The City of Toronto’s executive committee has just driven a stake through the heart of a modest proposal to make municipal elections less divisive and give newcomers a better chance of winning.

At the same time, the door has been opened to allowing outside groups to advertise during municipal election campaigns, raising the prospect of more big-money influence in city politics.

Taken together, the moves are a double-whammy against the hope for fairer and more civil politics in Toronto.

The first move came late last week when the executive committee voted 6-3 against setting up an independent citizens’ panel to study bringing in ranked ballots for the election of 2022.

It’s a system that would allow voters to rank candidates in order of preference, and require the winner to have the support of at least half those who cast a ballot.

It would be a big improvement over the system we use now. At present, councillors can be elected with less than 20 per cent of the vote in a crowded field and can win by focusing just on their core supporters while angering most others. Ranked ballots would force them to reach out to other voters who might list them as their second or third choice, thus discouraging negative campaigns.

After the trauma of the Rob Ford years, it looked at one point like there was momentum at city hall for such a change. Queen’s Park opened the door for cities to bring in the new system if they want. But city councillors voted it down last fall and now the executive committee has definitively slammed the door shut.

It’s no surprise: the system we use now is tilted hugely in favour of incumbents. It’s almost unknown for a newcomer to successfully challenge an elected city councillor, so of course the politicians in power like it. But it’s a lost opportunity for a fairer voting system at the city level.

The second move is just as troubling. The executive committee was also advised last week that the province has authorized advertising in local elections from so-called third parties, such as business, unions and interest groups. Right now they are banned from donating to municipal candidates.

The changes in the law aren’t entirely clear. But they raise the possibility that third parties could form political action committees and run ad campaigns for or against candidates in the next city election, swaying voters on the issues that matter most to them.

If that’s allowed, then those who can raise the most money will have the biggest voice – and it may be next to impossible to figure out exactly who is backing a particular ad campaign.

Ontario has finally passed legislation to get third-party influence out of provincial campaigns. It would be tragic if it sneaks back into municipal elections through these new rules. The province should make sure that doesn’t happen.