Elections Ontario Stop Funding Partisan Material

We ask that Elections Ontario, which was established to be a neutral, and non-partisan body for the purpose of supervising elections and referendums, to refrain from publishing and distributing material on behalf of the Ontario Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform, which effectively promotes Yes to MMP (Mixed-Member Proportional Representation) campaign at the expense of Ontarian taxpayers. The Citizens' Assembly was established to recommend a new electoral system formed on the basis of proportional representation. Although it was established as a government panel of the province, its recommendation should in no way be promoted through Elections Ontario any more than would the recommendations of any other government committee or ministry.

Although we understand that Elections Ontario has an obligation to provide an education campaign to give Ontarian voters a basic understanding of the two electoral systems they will be asked to consider on the ballot, and to inform them that this proposed MMP electoral system was recommended by the Citizens' Assembly, this education campaign in no way necessitates that the details of either the work or conclusions of the Citizens' Assembly be simultaneously promoted in this education campaign. This would be no different than if Elections Ontario were to publish detailed government records whose contents would aid one or more political party or lobby group, and then allow the membership of these groups to obtain and distribute this material at the taxpayers' expense.

Any help on the part of Elections Ontario in the distribution of material stating at the Citizens' Assembly's recommendations to partisan groups campaigning for one electoral system will surely bring the neutrality and non-partisan nature of this agency into grave dispute. This may have a lasting effect on the public perception of Elections Ontario's integrity, and indeed the integrity of the democratic process in Ontario. Furthermore, we believe that public trust in Elections Ontario to be far more important than the possibility that Ontarians may not be well-educated in either one or both of the electoral systems proposed in the upcoming referendum.