Letter to the Editor
Editor,
In his editorial “We’re Not Perfect, But There’s No Better Place To Live Than Canada” (June 29/18) Mr. Vance seems to include amongst the things he likes about Canada is the electoral system, although he believes that Proportional Representation would be a nice improvement. In addition he likes the ability of citizens to protest and hold our governments accountable.
I certainly can agree with him about the last two points, but not the first. Throughout my long life I have had to endure voting both federally and provincially under first-past-the-post, an undemocratic system that usually forms governments from a minority of electoral votes, assigning to another four year oblivion the wishes of a majority of voters.
I have usually found myself in that majority so I have found myself in the need to protest. All because representative democracy has failed us, leaving us only the option of direct democracy, an option that shouldn’t be required. For example I am now in the position of spending many of my waking hours typing letters or attending marches because Mr. Trudeau has promised so much and delivered so much of the opposite, specifically his vow to make the last election the last under first-past-the-post.
So I agree with Mr. Vance that Proportional Representation at all levels of government would be far more than just “nice”, it would be the only way in which all votes would count equally. It is the only system that gives us a truly democratic government that represents us all.
Here in BC we will be putting that possibility to a vote this fall.
Ian MacKenzie, Kamloops, BC
