On October 10, Ontarians will do two things: Elect a government and vote for or against electoral reform.
Attachment: MMP Pink Tea Hour Toolkit (MMP Script and sample ballot)
Everyone of us can make a huge contribution, with very little effort, to ensure a fairer, more representative electoral system in Ontario: Invest only ONE hour to gather your near and dear together and walk them through the MMP script.
On October 10, Ontarians will do two things: Elect a government and vote for or against electoral reform. There will be one ballot only; the ballot will list the candidates standing for election in your riding; AND will also contain the Referendum Question. The reform is Mixed Member Proportional representation (MMP), recommended by a NON-PARTISAN Citizens' Assembly (who deliberated for eight months) and was endorsed by the late Doris Anderson - the great crusader for justice and women's rights.
If the referendum question carries, and it must carry by 60% in 60 ridings, voting in the provincial general election of October 2011 will reflect the evolution to fairer representation and a much closer reflection of the popular vote and the actual seats held by political parties in the Legislature. If we lose the referendum, we may not have a second chance to make meaningful change in our electoral laws, at least not in our lifetime.
This brief email is to encourage you to vote in favour of the new system of MMP and to help us spread the information right across the province. Please help spread the good news by hosting a group of friends, colleagues, family at work or at home - for an informal, ONE hour information session. Equal Voice, the non-partisan national organization dedicated to ensure more women are elected to political office at all levels of government, has prepared a toolkit containing an invitation, a short script on MMP, a one page FAQ's, and other handouts. The information is clearly written down and arranged so that every person can deliver the message - it doesn't have to be an Equal Voice member. We are attaching the toolkit with this email; if you have any questions about the toolkit, or the MMP information session, please contact Audrey Lemieux at audrey.lemieux@gmail.com.
Everyone of us will make a huge contribution, with very little effort, to ensure a fairer, more representative electoral system in 2011 if we invest only ONE hour to gather our near and dear together and walk them through the MMP script. That's it. Once people understand MMP, they can will make an informed decision about the referendum question.
So, please give serious thought to hosting a one-hour MMP info session - pick a date, or two, phone around a few friends, have them phone a few friends and get together. You don't have to serve refreshments. You don't need a guest speaker. You do have to do it very soon. Everything you need to know and do is captured for you in one, easy to follow document. 'Touching' as many voters as possible in each riding will make or break the referendum. It's easy, it's quick, it's important. Democracy is worth it.
PS: Please pass this email to your mailing lists and friends and family voting in Ontario - we need to spread the word quickly. Apologies if you receive this email twice - we don't want to miss anyone.