Democratizing the Ontario Legislature: Change, but Change Enough?

Abstract

<p>The Ontario Legislative Assembly sits at the centre of the many currents of political change in the province. Over the last few decades the three main political parties, the Progressive Conservative Party, the Liberal Party, and the New Democratic Party (NDP), has each formed a majority government at least once. In the 2011 provincial election, Ontarians voted for change again, albeit of a different kind: Dalton McGuinty’s Liberals were left one seat short of a majority, and Ontarians had elected their first minority government in a generation. In two by-elections in September 2012, Ontarians denied Premier McGuinty the opportunity to return to majority government. Just one month later, the Premier announced his resignation and prorogued (suspended) the legislature. </p> <p>These events raise questions about the democratic quality and evolving role of the Ontario Legislature. Amidst these changes, we ask: is Ontario’s legislature as democratic as it could be? This paper is organized around three key themes: the institutional features of the Ontario legislature, legislative processes, and political representation. We canvass various reforms and proposed changes in each thematic area and conclude with a discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of Ontario’s legislature as an instrument of democracy. We suggest that despite some reforms, the processes of making it more democratic remain unfinished. To this end, we also make several recommendations for improving the democratic quality of this central symbol of democracy in Ontario.</p>