Re: “False analogies: elections are not horse races”, (Citizen, March 1)
Recently a Citizen reader suggested we cease to compare our elections to horse races.
The author having dismissed one harmless analogy then proceeds to equate our current electoral system with “the enslavement of 35 million people for four years.”
It would appear the author does not wish for us to completely abandon the use of figurative language. Or are we indeed to take her literally?
Is first past the post, as the author suggests, a relic stained by our misogynistic, bigoted and monarchist past?
If so it has somehow served us remarkably well despite its many sins. Canada’s governments may not have always been ideal, but for decades, indeed lifetimes, they have been decidedly democratic and routinely amongst the most envied in the world.
Perhaps that is why people from across the globe, from both dictatorships and democracies continue to flock to our shores.
It may be time to explore new methods of electing our representatives, but let’s do so rationally.
No system is perfect; indeed even direct democracy fails to produce ideal results.
Tasked with “buying a particular car or even a T-shirt” the earlier referenced author would have us defer to the advice of “six out of our 10 friends”. Would she be equally happy to retain the first past the post electoral system if six out of 10 of her friends told her to do so?
In 2007 Ontario voters participated in a referendum on electoral reform and 63 per cent elected to continue selecting their representatives using the first past the post methodology.
Are they all willing slaves or are they people who recognize that Canada is blessed with a fine, if flawed system of government?
^
Jim Shaw
Mill Bay
