 1942 and 1992.

To learn more about province-wide referendums in Ontario in the past, download "Referendums in Ontario: An Historical Perspective" made available by Legislative Assembly of Ontario. To download the PDF, click here.

On March 24, 2006, the government set up an independent body called the Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform.

The Citizens' Assembly was made up of 52 women and 52 men aged from 19 to 78. They were chosen at random from the permanent Register of Electors to represent each electoral district in Ontario.

Their job was to learn about the electoral system Ontario is using now, and other electoral systems around the world. They looked at how votes are counted and how votes are used to calculate seats in the provincial legislature.

In April of this year, the referendum law was passed. It requires that if the Citizens' Assembly recommended an alternative to the existing system, a referendum must be held with the next provincial election.

On May 15, 2007, the Citizens' Assembly recommended an alternative to First-Past-the-Post (our existing electoral system).

The next provincial election will happen on October 10, 2007. A referendum will be held at the same time.

The referendum is about Ontario's electoral system. You will be asked to choose what electoral system you feel Ontario should use in the future.

You will be given a choice of two electoral systems. One of these systems is called First-Past-the-Post. It is the system used in Ontario now.

The other system is called Mixed Member Proportional. It is the alternative electoral system proposed by the Ontario Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform.

To learn more about the two electoral systems you are being asked to consider click on one of the two choices shown here.

First-Past-the-Post >
Mixed Member Proportional >

A referendum is your chance to have your voice heard. It's not often that a Referendum occurs. When one does it is because the opinion of the public, you, the voter, is important.

Yes.

Yes.

Proxy voting allows you to appoint another qualified elector in your electoral district to vote on your behalf. You can vote by proxy if, for any reason, you are unable to vote in your electoral district on Election and Referendum Day on October 10, 2007, or at an advance poll in your electoral district.

For a more about how to vote by Proxy, click here.

First-Past-the-Post is one of the two electoral systems you will be asked to vote on in the Ontario Referendum on electoral reform. It is the system Ontario uses now.

For the 2007 general election, Ontario will be divided into 107 electoral districts. In each district, each voter gets one vote to choose which candidate they feel should win a seat in the provincial legislature. One vote. One ballot.

In an election using the First-Past-the-Post system, the candidate with the most votes wins.

After the election, the political party that wins the most electoral districts is asked to form a government.

Mixed Member Proportional is one of the two electoral systems you will be asked to vote on in the Ontario Referendum on electoral reform. It is sometimes called MMP for short.

It is a mixed system, because it combines two voting systems: a First-Past-the-Post system and a Proportional Representation system.

If this system is chosen, Ontarians will have two votes in future elections: one for a 'Local Member', and one for a political party.

With a Mixed Member Proportional system, Ontario would be divided into 90 electoral districts, and would have a provincial legislature with 129 seats. 'Local Members' would fill 90 of these seats, while 'List Members' would fill 39 seats.

In each electoral district, one vote would be used to elect a “Local Member” using a First-Past-the-Post system. The candidate with the most votes in an electoral district wins.

The other vote would be for a political party. Votes for parties will be used to determine the number of “List Members” each party gets. This is the proportional representation part.

Before an election, parties would publicly nominate candidates as “List Members” and describe how they were chosen. If a political party is entitled to more seats than it won locally, “List Members” are elected to make up the difference. “List Members” can only be elected from a political party that received more than 3% of these votes.

In the end, a political party’s overall share of seats will roughly equal its share of the total votes for parties in the province.

The party with the largest number of seats in the legislature, including both 'Local Members' and 'List Members', is asked to form a government.

A Mixed Member Proportional system is not used by any other province.

The Mixed Member Proportional system recommended by the Ontario Citizens' Assembly is one type of Mixed Member Proportional system. In Canada, it would be unique to Ontario, but types of Mixed Member Proportional systems are used in other places around the world.

If you would like to know more, you can get a table of the different electoral systems used worldwide, click here.

The Citizen's Assembly website contains an example of the results of an election under its proposed alternative system. To see it click here.

On pages 156 – 162 of its Report, you will also find "hypothetical election scenarios under the Assembly's MMP system." To see it click here.

To see how seat distribution occurs in countries or jurisdictions using the same or similar electoral systems, check out some of the other websites that we have listed in our Related Links section. To see these links, click here >>

If the referendum results in a vote in favor of Mixed Member Proportional, by December 31st, 2008, the new government would have to introduce a law to make Mixed Member Proportional Ontario's new system. When the law is introduced and considered by the legislature, electors will be able to ask questions and debate the costs of the new system. The precise cost of the new system would depend on the details of the law and is a question that will have to be asked of the future government.

Yes. Whether you choose to vote during the extended advance poll period between September 22nd and October 4th or vote on the October 10th election day this year, you will be given two ballots instead of one.

One ballot will be for voting for a candidate in the general election. The other ballot, for voting for an electoral system in the Referendum.

You will be asked to place both these ballots in the same ballot box.

Think of October 10th as Election and Referendum Day.

No. You must vote on the Ontario Referendum and in the election at the same time.

If Mixed Member Proportional is accepted during the Ontario referendum in October, there is a possibility that there will be two ballots in future elections.

Legislation would have to be passed to make the new electoral system the law. Then the Chief Electoral Officer would design the form of the new ballot(s) to be used.

It depends on whether your choice is also picked by other voters in Ontario.

If 50% of the voters in 64 electoral districts vote for Mixed Member Proportional

AND

At least 60% of all the referendum ballots across the province choose the alternative system recommended by the Citizens' Assembly, then the Mixed Member Proportional system would be put forward as Ontario's electoral system in future.

By December 31st, 2008, the new government would have to introduce a law to officially make Mixed Member Proportional Ontario's new system

It depends on what other voters in Ontario choose.

If more than 50% of the voters in a majority (64) of the electoral districts do not agree with your choice and instead vote for the Mixed Member Proportional system recommend by the Citizens' Assembly

AND

At least 60% of all the referendum ballots choose the alternative system recommended by the Citizens' Assembly, then a law will be introduced to make Mixed Member Proportional Ontario's electoral system.

If this does not happen, Ontario will keep using the same system used now to elect members to the provincial legislature (First-Past-the-Post).

The October 10th election in Ontario will use the existing First-Past-the-Post electoral system, with 107 electoral districts.

If the Mixed Member Proportional system is chosen in the Ontario Referendum and made law, there would be 90 electoral districts in the next general election, instead of 107.

For the next general election, the number of seats in the Legislature would grow from 107 to 129.

90 of the 129 seats would be filled by locally elected candidates or 'Local Members'. The remaining 39 seats would be filled by 'List Members' elected across Ontario.

MPP is short for Member of Provincial Parliament. Your local MPP represents your electoral district in the provincial legislature.

If Mixed Member Proportional were to become Ontario's electoral system, there would be 90 electoral districts. In each electoral district a 'Local Member' would be elected as Member of Provincial Parliament and be given a seat in the provincial legislature.

39 'List Members' would be elected from the lists developed by political parties. The other 90 MPPs would be locally elected.

As proposed by the Citizens’ Assembly, you’ll have an option of contacting the local member for your district or any of the list members for the province. You can choose to contact a list member from a particular party, or one who is knowledgeable about your region or about a specific issue that interests you. http://www.citizensassembly.gov.on.ca/assets/One%20Ballot,%20Two%20Votes.pdf (page 21)

On October 10th, the Election Ballots will be counted first, and then the referendum ballots.

As soon as the referendum ballots have been counted, you will get the unofficial results. We expect referendum ballot counting to be finished early on Thursday, October 11, 2007.

Ontario is a vast province with over 29,700 polling stations and 107 ridings so actual ballot counting and oversight takes time. Also, voting hours have been extended by one hour to 9 pm. The election ballots must be counted first. It is also important to remember that for Mixed Member Proportional representation to be adopted it must receive 60 per cent of all votes cast across Ontario and 50 per cent or more of the ballots cast in at least 64 of 107 ridings; therefore the process for determining the outcome of this referendum is lengthier and more complex than that of the general election.

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