Skip to content

Cast a vote for electoral reform

Re: the April 26 editorial “Political issues see little change.” As editorialized, it doesn’t seem the issues change very much. Again, I’m anticipating the B.C. election outcome with great trepidation due to the unpredictable swings that just a few votes difference seems to make.
web1_letters-logo-2-660x440

Re: the April 26 editorial “Political issues see little change.” As editorialized, it doesn’t seem the issues change very much. Again, I’m anticipating the B.C. election outcome with great trepidation due to the unpredictable swings that just a few votes difference seems to make.

In my lifetime, B.C. has never voted in but one true majority government, yet for whoever can get a little over 40 per cent of votes, they get a four-year dictatorship where official opposition doesn’t mean anything. This shouldn’t be so. There are varied parties who represent the whole political spectrum but our outdated electoral system fails to deliver fair representation of those views.

Liberals dishonestly claim that electoral reform has been rejected by B.C., yet 58 per cent previously voted yes for change, something the Liberals didn’t feel obligated to act on. Ironic, because Christy Clark’s Liberals got an average 200,000 fewer supporting votes than the ‘yes’ side of the referendum. How does that make them legitimate and electoral reform the dead issue they claim it is?

Both the Greens and NDP have publicly announced that, not just will they look again at electoral reform but that they will actively promote a system of proportional representation – to better deliver a truly representative democracy to B.C. Yes, that will likely mean minority or coalition governments, which will have to co-operate and negotiate. But is that a bad thing?

We’ve seen what the Liberal brand of democracy has yielded in B.C. with corporate interests set to destroy our environment and rising costs for Hydro, ICBC, ferries and MSP. Young families can’t afford to live here and the future of myself and other retired citizens is in peril because there won’t be a younger generation able to live here. We need to change this, by electing a different government – one that will actually work to represent myself and all B.C.

Diane Guthrie

Victoria