Democratic Deficit in Toronto? – Democracy in the News
“When Zack Taylor of the University of Toronto Cities Centre did a little number crunching recently, his worst suspicions were confirmed: It seems some parts of the city are a whole lot more democratic than others” – thestar.com
http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1140794–fixing-toronto-s-democratic-deficit
This news article calls into question democracy as it is practiced in Toronto, and then by extension the rest of Canada. Its main concern is that some city electoral wards vary wildly in the number of people that constitute them. For example, Ward 29 in Toronto has double the population of Ward 23. The consequence of this is that some people are over-represented while other are underrepresented. When competing with the votes of 50,000 people as opposed to 25,000, your vote carries less weight and is not as directly involved in choosing a representative. This makes the article go on the conclude that;
“There’s nothing especially democratic about any of this, of course. If one person/one vote is your measure, clearly Canada and Toronto fail badly.” -thestar.com
Should this be our measure? surely this is a noble ideal, but it often isn’t as practical as one would imagine. Even in Canada we circumvent this logic. Our senators are appointed in a purposefully disproportionate way, so as to guarantee equal representation from each province. Often to correct social and geographical injustices, some small communities deserve their own representative to cater to their specific needs regardless of how few voters there are. Contrast that with a city where wards are often divided along inconsequential lines, two representatives being more or less indistinguishable from each other. From a personal perspective, yes, this is unfair, it makes some votes worth more than others. At a systemic level, however, one can use this type of restructuring to achieve a goal which pure democracy itself can. Equality doesn’t necessarily mean the same thing for everyone, it can also mean different things for everyone to ensure that all are given an adequate voice.
March 12th, 2012 at 3:12 pm
I agree with the fact that the boundaries of electoral systems within cities need to be redrawn to increase proportional representation. In municipal elections I think the argument for lesser populated areas to have equal representation in government is weaker. However, on the federal level given Canada’s geography and population distribution the argument for the current system is much stronger. I think some electoral riding reformation is necessary to better reflect the results of the popular vote in the elected government. However as mentioned, unpopulated northern areas also deserve substantial representation as a large amount of natural resources that drive Canadian economic activity come from these communities. I’m not exactly sure on how to further the democratic values of Canada’s federal electoral system but it is definitely an interesting discussion.