Mickey Donnelly wrote in his letter “Electoral losers don’t deserve reward,” (The NEWS, June 19), that legislators want to confuse voters, and probably are doing a good job with the upcoming referendum. While I agree with this comment his point that “and particularly those minority political parties” with reference to them being like the legislators wanting/encouraging confusion. I strongly disagree.
The most important question on the upcoming referendum asks if people prefer to keep first-past-the-post or move to a form of proportional representation. I encourage people to consider the recent first-past-the-post election in Ontario. A population of 13,448,494 has 10,200,000 eligible voters. Of those only 5,736,190 cast a vote. 2,736,190 cast an effective vote and elected someone. But 2,998,740 cast ineffective ballots with no-one elected. Only 1,741,320 votes contributed to electing Ford. That is not a majority by my calculations.
In the last B.C. election, 40.3 per cent of voters tried to re-elect the Liberal party. While 40.2 per cent of voters wanted a new NDP government. 16.4 per cent voted Green. Of the total 87 seats 16.4 per cent should give Greens 14 seats. But they got only three under first-past-the-post system.
Introducing proportional representation will give every single voter a voice. When everyone has a voice voter apathy will likely improve. I suggest it is the parties in power who have most to lose, who are trying to confuse the general public. Most obvious is Trudeau’s backtrack on his election promise to introduce proportional representation. Those who want to introduce proportional representation are most likely the “smaller” parties and they have nothing to gain by confusing voters. Rather the opposite. To learn more visit: http://voteprbc.ca.
Susan Blacklin
Qualicum Beach