The Citizen's Neil Godbout has come out strongly critical of the NDP's handling of the proportional representation issue.
His editorial last week focuses on the attorney general's suggestion that any electoral boundary changes need not go through the Electoral Boundaries Commission process.
He may well have a point, but one would get the impression from his editorial that somehow that indicates voting for proportional representation would be the wrong thing to do.
Opponents of PR often focus on some weak part of the process rather than attempting to find issue with proportional representation as a political concept.
Les Leyne's column later in the week takes aim at the NDP for having an opinion on PR.
Somehow he feels the NDP should be entirely neutral while the B.C. Liberals are throwing everything they have behind their opposition to PR.
Again, nothing about which is the better democratic and fairer concept - first past the post or proportional representation - and only criticism of the process of deciding how the vote should be handled.
Godbout's suggestion that the threshold for changing to PR should be 60 per cent rather 50 per cent plus one is almost laughable. Correct me if I am wrong, but does that mean that those people who want to retain a political system that allows repeated majority governments to be elected with only 40-45 per cent of the popular vote are unhappy with only 50 per cent being enough to change the system. Hmmm?
Having at least 50 per cent of the popular vote in order to form a government is what the supporters of proportional representation are asking for.
Almost every government we have had in recent history in B.C., right or left of center, has had well less than 50 per cent of the popular vote but have had a majority of the seats which gives them 100 per cent of the power.
That just isn't democracy. Proportional representation requires that 50 per cent threshold.
A quick look at the media throughout the province shows the same trend. Much is being said about what is wrong with the process chosen by the present government, very little is being said on what the referendum is about.
The issue is simple. Do we stick with the old, outdated model that consistently gives us a government who, though they only have the support of a minority of the voters, have the majority of the seats in the legislature and thus 100 per cent of the power? Or do we change to a system which has been adopted by most of the successful, progressive democracies in the world, one that ensures that the government that is making decisions for us has the support of at least 50 per cent of the voters?
Yes, there are decisions that would need to be made on exactly how that would work.
Just as there are differences between how Canada and the U.S., both first past the post systems, choose their representatives, there are differences in how various proportional representative countries chose theirs.
That is what the second part of the questions is about. Any of the three chooses offered are an improvement over what we have.
B.C., with its large concentration of population in the southwest corner, needs a system which recognizes and addresses that situation.
The current system we use does a poor job of that. A "made for B.C." PR system would improve on that. Thus the urban/rural "made for B.C." idea is worth considering.
Just keep your eye on the ball. Proportional representation is a concept that has a long, successful track record worldwide and should be supported.
John Warner
Prince George
