MMP and Its Critics

Here is a good article in the Orillia Packet & Times by Steve Withers. He talks about the critics and how they don't back up their arguments. And he also puts in his two cents worth on MMP:

In my personal experience, MMP is a much better system for voters. MMP offers voters two votes: one local and one for a party province-wide. That second vote is a very powerful one, holding parties to account across the entire province, not just locally. The party bosses of the present system are terrified voters will choose MMP and be able to hold them and their party collectively to account everywhere through that province-wide vote.

The present voting system gives us one vote for one candidate in one riding. That vote only counts if your preferred candidate wins, otherwise, you get nothing. Your one vote does not count at all in any of other 102 ridings in Ontario. Your one vote, at best, holds less than one per cent of all MPPs to account and only indirectly affects the fortunes of their party. Very few voters indeed get to vote directly for the party leaders. Under MMP, your party vote is a direct vote of support for the party you favour. It counts no matter who won your local race. Its effect is for all of Ontario, not just your local riding. How anyone can say this significant enhancement of voter power is less democratic defies rational understanding.

UPDATE
Here's a video explaining MMP.