The full court press by the NDP/Green coalition for a shift to proportional representation is a big, bright shiny object.
B.C. has four major parties: Liberals, Conservatives, NDP and Greens.
With the exception of the Greens, all have held power at one time or another. There are also another 23 registered political parties in B.C.
Forming a political party is a fundamental part of democratic society and should be encouraged. However, most are single issue driven and are probably not capable of providing good governance.
We’re told PR will 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’s all done for our best. These three claims are disturbing.
First, you need to have degrees in law and mathematics to figure out how these optional PR systems work. If it’s that difficult to understand it’s probably not good for you.
Second, when government pushes change that hard there’s more to it that we are told, and finally I suspect what we’re not told is that it’s 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 de-constructing a proven voting system.
Reject this bright shiny object and vote No to PR.
Tom Davis
Victoria
