As the results from Quebec’s general election were coming in last night, the Globe and Mail’s Andrew Coyne remarked on Twitter: 
“28 per cent of the vote -- by far the lowest winning percentage in modern Canadian history. And yet they still came within a few seats of a majority. Not quite as insane a result as it might have been, but still pretty insane.”
The PQ will form a minority government which generally last about two years.
First Past the Post
Of course, false majorities happen all the time under our perverse First Past the Post system. In the Federal election in 2021 the winning Liberals obtained fewer votes (5,556,629 or 32.62%) than the Conservatives, the party they defeated (5,747,410 or 33.74%). This translated into 160 seats for the Liberals and 119 seats for the Conservatives.
The same upside down result happened in the 2019 election where the Liberals got 6,018,728 votes (33.12%) and the losing Conservatives got more votes (6,239,227 or 34.34%)
In the 2025 Federal Election with Mark Carney leading the Liberals the ship returned to an even keel with some kind of equilibrium. But, even if the distortions weren’t as dramatic, they were still there. It took many more votes to return a Conservative MP than a Liberal MP.
Grotesque mismatch
In the UK the grotesque mismatch between votes and seats in the House of Commons has become impossible to ignore. 
In the 2024 General Election, the Labour Party won 33.7% of the vote and was rewarded with 63% of the Commons seats.
The new Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, wants to see a commitment to electoral reform in the manifesto for the next General Election which must be held by 2029.
Dysfunctional
But it is not just the electoral system that is insane.
Our politics is dysfunctional on so many levels. Not just in Quebec or in Ottawa but here at home in Ontario.
The Globe and Mail editorial today laments the Ford Government’s secrecy and lack of transparency. (Click “read below”)
Take one example. Freedom of Information requests are becoming prohibitively expensive.
Our MPP Dawn Gallagher Murphy told the legislative assembly in 2023 the Government was planning to consult on changing the law on Non-Disclosure Agreements.
Freedom of Information at a cost
The proposal has since stalled and when I filed FoIs with the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development I was told it would cost me $1,320.
In the light of this, I said I wanted to reduce the scope of my FoI and asked for an index of the files the Department held of NDAs which would allow me to target my search more accurately and cut down the cost. I was told there was no index.
"Our office has consulted with the Ministry’s Strategic Policy Division, which has confirmed that no index of records exists identifying the titles and dates of all files created in relation to the Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDA) initiative. Consequently, locating and retrieving all records responsive to your Freedom of Information (FOI) request would require a substantial and comprehensive search."
Yesterday, I emailed my MPP, Dawn Gallagher Murphy, asking for an appointment to talk to her about this issue.
As I am tapping this out, I hear a beep and an email comes winging in from her consituency assistant:
"Thank you for taking the time to reach out to the Office of Dawn Gallagher Murphy, MPP Newmarket-Aurora and share your concerns regarding NDAs.
I have addressed these concerns to the most appropriate Ministry for further review. I will get back to you as soon as I receive a response.
Please do not hesitate to reach out with any further questions, concerns or suggestions."
At least I am in the system and that's a start.
Election Rituals
In the meantime we observe (some of) the rituals and go through the motions in our municipal elections here in Newmarket.
The fact that Doug Ford now appoints the Chair of York Regional Council – rather than have the Regional Councillors elect their own chair – hasn’t yet featured as a campaign issue. I doubt it ever will.
I gave evidence to a Committee at Queen's Park a decade ago when the former Liberal MP, Chris Ballard, was trying to get the Chair of York Region elected by the voters at large. That now seems a quaint and totally unrealistic proposition.
The structures are simply not in place to allow that kind of issue to surface and grab the attention of the voters.
We are not going to see the candidates for Deputy Mayor and Regional Councillor on a stage together, taking questions, explaining their policy positions and accounting for their record.
The Quiet Man
In the same way, there is no comment on the fact that our Regional Councillor, Tom Vegh, who is now vying for a third term has never once authored and moved a single motion for debate at York Regional Council. And this is after eight years in the job.
A lot of people would just shrug their shoulders and say that’s just politics.
Personally, I think that's just insane.
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Globe and Mail editorial 6 October 2026
The Wrong Way to Treat the Right to Know
Less is more is a fine approach to interior design. But it’s a terrible way for government to approach public disclosure. Unfortunately, it’s the ethos adopted by Ontario Premier Doug Ford.
Evidence is piling up that the three-term government is increasingly allergic to transparency. This is self-serving behaviour from politicians with no shortage of scandals, making it harder for the media and public to hold them to account.
Especially now, with the province facing major threats, Mr. Ford needs to remember that the public is his boss. They have a right to know what he is doing.
In a few ways, though, the premier has made it harder for the people to keep tabs on him.
One example is the no-press press conference. One of these happened last month.
On that day, Mr. Ford livestreamed a housing announcement on YouTube. Although this looked on its face like a press conference it was lacking one crucial element: journalists. In fact, the media didn’t find out about the event until Mr. Ford’s social media account posted that it had happened.
Editorial: Doug’s transparent cloak of self-serving secrecy
The lack of reporters suited Mr. Ford just fine. He quipped, as the pseudo-event wrapped up, “Thank God we don’t have the media. No questions, no answers. We’re good to go.”
This is insulting both to the men and women at Queen’s Park whose job it is to cover provincial politics and also to the people of Ontario. Putting out a message without having to answer questions about the policy being announced – or whatever else is on the public mind – is ducking responsibility.
Unfortunately, this is not a new impulse for the Ford government. In its first term, there was actually a pseudo-newscaster creating videos to post online. What was called Ontario News Now began during the 2018 election campaign and then continued as the party formed government. According to a Canadian Press analysis, Mr. Ford appeared at least 100 times on the fake news operation in his first year as premier.
This led to some grating moments for the actual reporters whose job it was to cover Mr. Ford. It was not uncommon for him to take a few questions and then his staff would announce he had no more time, only for him to give generously of his calendar to the Ontario News Now pseudo-newscaster, which was also at the scene.
The façade of journalism is not the only trick the Ford government has used to manage its message. Earlier this year Mr. Ford clamped down on freedom of information access.
Such legislation is designed to allow the media or any member of the public to request internal documents. These often contain information that can be embarrassing to government. One way to avoid that is to keep everything above-board. Another way – Mr. Ford’s choice – is to change the law to exempt himself, his cabinet and their political staff.
He also made the rules retroactive, killing any access to information request that was in process at the time of the legislative change.
This was such a sweeping clampdown on information that bureaucrats were initially unsure about just what to do. And then, according to recent reporting by Global News, came the edict: stop all freedom of information work. This directive, which was conveyed only by Microsoft Teams, in spite of some bureaucrats asking for email confirmation, lasted more than a week.
Although parts of the freedom of information system then resumed, the change in legislation has thrown a blanket of secrecy over the inner workings of the Ford government.
At the same time, the Ford government has extended the legislature’s “summer” break until the last week of this month. The legislature will not sit for 21 weeks, after a 14-week winter break.
This leaves the government untroubled by Opposition or reporter questions at Queen’s Park for months on end. The protracted current break is ostensibly to avoid sitting during municipal elections, a risible defence given how Mr. Ford has meddled in city affairs – including cutting Toronto’s council in half in the middle of an election campaign.
Mr. Ford may find it convenient to keep the public in the dark. But he seems to have learned the wrong lesson when he bragged about saving the taxpayer money as a Toronto city councillor. Less may be more when it comes to office expenses. It doesn’t work with political transparency.
