Don't know how the Ontario referendum on the electoral system will go next week. But I'd say the No side has had the best of it in the discussion leading up to it.
It's been a mostly out-of-the-way debate, it's true; for the truly committed only. But there has been a deep upswelling of reasoned scepticism about the wisdom of letting the parties appoint 39 people to the legislature. And that observation has brought out a hectoring, shouting-down denial from pro-MMP supporters that really does not make their movement look good.
DemocraticSPACE, a politico-blog, said the other day the discussion was over, the NO side had nothing to offer, "end of story." Today in The Globe MMP activist/political scientist Denis Pilon writes from British Columbia there's no room for debate, the only question is: Do you accept majority rule? Last week Globe columnist Rick Salutin said YES was a "no-brainer," and only idiots would think otherwise.
This week Salutin redeems himself. He got heaps of mail, apparently, and he actually read it. He now acknowledges people may be voting no because of their democratic commitments. He's still for the YES, but he's not shouting abuse at everyone else. (He also acknowledges he's on the advisory board of the principal PR lobby group. He's entitled to be, but he might have said so before.)
Something called the Churchill Society has quietly been amassing a lot of commentary from both sides at http://www.churchillsociety.org/. Okay, one of them is mine.
