Beware of bright, shiny objects. The full court press by the NDP and Green Coalition for a shift to Proportional Representation is a big bright shiny object.
Currently there are four major parties in B.C.: Liberals, Conservatives, NDP and Greens. With the exception of the Greens all have held power at one time or another with the Green party currently having one hand on government’s levers.
There are also another 23 registered political parties in B.C., some with such household names as the Un-Party, Your Political Party and the Excalibur Party. Forming a political party is a fundamental part of democratic societies and should be encouraged.
However, most are single issue driven and are probably not capable of providing good governance for the much wider range of issues that a province like B.C. presents.
We are told that PR is supposed to give us a fairer government based on a purer democratic process, it will take a fundamental change in how we elect our representatives to achieve this goal and it is all being done for our good. These claims are disturbing.
First, you need to have degrees in law and mathematics to figure out how these optional PR systems work. If it is that difficult to understand it’s probably not good for you.
Second, when government pushes change that hard there is more to it that we are being told, and f I suspect what we are not being told is that it is a grab to increase and solidify political power under the guise of making the system more democratic. People’s political leanings really haven’t changed that much. We either fall into left, right or middle political voting groups with shading at the fringes. Political parties need to reflect this but PR is not the way to do it. The problem is the traditional right and left parties have become lazy about accommodating divergent viewpoints.
The remedy is for the coalition building to occur within these parties and not by deconstructing a proven voting system, admittedly one with some warts, that has served us well for a long time.
Reject this bright shiny object and vote no to PR.
Tom Davis
Colwood
