Opinion – Howard A. Doughty, Steward, King Campus
On election night, Doug Ford bellowed: “We’ve done the impossible! We’ve made history!”
So much for history.
If only informally, OPSEU has normally supported the New Democratic Party. Many OPSEU members have run for office under the NDP banner. This time, however, newly elected president JP Hornick didn’d equivocate. She rallied OPSEU members to work and vote for the NDP—the only party (the unpleasantness of Bob Rae’s “social contract” notwithstanding) that’s faithfully represented our ideals and interests at Queen’s Park. The results weren’t unexpected, but they weren’t what we wanted either.
Here, however, is an “alternative reality.” Instead of Doug Ford and his anti-union, anti-environment, anti-education agenda, think of these results:
Seat Count
Conservatives, 50
Liberals, 31
New Democrats, 31
Greens, 8
Others, 4
That’s what would have happened IF, like most advanced democracies, Ontario had proportional representation. What’s more, since many people voted for the “lesser evil” (i.e., for the party they thought had a better chance of beating the PC’s), the Liberals benefited from “strategic voting.” If people had voted for their real preference, the results could have been even better.
Consider the possibility of an NDP-Liberal-Green “alliance” vs. the impending ecological, economic, educational, and ethical disaster with a government that 60% of the people voted against, but now has 100% of the power—again!
Even worse, a smaller percentage of Ontarians showed up than ever before. So, Ford got only 40% of the 43% who bothered showing up (17% of the eligible electorate). For shame!
Courage!