Re: ‘Electoral voting system fails Canadians’ (Letters, PQB News, Oct. 29)
What an excellent letter from Murray Chantler.
If ever a vitally important subject fell through the cracks it was this, as day after day the national news was stoked by global warming, corruption scandals and fractious arguments over lesser matters. Little was heard about proportional representation, which I foolishly thought was essential for a democratic election; not even from the NDP and Greens, bar a single passing reference one evening by Elizabeth May to the need for electoral reform, with no indication of the type favoured.
Why not? It is futile for us to moan and groan over this when it was the rotten system employed which told the 22.5% of voters supporting the NDP and Greens that they really don’t matter.
Since only elected governments can change the system, and since for decades Liberals and Conservatives have rejected change, how can it occur? Only, I suggest, by totally disrupting government from day one in Parliament, flatly refusing to co-operate with government in any way unless PR (not a ranked-ballot system) is initiated within three days, or even walking out en masse. We cannot go into another (likely soon) election with such a proportion of the electorate being so casually dismissed.
Russ Vinden
Errington