Make a tough choice all too easy

I'm looking forward to the Oct. 10 provincial election. Why? Because if the referendum on a Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) voting system wins the day, this may very well be the last Ontario election to see me cast a ballot.
Don't get me wrong. I not only believe strongly in the right to vote which Canadians have fought and died for over the years, and still are, but I love the whole procedure of voting. Getting the little card in the mail, going to the polling station, making my mark on the ballot -- the whole nine yards. But I also believe that deciding who to vote for should be a hard decision. One that requires some homework on my part and, on election day, the exercising of that choice.
If given the green light, a Mixed Member Proportional voting system will take away the difficulty of making such a choice, allowing voters to vote for a candidate and a party separately. True, you could still for a candidate and that candidate's party but the option is there to vote separately for both.
In the last federal election, I voted for the candidate that I decided would best represent Peterborough. I voted for that candidate despite not being particularly enamoured by his/her party's platform. That was a tough choice for me but I made a choice.
The MMP system makes voting a no-brainer and it should never be that. That should only be what it always has been -- the domain of the ridiculously high number of people who opt not to vote. You want to change the legislation re: voting? Start by getting them off the couch.