Editor:
Re: Voters have an opportunity to modernize our democracy, Community Comment, July 5
ML Burke laments a Conservative government being elected in Ontario, but had they had proportional representation, there would be a Liberal-NDP coalition government and Ontario would be well on its way to bankruptcy with absolutely no way of stopping it as it would be impossible for the Conservatives to win an election under a PR system.
Under a PR system, we would be making that situation permanent, which is just what the NPD and the Greens want in B.C. She talks of cooperation. Let’s deal in a little reality for a change. The left wing parties cooperate with other left wing parties and right wing parties cooperate with other right wing parties. There is no cooperation across left wing and right wing lines and there never will be.
Stating the first past the post system is bad because government is formed with less than 50 per cent of the vote is simply silly. Divide 100 by three or more and what do you get? Simple math is going to tell you that is what will happen when you have more than two parties running in an election.
I’ve heard the first past the post system called a "tyranny of the majority" and it may well be, but why would we swap that for a "tyranny of the minority?"
We are already seeing that now under first past the post, never mind PR, as the Greens, who got about 16 per cent of the vote in the last election, are now dictating government policy on the Trans Mountain pipeline even though a majority of British Columbians want to see it go ahead.
What the majority wants is simply ignored by this government and it will be far worse under a PR system.
Curtis MacDonald
