[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6YNM74d_5c[/youtube] Video produced by the Citizen's Assembly Accompanying the Ontario election will be a referendum on electoral reform, giving voters the chance to choose between the province’s current first-past-the-post voting system and a new system, mixed member proportional (MMP). To complement the work of Elections Ontario and the various supporting and opposing groups, Spacing Votes will be exploring this proposed political system and the kinds of changes it could produce to politics in Ontario. MMP differs from the more straightforward proportional representation (PR) practiced in countries like Israel. It aims to introduce a measure of proportionality to the Ontario legislature while still retaining the province’s basic political architecture -- the traditional system of electing candidates through local ridings (hence the designation "mixed"). Similar systems are used in Germany, New Zealand, Scotland, and Wales. The Ontario Citizen's Assembly, a group convened by the Ontario Legislature that studied potential electoral reform and which consisted of 104 people – 52 men and 52 women, one from each riding in Ontario plus an appointed, non-voting chair – voted 94-8 to recommend that MMP be proposed to Ontario voters through a referendum. This referendum, similar to the 2005 B.C. vote on a single-transferable-vote (STV) electoral system, will require a larger majority than traditional votes. At least 50% of voters in 64 ridings will have to support MMP, while the overall support province wide will need to be at least 60%. Under MMP, voters would have two votes on one ballot -- the first for a local candidate, who could be Liberal, PC, Green, NDP, Independent, etc., elected in the traditional first-past-the-post fashion, and the second for a party, which would involve choosing from all of the registered political parties in Ontario. Parties should receive a number of seats roughly equivalent to their overall popular support – a figure measured through the party vote. If, for example, the Liberals have 35% of the party vote, they should receive around 35% of the seats in the Legislature.