Please feel free to share and/or take these ideas to write your own letters.
Dear Sandy Shaw, Robin Lennox and Chris Glover,
Thank you for hosting your democracy town hall.
It addressed some very important issues and I was glad to see a good turnout despite the weather.
While I am grateful for the work you are doing on many different issues and your efforts to raise awareness about the ever-increasing democracy deficits in Ontario, I must confess to feeling disappointed. By not recognizing that the root of the problem is the Ford government’s (false) majority, you are condemning us to more years of the Ford government, with no hope for an end in sight.
The progressive voters of Ontario should not have to deal with the Ford government by protesting, rallies, networking, and letters to the editor. We are the majority, and we should have a seat at the table. However, the deck is stacked against us under First Past The Post. The only way in the foreseeable future to end the PCs’ domination of the seat count is for the progressive parties to collaborate for ONE election.
You are not going to end their majority just by knocking on more doors.
Cooperating would not require you to stop being the NDP. In fact, you would end up with more seats and actual power instead of struggling to be heard as the Official Opposition. I am definitely not suggesting a merger with the Liberals, in the same way that I am happy that Mike Schreiner chose not to run for the leadership of the Liberal Party. Voters deserve more choice, not less. But for just ONE election, we need to limit the choices.
I understand where you’re coming from, Sandy, when you say that people in each riding should have the right to vote NDP, Liberal or Green, but I think if it is explained well to progressive voters, most of them will accept the sacrifice for ONE election, knowing that their party overall would end up with more seats and that they would be represented by MPPs from their party in neighbouring ridings.
Sandy, you asked, maybe rhetorically, who would decide. I think it would be decided by a committee of representatives from the three progressive parties based on agreed-upon principles and riding by riding analysis.
Such an analysis of the 2022 election was shared with me. (An update for 2025 is in progress.) Based on the analysis, projections were that in 2022, cooperation might have resulted in 15 new wins for the Liberals, 13 holds for the NDP, and 2 new wins for the Greens.
Based on both 2022 and 2025, most races were between either the Conservatives and the Liberals or the Conservatives and the NDP.
There were very few races between the Liberals and the NDP. The gap between the NDP and the Liberals was less than 10% in only 20 ridings, and less than 5% in only 8 ridings. This observation would make planning for strategic cooperation fairly straightforward as it would significantly benefit both parties with minimal cost to the other party.
To quote the analyst,
“The fact that these parties do not learn to cooperate when both parties could stand to win big from such an arrangement boggles the mind.”
I’m trying to understand why you haven’t cooperated.
Sandy, you seem to see strategic cooperation as almost a form of cheating. You called it a “shortcut”. I see it as a necessary workaround against an electoral system that is stacked against the majority of Ontario voters. It will give us a chance to rewrite the rules so that they are truly fair. We won’t get that chance while the Ford government holds its false majority.
And all three of you seem very reluctant to work with the Liberals. I know cooperation was a non-starter under Bonnie Crombie. Hopefully her replacement will be less oblivious to the ills of the electoral system. One of the potential front runners in the leadership race is Nate Erskine-Smith. Nate is a strong proponent of Proportional Representation. There may be other proponents among the leadership candidates as well. I have no idea where they will stand on cooperation, but please at least consider them with an open mind. As proponents of Proportional Representation yourselves, surely you are willing to negotiate and work together with other parties – that’s the whole point of Proportional Representation.
I am attaching links to an article about an NDP MPP who does want to cooperate, and a post by the Liberal candidate for Hamilton East – Stoney Creek in the recent provincial election calling for cooperation. I hope that seeing support for cooperation among some of your peers will encourage you to give it a second thought. https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-region/fife-asks-liberals-ndp-to-stop-splitting-anti-ford-vote-after-latest-election-setback/article_ffc05f5e-1275-5e37-a107-6c71731a2a7a.html#
I walk my own talk. Despite preferring to be a non-partisan advocate for proportional representation, I volunteer my time and vote for the “best chance” progressive candidate.
My point is that we can work together.
We have to work together beyond our party affiliations if we want to achieve our goals. Even the best ideas will just remain as ideas if we are condemned by our electoral system to remain in opposition forever.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Heather Yoell
Dundas