Editor:
One promise Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made is this would be the last election under first-past-the-post (FPTP).
I voted for him, so I expect him to keep that promise.
As we have seen in the recent U.S. election, polarization is an awful thing. This is what FPTP gives you.
People vote and the person with the most votes gets all the power. He or she does not have to listen to other points of view. He or she can and seem to take a “my way or the highway” attitude. Even if only theoretically 34 per cent of the electorate – in a three-way race – voted for you. Here, we have a government with only support from 39 per cent of the Canadian population giving orders, as if everybody agrees with them. This is totally and morally indefensible.
We have an opposition for a reason, but it is ineffective with today’s voting system. I want a system where government legislation is supported by at least 50 per cent of the voters. This could be proportional representation but there is another option.
We could keep FPTP so it’s nice and simple for the people who seem to think that is necessary – but with the caveat that all legislation can only pass when you have enough members to give you 50 per cent of the popular vote. That is not a difficult thing to figure out.
This way, any government would need to listen to other positions unless it had the requisite 50 per cent popular vote behind them.
Laurence Gill, Surrey
