The provincial government is open to approving Toronto city council’s push to extend voting rights in municipal elections to non-citizens, says Premier Kathleen Wynne.

Wynne told reporters Wednesday that she is eager to examine council’s proposal.

“I think it’s very interesting, the issues that they’re looking at,” the premier said at the opening of the renovated Women’s College Hospital.

“I’ve said that we’ll consider them when the recommendations come forward. We haven’t had a formal request, obviously, at this point,” she said.

“But I think that in a city as diverse as Toronto, looking at ways of engaging people in the democratic process … is very, very important.”

On Tuesday, council voted to ask Queen’s Park to give permanent residents the right to vote in municipal elections and to allow Toronto to adopt ranked choice balloting, enabling voters to rank candidates in order of preference.

Under such a ballot system, voters can select either one favourite candidate or rank them in order of preference: A “1” for their top choice; a “2” for their next-best; and a “3” for their third.

Should a candidate receive a majority of more than 50 per cent of first-place votes, the election would be decided.

Should no candidate reach that threshold, an “instant runoff” would occur with the last-place candidate knocked out and the second-place votes of his or her voters added to the tallies of the remaining candidates. This would continue until a candidate has a majority.

Because city ballots are electronically tabulated, it would be done quickly and easily.

Wynne, a former municipal affairs minister who represents the Toronto riding of Don Valley West, said such innovations are worthwhile.

“We need to commend the city council for looking at options for engaging people in the democratic process,” she said.

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford said only Canadians should be allowed to vote in civic elections.

“It doesn’t make sense. How can someone that’s not a Canadian citizen vote? I just think we wasted six hours because I don’t believe the province is going to do anything with this,” Ford said at Tuesday’s council debate.

But Wynne noted there is a long history in Canada of permitting non-Canadians to cast ballots.

“Remember there was a time in Ontario when non-citizens voted. My mother was a British subject, she grew up in the Bahamas, she moved here — for decades she voted as a British subject, she was not a Canadian citizen,” the premier said. “So the reality is that there have been many, many different models.”

Since the legislature has now risen for the summer recess, the earliest the province could act on city council’s request by amending legislation is September.

Any changes would take effect in time for the 2018 municipal election.

Should Ontario make such a change, it’s likely other jurisdictions in Canada would follow.

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It’s estimated that about 250,000 non-citizens would be able to vote in Toronto elections if the rules are amended.

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