Mayor Tory has said that he will work to implement so-called ranked ballots for the 2018 municipal election. Premier Wynne has announced the government will introduce legislation that permits municipalities to use this form of voting before then. Ranked ballots permit second third and subsequent ranked choices for a candidate which then permit an “instant runoff” vote. If the candidate with the most votes does not have a majority, the runoff (or runoffs) establishes a majority winner. Toronto’s diverse population sometimes creates election slates with 15 or 20 candidates. The result is frequently a winner who has a small percentage of the popular vote. Some proponents of ranked ballots believe the system will create a more racially diverse City Council. The suggestion is that there are too many white men. This is a question for the voters but it seems apparent that ranked ballots will not necessarily achieve that goal. It’s interesting to speculate how John Tory might have fared under ranked ballots. He won with slightly more than 40 percent of the vote. The dynamics of the campaign suggest to many that Tory would have been a huge winner since he was probably second choice of many who voted either for Olivia Chow or Doug Ford.
