I do not write many letters to the editor, but because the referendum on electoral reform is so important, I feel it my duty as a citizen who has seldom been represented in our various governments to state my opinion.
“As long as the world shall last there will be wrongs, and if nobody objected and if nobody rebelled, those wrongs would last forever.” – Clarence Darrow (1857-1938)
What is wrong with the present system, you might ask? Plenty. The most egregious being its rejection of the democratic principle of every vote having equal influence.
When our outmoded system of first past the post produces a majority of voters having to wait another four years to try to gain any representation, that’s an outrageous waste of all the good ideas those voters could produce, as well as guaranteeing a huge loss of confidence in the electoral system. The result of such a loss reflects in increasingly lower voter turnout, and FPTP has been responsible for this trend for far too long.
Only by objecting and rebelling can we get rid of it.
Proportional representation minimizes confrontation and emphasizes pragmatic co-operation. We end up with a smoother, more diverse and less strident group of elected representatives who understand that their job is to produce lasting legislation satisfying a much broader group of citizens.
That requires listening to and assessing counter arguments on issues and welding them together. Such a parliament, reflecting a greater diversity of thought, must avoid narrow ideologies leading to expensive policy reversals now taking place every time one major party is replaced by the other.
To achieve a system not slavishly parroting one person’s ideas through a party whip, the only way is to adopt some form of proportional representation, the most fundamental goal of which is to give every vote a voice in government, so every voter feels his concerns reflected equally in the resulting legislation.
Let’s get on with this democratic updating.
Ian MacKenzie, Kamloops