Link to NOWToronto article

NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Friday, June 27, 2014

OTTAWA – Today, Democracy Watch released the complaint affidavit (.doc file) it has filed with the City of Toronto Integrity Commissioner today requesting that in Democracy Watch’s opinion she should investigate the inside government lobbying by Rob Ford and Doug Ford on behalf of two companies that have ties to the Fords’ family business to determine if their actions violate the Code of Conduct for Members of Council (the “Code”).

“Democracy Watch believes that the inside lobbying actions of Rob Ford and Doug Ford on behalf of two companies that have ties to their family business raise serious questions that the Integrity Commissioner should investigate to determine whether the city’s council’s code of conduct has been violated,” said Duff Conacher, Co-founder of Democracy Watch who filed the complaint affidavit on behalf of Democracy Watch.

As the Globe and Mail has documented in a few articles over the past couple of months, Rob Ford and Doug Ford have requested that City of Toronto officials to meet with representatives of two companies, have attended the meetings, and have assisted the companies with their activities concerning decision-making by city officials.  Both companies have ties to the Fords’ family business, ties that city officials claim they were not informed by the Fords.

The preamble to the Code includes four statements of principle that “underline” the Code, including that members of Council should perform their functions with “integrity”; perform their duties and arrange their private affairs “in a manner that promotes public confidence and will bear close public scrutiny”; and uphold both the letter and the spirit of all laws.

The Code also has specific rules that prohibit: “the use of one’s status as a member of Council to improperly influence the decision of another person” to advantage of the councilor or their family or associates; and referring a corporation to a person in return for a “personal benefit”.

In addition, the Code has a rule that states “members of Council should not engage knowingly in communications” with someone who is lobbying the city government if the person is required to be registered as a lobbyist and is not registered.  It seems that the representatives of one of the companies that the Fords have communicated with and assisted should be registered as lobbying the city, and they are not registered.

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 FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:

Duff Conacher, Board member of Democracy Watch

Tel: 613-241-5179
Cell: 416-546-3443
Email: [email protected]

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Democracy Watch’s Government Ethics Campaign

Link to Ottawa Citizen article

Link to Toronto Star article

Link to Financial Post article

Link to APTN article

Link to CTV News interview

Link to Cambridge Times article

Link to Democracy Watch news release

Voting system, failure of Elections Ontario to inform voters of right to decline their ballot, and dishonesty and lack of key democratic reform promises, are likely reasons for 2^nd lowest turnout in the province’s history

Despite Elections Ontario’s negligence, a record total of ballots were declined — 1,345% more than in 2011

NEWS RELEASE
Monday, June 23, 2014

OTTAWA – Today, Democracy Watch called for democratic changes to Ontario’s political system in response to the clear crisis of low voter turnout in the provincial election.  Initial results show that the Ontario Liberals have won a majority of 58 of 107 seats with the support of only 19.5% of eligible voters, which raises serious questions about their mandate to govern, let alone implement any specific law or policy.

Only 52.1% of eligible voters cast a ballot (the second lowest turnout ever (tied with 2011), and 38% of the ballots cast were for the Liberals.

“With just over half of eligible voters casting ballots in the Ontario election, the second lowest turnout ever, alarm bells should be going off and questions raised about the legitimacy of the provincial government,” said Duff Conacher, Co-founder of Democracy Watch.  “Voter turnout will go up significantly only if the voting system is changed, if Elections Ontario does it’s job properly and informs Ontarians of their right to decline their ballot, and if the parties make promises to end undemocratic elections and government.”

Despite Elections Ontario’s illegal negligence in failing to inform voters about their right to decline the ballot, declined ballots increased 1,345% compared to 2011, from 2,335 in 2011 to the highest total ever of 31,399 (0.64% of total ballots cast).  This happened likely mainly because the media extensively covered Democracy Watch’s call for Elections Ontario to do its voter education job properly.

On average about 3,000 voters have declined their ballots in each provincial election since 1975, except in 1990 when 20,795 voters declined their ballots.

In addition, in the 2014 election a record total of 12,059 voters submitted a blank ballot (0.24% of total ballots cast), many of them possibly because there is clear evidence that many polling station workers don’t know how to respond when someone asks to decline their ballot). As well, 22,687 ballots were spoiled/rejected (0.46% of total ballots cast) — 10,000 more than in 2011.

These totals show the importance of Elections Ontario doing proper voter education to increase turnout (which is why Democracy Watch will be going to court asking for an order to force Elections Ontario to inform voters of their right to decline their ballot).

In addition, the Ontario parties must make the following changes if they want to increase voter turnout up to the past levels of 60-65%:

• pass an honesty-in-politics law that gives voters an easy, low-cost way to file complaints to the Integrity Commissioner, and gives the Commissioner the power to penalize misleaders (and requires MPPs who switch parties in-between elections to resign and run in a by-election);
• change the voting system to provide a more accurate representation of the popular vote results in each election in the seats held by each party in the legislature (as in many other countries) while ensuring that all elected officials are supported by, and are accountable to, voters in each riding/constituency (with a safeguard to ensure that a party with a low-level, narrow-base of support does not have a disproportionately high level of power in the legislature), and;
• strengthen provincial political ethics, political finance, lobbying, open government, and whistleblower protection laws.

These changes would give voters many more reasons to vote because they would know that voting for a specific party would mean their vote would count and the party’s promises would be kept, and they would be more assured of democratic good government overall no matter which party won.  As well, moving the fixed election date to the last Monday in October would make it easier for people with kids, and students, to follow and participate in the election campaign and have the identification needed to vote.

“More and more voters know from their experience of the past few decades of elections that they are not going to get what they vote for, and are likely to get dishonest, secretive, unethical, unrepresentative and wasteful government no matter who they vote for, and as a result no one should be surprised to see voter turnout at such a low level,” said Conacher.

These problems exist in all the provinces and territories across Canada.  All of these changes should be made by the federal and provincial and territorial governments, and for their municipalities, before either mandatory or Internet voting are tried (because both of those options will likely have serious negative effects).

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 FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Duff Conacher, Co-founder of Democracy Watch
Tel: 613-241-5179
Cell: 416-546-3443

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Democracy Watch’s Democratic Voting Systems Campaign