December 2007

One Citizen, One Vote
Daniel Aldana Cohen (“Blown into Proportion,” October) deserves a medal for his article on electoral reform in Ontario. After a year of confusion and misinformation, often amplified by the media and our provincial politicians, Cohen told us what we needed to know: that despite the odds in what are often said to be cynical times, the Citizens’ Assembly was an extraordinary public process that yielded a subtle and well-reasoned recommendation. Irrespective of the outcome of the referendum, all Ontarians were well served by the assembly, its proposal, and by writers like Cohen.
Peter MacLeod
Centre for the Study of Democracy
Queen’s University
Kingston, Ontario

Of course Daniel Aldana Cohen found the Citizens’ Assembly civil and intelligent — its members were not competing for power. But while it may be true that consensus democracies are “kinder and gentler” than majoritarian democracies, to my knowledge there is no evidence of a causal relationship between the type of electoral system and the kindness of a society. New Zealand uses the mmp electoral system, but so does Venezuela, where the incidence of crime and corruption is considerably higher.

The more egregious misconception peddled by Cohen, however, is that of the wasted vote. This concept suffers from the worst kind of post-hoc analysis. One’s vote is not considered wasted until Peter Mansbridge announces the results. In other competitive pursuits, people who call the game a waste of time after the results are in are known as sore losers.
David M. Brock
Ottawa, Ontario

Mining Rights
There are some glaring gaps in Roger Martin’s understanding of the mining industry (“Eat or Be Eaten,” October), which Martin claims is not growing in Canada but is in the developing world, where the cost of doing business is lower and environmental laws more lax. “If I had to lose a sector,” he says, “I would put mining nearer the top of my list than the bottom.”

Mining is most certainly growing in Canada. We are the number one destination for investment in mineral exploration, and while our reserves need replenishment, the value of production is at a high level and the potential is extraordinary. In fact, our net balance of trade in mined commodities contributes substantially to the country’s total trade balance; in 2005, the 2.4 percent of the Canadian workforce employed in the mining industry produced 4 percent of the gdp.

Meanwhile, growth of the industry in the developing world has little to do with cheap land and labour and much to do with risk/reward considerations. Capital is attracted to countries that are relatively unexplored or have known exploitable resources when they demonstrate they are open for business by improving governance, regulation, security, and economic performance. While it is true that many developing countries do not yet have the kind of environmental and social protections that are built into Canadian law, mining investors from developed countries design their exploration and extraction activities with due respect for the highest international standards. They couldn’t get financing if they didn’t.