Dear Editor
Re: “Dear Mr. Trudeau: Don’t get cocky,” editorial, Burnaby NOW, Oct. 21.
Thank you for your editorial on the need for Mr. Trudeau to follow through on his election promises. You are right on. This election was fought on who should be the best replacement for the “Harper Government,” and in spite of all the jibes about his good looks, I believe Mr. Trudeau was chosen on the basis of his party’s platform.
Coverage of electoral reform in the media and social media since the election has made it clear that this issue is a high priority for voters. Our 40 per cent support for the Liberals has once again turned into a 55 per cent (false) majority. And as usual, an average of half the voters in every riding are represented by an MP they voted against.
The Liberals have proposed to investigate both preferential ballots and proportional representation as possible replacements for our broken first-past-the-post system, but the cases for each are very different.
The preferential ballot is actually a way to make strategic voting work better. It takes most of the guesswork out of voting strategically since if your first choice doesn’t get much support, the ballot shows how to switch your vote to your second or third choice. But why do we want to make strategic voting work better? Strategic voting is a bad idea in the first place – we only do it because first-past-the -post-forces us into it.
And preferential ballots do not solve the other problem at all, which is that so many voters are not well represented in their own ridings. This is the root cause of the mismatch between the popular vote and the seats won in Parliament.
Proportional representation solves both these problems: it ensures that all voters are represented by the party or candidate who they sincerely want to represent them, and it ensures that the party’s seats will match the popular vote for that party.
Canadians do indeed deserve a better system that gives more representation to all the voices of this proud nation, and that system is proportional representation.
Iain Macanulty, Burnaby
