Letter to the Editor
Editor,
Prior to the recent federal election, we had Mr. Miller representing us in Ottawa and Mr. Harper representing us to the world. Isn’t this a strange situation when 60% of voters did not vote for them? How are the ideas of the 60% supposed to be heard? How are the 60% to think that their vote mattered and that their position is being represented in government?
People did get fired up and many did vote strategically to oust the Harper government. But, this should not have to happen.
Most people would prefer to vote for something not against something.
They would prefer to vote for the best candidate in their riding (maybe even an independent) and would also prefer to vote for the party that best represents their values. These two conditions are not contradictory if a better ‘Proportional Voting’ system were used.
During the recent campaign, the Liberal, NDP, and Green parties campaigned to make this the last vote under the First Past The Post system. So, let’s hold Justin, Tom and Elizabeth’s feet to the fire to bring election reform. Real change! During the next four years.
Consider an option that allows us to:
A) Rank our vote for a local candidate (this guarantees a majority in the local constituency) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant-runoff_voting
and
B) cast a vote for the party of our choice (the proportional element) http://www.dprvoting.org
Under such a system, we get a majority of voters behind our local candidate and each party gets their proportional voting power in Parliament.
Everyone will be encouraged to vote and their vote will matter.
Win Win in my books!
Dave MacDougall, Meaford
