Editor:
Re: Senatorial solutions, June 18 letters.
The call by letter-writer Geoff Dean for a Senate with an equal number of senators per province, is simply parroting the 30-40 year-ago campaign for a “Triple E Senate” – a concept that is just as misguided now as it was then.
The “equal” Senate would be massively undemocratic with, say, a senator from Ontario representing about 90 times the number of people represented by a P.E.I. senator.
From the same period, however, comes an excellent reform alternative: the 1984 Report by a multi-party committee. Its recommendation was for an elected Senate with Ontario and Quebec each assigned 24 seats, P.E.I. with six seats and the other provinces 12 seats each.
In the West, we should have grabbed at that if given a chance. Wow! Any two of the western provinces being equal to Ontario!
Just as witless as the “equal” Senate, is the letter writer’s call for the use of single transferrable vote, a system which wafted into B.C. on a cloud of deceit and deception.
STV was frequently just said to be “proportional representation,” without a shred of supporting evidence. It’s not. STV was said to result in no votes wasted. Untrue.
Wasted votes in the proposed 20 STV ridings would average 20 per cent, determined solely by the number of seats per riding (seven to two).
STV was said to be designed for manual counting and vote transfer. Untrue… computer processing of votes is essential in BC-STV. Some ballots will be transferred carrying a fraction of one vote determined by multiplying one nine-decimal place fraction by another; example 0.238769561 x 0.054987653 = 0.013129378 of one vote.
Pretty please: STV never again!
David Poole, Surrey
