I have been surprised to see the recent comments regarding electoral reform.
As for the comment "if it ain't broke, don't fix it," I feel that there is no question that the system is broken. One of the most basic principles of democracy is majority rule. Our last two federal elections gave 100 per cent of the power to a party with less than 40 per cent of the vote.
In a country with only two parties, our current system would work just fine, but where we have more than two it doesn't.
The committee that studied electoral reform concluded that some type of proportional representation should be implemented. If this system was in place in the last election, the Liberals would currently have a minority government. Under this system, minority governments would become the new normal and the parties would eventually have to learn to cooperate and negotiate with each other. If the party in power wanted to pass some legislation, it might have to turn to at least one of the other parties for support which might mean allowing another piece of legislation from the opposing party or a modification to the proposed legislation therefore allowing more people to be represented. In fact, during a term it is possible for each of the opposition parties to make a contribution.
There is also the option of winning more than 50 per cent of the vote to get the majority government. Wouldn't it be nice to see a government doing such a good job that it gets that much support?
Bill Koocher
Prince George
