Editor: Proportional representation is a way to make sure that every voter is effectively represented in the legislature.
It is not a strategy that favours one party over any other. In fact, it’s exactly the opposite: it’s a strategy to make sure the playing field is level and every party gets the representation that it deserves. That’s why the argument that the NDP is “stacking the deck” in favour of PR is so ridiculous.
Stacking the deck implies some kind of unfair advantage, but the government is advocating a change that would increase fairness to all parties by empowering all voters.
The unfair advantage is with the current voting system, as any objective look back at any election in B.C. or Canadian history will show. In nearly every past B.C. election, a party has won a majority government on the basis of between 40 per cent and 45 per cent of the vote.
Now that’s a stacked system.
Iain Macanulty, Burnaby
