I favour proportional representation because majority governments are potentially very dangerous to our rights and freedoms.
There are many examples of this globally and historically, but let’s look at our own Canadian experience.
In the 1980s, the Parti Quebecois majority government used its power to severely limit the rights of anglophones.
It would have been difficult for a minority or coalition government to get away with this, but the attitude was ‘the majority wins and you lose’.
More recently, a small minority of citizens (40 per cent of the less than 60 per cent who voted) elected a majority government that was narrowly focused on expanding pipelines. Again, our rights and freedoms were threatened!
The CRA was subverted into an instrument of political punishment, protections were removed from thousands of rivers and streams, and, under Bill C-51, the definition of terrorism was expanded to include anyone who interferes with infrastructure. Pipelines are infrastructure.
The very small majority who elected that government are the same people who now oppose a true democracy where every vote counts.
They are using the classic tactics of voter manipulation: create fear by cherry-picking and distorting facts.
In his recent letter, John Morrison neglected the many countries that successfully elect stable governments under PR to focus on Italy — a country that has been heavily influenced by organized crime.
Others will bring up other specific instances that highlight the difficulties of true democracy.
(True democracy is difficult, by the way.)
But these people will never mention the many dictatorships that originally began as democratically elected majorities.
Cynthia Montgomery
Maple Bay
