Jesse Helmer is deputy mayor and councillor in London, Ontario. He is one of a tiny handful of Canadians – all in London – who have experience of being elected by both “First Past the Post” and “Ranked Ballot”, in 2014 and 2018. He was a leading advocate for the adoption of ranked ballots in Ontario.
He was shocked to discover at the same time as every other Ontarian that the provincial government had decided to ban ranked ballots as part of its omnibus bill, which is ostensibly about Covid-19 recovery. Why did the province want to take this power away from municipalities? Did the province consult anybody? Did they even speak to anybody in London?
In the first of another ‘two part’ podcast this week, Councillor Helmer joined us to answer questions on why he thinks the province has made this move, whether the government’s claims about costs are realistic, and what the real experience of a ranked ballot election was like.
Unlike the provincial government, The 905er Podcast actually asks the people involved.
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Thanks as always to:
Gayle Laws: research
Wendy Nicholson: sound engineer, podcast consultancy.
The Quadrafonics, rank beats.