Changing our voting system

The fundamental principle of democracy is that the will of the majority should prevail. 

It is not that the party with the largest minority should have authoritarian, one-party government control and rule unfettered of effective challenges to, or serious moderation of, any of its policies for four years.

This is what our current system almost always delivers, and it’s unfair and basically undemocratic. 

This is why fans of the current system don’t laud its fairness or strong democratic function. They can’t, because those essential features aren’t part of first past the post. Instead, they resort to arguing its many debatable features and parroting fear mongering claims about the evils of proportional representation.

So, don’t listen to the apologists for the current system or even to what I say. Rather, learn why we need to modernize our voting system to a proportional one and what would be better with a new system.

To see what would remain the same when we update the election process and for an impartial assessment of the various electoral systems on the referendum ballot, go to the independent, non-partisan people who run all voting in the province – Elections BC.

Terry Robertson, Kelowna