Request for Audit on City Council's Plebiscite Efforts

Mayor and Council,
c/o City Clerk,
Oshawa City Hall

Cc:

Hon. D. McGuinty, Premier of Ontario
Hon J. Gerretsen, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing
Members, Oshawa City Council
Local News Media

Canada’s Supreme Court says that information for voters is a basic right in a democracy, and Elections Ontario guarantees the democratic voting rights of all Ontarians.

John Hollins, Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Ontario, states in regard to the recent Provincial Electoral Reform Plebiscite, “Our mandate, as defined by law, is to ensure that Ontario voters receive clear and impartial information about the referendum process, the date of the referendum, the referendum question and the content of the choices in the referendum,” and, he continues, “Our focus over the remaining days leading up to the referendum is continuing to increase awareness of the referendum question and educating voters about their choices.

With the priorities placed on an informed voting public by both the Supreme Court and by Elections Ontario, I am requesting that Oshawa’s Auditor General be directed by City Council to perform an audit on how well the City of Oshawa measured up to these ideals.

The auditor general should include a comparison of Oshawa’s efforts with those of other civic and provincial jurisdictions that included recent plebiscites on their election ballots.

In addition, the auditor should commission a survey of Supreme Court cases having to do with the requirement for voter information leading up to elections and the Supreme Court rulings in this regard.

Further an independent polling service should be commissioned to establish the knowledge Oshawa voters had of the plebiscite question prior to voting.

The poll should have enough random respondents in all parts of the city to reach the 95% confidence level and should ask Oshawa residents:

1) If they agree with the removal of local ward representatives elected by their communities;

2) If they agree that they could become knowledgeable enough of up to 100 candidates for election on a general vote ballot in order to make an informed choice;

3) Whether citizens were aware prior to voting that a plebiscite question was to appear on the election ballot;

4) If citizens agree that they were fully and sufficiently aware of the details and ramifications of the what they were asked on the plebiscite;

5) Whether informing the voters of details and ramifications of a city plebiscite is the responsibility of the city or of private citizens who must personally finance an information campaign; (This question is especially important because Mayor Gray says it’s not the city responsibility to inform the public…it’s up to the public themselves to fundraise and organize an information campaign, and Councillor Kolodzie who states he’s never heard of a government providing information about a plebiscite question!—this film clip is under preparation!)

6) Any other questions a professional polling organization deems useful given their expertise in the area of political and public opinion polling.

I would ask that any audits commissioned on this issue be completely independent of city council, that reports and study design be completed without input or approvals of city politicians, and the results be distributed widely to the public.

I understand that I must first propose this audit to a committee of council and await details of when I can make this presentation.

Bill Longworth
Chair and Founder
VOTES (Vote To Eliminate Self-serving Politicians)

Our Vote Is Being Devalued

We are used to our money losing 2%-3% per year due to inflation and prices and salaries going up by an equal amount. The result is of course that as everything rises 2%-3% annually, everything seems to take the same relative chunk out of our paychecks and we may be no better or worse off.

Things like houses of course, we hope go up in value. Their value depends upon the desirability of the location. Real estate experts say the prime determinant of house prices is location, location, location.

So what if the desirability of your city as a place to live goes down. Oshawa still has the lowest priced housing in the GTA and that is a measure of desirability. Our housing prices are still depressed because of the poor reputation Oshawa developed under our General Vote days prior to 1985 when little happened here and we have a hard time living that down. And don't put our reputation down to the auto industry here...just witness Oakville!

As a result of Oshawa's reputation, builders were reluctant to develop here because there were bigger profit margins to be made elsewhere where housing was more expensive. Thus Oshawa went through a period when the only housing we could attract was lower end housing…town house complexes, co-ops, subsidized housing, etc. That has changed over the last 10 years as Oshawa started to attract significant inventories of high end housing. This affects all of our property values in Oshawa by pushing prices up. Our property values thus increase.

This is due in large part because Oshawa has been able to develop its infrastructure like libraries and recreation complexes throughout the city. The desirability of the community has also been able to attract "high-end" jobs as new organizations like UOIT, medical clinics, hospital expansions, etc. as population growth pushes the need.

With a return to the General Vote, we may return to the sleepy-eyed bad rep place Oshawa was and is just now trying to live down.

However, a very serious kind of depreciation is going to occur immediately with the general vote. Candidates in ward voting are requiring 3000-3500 votes to win and so the “power” or “value” of your vote is 1/3000 of a politician. You may argue they are not worth that much and with some of the decisions they are making, I wholeheartedly agree. However the “value” of your vote will decrease significantly with the general vote. Under the general vote, successful candidates will require perhaps 25000 votes…so your vote gets devalued in one fell swoop from 1/3000 to 1/25000 in determining our political leadership in Oshawa. For those who argue they’d like a chance to vote for all, the general vote gives them a voting instrument having insignificant value in determining politicians.

This is extreme devaluation of the value of your vote and so you as an individual will have insignificantly minute influence in determining election outcomes.

If the same devaluation of your $250,000 house took place, it would have a value of $31,250. Could you stand this loss? Why then should you tolerate just as significant a loss to your democratic right to determine who governs this city?

If we do get the general vote, your property values will go down over time just as they did in the past. Don’t let it happen Oshawa.

Write the Mayor and Council and tell them you won’t stand for a change to the general vote because it will be devastating for the community.