Watch the video above: Recall legislation to be considered by Toronto city council. Mark McAllister reports.
TORONTO – Councillors could soon debate a motion that would allow voters to recall their elected politicians.
The motion asks for Ontario to approve a private members bill on voter recall and to include municipalities as well.
“Sometimes the electorate can’t wait, or cannot afford to wait for the balance of two or three or four years,” Councillor Mike Del Grande said Tuesday. “We’ve had problems with scandals and very poor representation from all levels of government: the city, provincial and federal, and I think this type of legislation needs its time of day in today’s environment.”
Similar legislation led to the election of Arnold Schwarzenegger as governor of California in 2003.
The city hall debate follows a bill tabled by Tory MPP Randy Hillierthat would allow voters in Ontario to recall and replace their MPPs.
READ MORE: Does Ontario need recall legislation?
Under Hillier’s proposed legislation, voters could recall their MPP if signatures from 25 per cent of people who voted in their riding in the previous election are collected within a 60-day period.
Lee and Del Grande’s motion changes Hillier’s slightly. It would raise the threshold to 50 per cent of the number of voters who voted in the last election and the amount of time to get the signatures would increase to 99 days.
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The person or group who initiated the petition would have to pay 75 per cent of the by-election costs.
Both municipal and provincial politics in Ontario have been rife with scandal in recent years, including the gas plants scandal that saw upwards of $1 billion spent on cancelling two gas plants, to Mayor Rob Ford’s use of crack cocaine and involvement in an ongoing police investigation.
But the mayor’s brother doesn’t agree with it.
“They’re in here for four years, you serve your for years, and If you don’t like him or her (your representative), you fire him,” Ford said Tuesday.
He did suggest that if there was recall legislation, the provincial government would be “recalled right away.”
-with a files from Andrew Russell
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