Warning: If you disliked the column yours truly wrote agreeing with Mayor Bob Chiarelli on ambulances a few weeks back, be warned, it's time to praise another card carrying Liberal. This time it's Ontario Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty. Yes, Dalton has caught my attention with the release of his Democratic Charter last week in Toronto.

Editor-in-chief Rick Gibbons touched upon this briefly on Sunday with his analysis of the referendum on voting reform idea, but there is much more to the charter than this worthy proposal. And indeed, some of Mr. McGuinty's ideas could have relevance to our local city scene to boot.

To start, the Ontario Liberal Party, to its credit, is addressing the issue of plummeting confidence in politicians and political institutions. While this is a national (federal, provincial and local) problem, action on the provincial front is most welcome and if implemented properly, could have a spill-over effect up to the federal level and down through municipal governments.

Mr. McGuinty's proposals revolve around five key themes: voting reform, fixed terms of government, ending taxpayer funded partisan advertising, emancipating backbench MPPs and changing the rules surrounding money in politics. And yours truly can't help but think the two hours spent discussing some of these ideas with Dalton last March may have had some degree of influence. But my ego is already big enough, so let's just stick to the subject at hand.

The voting reform issue was analysed by Rick Gibbons on Sunday from one perspective. And to be fair to Rick, he raised valid concerns about the stability of governments that could be subject to very small minorities that could hold the balance of power in a pure proportional representation system. But before we criticize the alternatives, let's first examine the problem. Canada is one of three countries on the face of the planet with a population of over eight million that still employs the first-past-the-post voting system where mere pluralities of votes received enable parties to form majority governments (faked majorities) with 40% or less of the popular vote.

Meanwhile, over 80 countries employ varying forms of proportional representation (PR), run-off ballots in majoritarian systems, preferential or transferable ballots as vehicles to choose their governments. And some countries - Germany and New Zealand for example - combine proportional systems with the better elements of our constituency-based system.

The bottom line is clear. Our method of voting is disenfranchising and doesn't reflect popular will. Moreover, the evidence is irrefutable that non first-past-the-post countries, especially those that employ some form of PR enjoy voter turnout between 8% and 10% higher than we historically have in Canada. More young people and disaffected minorities also vote given their confidence that the vote they cast will actually translate into some concrete expression in the legislature. Yes a referendum on a new voting system for Ontario would be a good start.

Another idea in the McGuinty charter is a fixed four-year term of government. This is a no brainer and a degree of regularity to our election cycle (save for the unlikely and rare occurrence of a non confidence vote) as opposed to being left to the Premier's whim is something voters should be able to count on. And speaking of the counting challenged, Joe Clark - who lost his minority government on December 11, 1979 because he and John Crosbie couldn't count - proposed fixed four-terms last year during the federal election. Meanwhile, B.C. premier Gordon Campbell has gone a step further by announcing the next election date already and also mandating the annual budget date. So kudos to Mr. McGuinty for this sensible idea. Don't be surprised if one or two provincial Tory leadership candidates also lift this idea for their own platforms.

Moving along, the Ontario grits also propose to end taxpayer funded partisan advertising. Actually, the grits have been hopping mad about this for over two years. However, some historical perspective on this file is required. While it is true that the Ontario conservatives have elevated this offensive practice to a political art form (another glossy four-colour flier from Queen's Park is probably in your mailbox today, given the frequency with which they seem to be printed), the Harris PCs are merely building upon the foundation which was built by - ironically enough - the provincial Liberals under David Peterson and then wilfully adopted and expanded by Bob Rae and his band of socialist Robin Hoods as they ran the province into the ground from 1990 to 1995.

So an independent watchdog to protect public funds from this abuse would be welcome. This doesn't mean that the Ontario government can't advertise the availability of crucial programs, but what it would stop is packaging partisan reforms; oh let's say in education, into convenient brochures, full-page ads or 30-second prime time commercial spots. If ever applied locally, such an entity could equally and realistically say "yes" to local flu shot clinic ads and "no" to politically contentious O-train ads.

Fourth on the McGuinty hit parade is the notion of emancipating backbench MPPs from the slavery of excessive party discipline. Except for votes of confidence, campaign commitments budget bills and throne speeches, backbench MPPs would be free to vote against government policy or initiatives. Mr. McGuinty has pledged no formal retribution against those who don't tow the party line, but informal retribution might still exist. Nonetheless, this proposal recognizes the value of an MPP as an advocate for their constituency first as opposed to the current view (both provincially and federally) that they are voting machines for the government.

Finally, Mr. McGuinty's charter takes aim at the influence of money in politics. Sadly his proposals on this front will probably serve to limit participation by the moneyed interests (since you'll need a Philadelphia lawyer to wade through the election finance rules before cutting a cheque) instead of promoting wider scale democratic participation through election contributions. But this is a column for another day.

On balance, the majority of Mr. McGuinty's proposals are worthy of study and support. The test of their currency will be to see if they're adopted, either in whole or in part by other parties before the next provincial election.