The Oct. 3 Sooke News Mirror contained a letter (Buying a Pig in a Poke) urging voters to reject the proportional representation, or PR, proposal in the upcoming provincial referendum.
This letter is part of a well-funded propaganda campaign to keep the old first-past-the-post system.
The author’s main complaint against the PR side was that it offers not one specific detailed model of a PR system, but three. Well, come on!
The most important question, and first on the ballot, is do we want to change the system. If yes, then there are three models to choose from. How bad is that?
The author says the current system works well but for whom? In the last two federal elections, our system has given us solid majority governments able to ram through anything their backers wanted (Trudeau’s pipeline, Harper’s uncountable excesses), both elected with under 40 per cent of the popular vote.
A majority government does “get things done” more efficiently than a minority or coalition, but what exactly gets done? Pipelines, internet grabs and bad trade deals. Who benefits? Follow the money.
When the NDP won a solid majority provincially in 1972 with under 40 per cent of the popular vote, the shoe was on the other foot, and the two conservative parties that split the vote against them started talking about some form of PR. There is no sacred principle here, just a high horse of convenience.
Now that the electoral balance is shifting to green, the corporatocracy is unhappy that their political pawns may get marginalized, in permanent opposition to green/left coalitions.
We will see lots more of their propaganda. Don’t buy it! Look into it and support a system that makes every vote count.
David Camas
East Sooke