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TORONTO — Elections Ontario has bungled its handling of a campaign to boost public awareness of a vote on electoral reform, members of a citizens' assembly charged Friday as the arm's-length agency administering the referendum ramps up its advertising blitz before Oct. 10.
“If you want benign information, that's exactly what we got,” said Arita Droog, part of the 103-member citizens' assembly that recommended this spring an alternate way of electing politicians in Ontario.
“It's so neutral, it's so unbiased, that it doesn't say anything . . . I understand their position that they want to be neutral and unbiased, but in doing so, they went beyond” providing useful information.
Elections Ontario has been trying to boost awareness about the electoral reform question since August through a $6.8-million public education campaign. As the campaign enters its final phase this week, the agency will hold hundreds of community presentations, send out nearly five million flyers and advertise in the province's newspapers, radio stations and on websites.
The advertising campaign centres around the choice Ontarians will make about how they will elect politicians. Voters will decide whether to stick with the current “first-past-the-post” system or switch to the mixed-member proportional system. The MMP system would distribute 39 of the 129 legislature seats in accordance with the popular support shown to each party.
Proponents of MMP argue it's more democratic because it could lead to more smaller parties as well as women and minorities in the Ontario legislature. Critics say it could splinter the legislature and result in a situation where fringe parties hold the balance of power.
Despite Elections Ontario's efforts, its latest numbers show nearly three million of the 8.4 million Ontario residents eligible to cast ballots are still unaware there will even be a referendum.
Sixty-four per cent know there will be a referendum, and of those people, slightly more than half say they are somewhat or very knowledgeable about how the referendum will work and what will be asked.
Both the province's chief electoral officer, John Hollins, and deputy chief electoral officer, Loren Wells, were too busy preparing for the referendum to comment, said Matt Roth, who works for the consulting company handling the Elections Ontario awareness campaign. Only Mr. Hollins and Ms. Wells are authorized to speak on the agency's behalf, he added.
Mr. Roth forwarded a prepared statement from Mr. Hollins, which said “voter engagement with the program continues to escalate as we move towards October 10.”
But the Elections Ontario campaign has been “totally inadequate,” said Richard Bowdidge, another member of the citizens' assembly.
“There's an awful lack of understanding on the proposition. I think that's too bad. Elections Ontario isn't doing its job,” he said. “There's been no real attempt at a major public education campaign, and that's what was needed.”
The final week's advertising blitz is “too little, too late,” Ryerson University political scientist Daniel Rubenson said, noting the agency should have launched its public awareness campaign after the citizens' assembly made its recommendation.
“This kind of a change has the potential to have pretty big consequences, certainly on the political landscape and all of the other things that come with that. They should have been out much earlier, I think, with much more information,” Mr. Rubenson said.
The proposed electoral system still must clear significant hurdles to pass. More than 60 per cent of voters across Ontario and at least 50 per cent of the voters in 64 of the 107 ridings would have to approve it first.
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