Stability is key in how we elect MPs

Re. “Bad form on electoral reform,” Editorial, Feb. 3

Your editorial has pilloried Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. I would have agreed with you that Trudeau had broken his promise about the election reforms. But under the present circumstances, with the rise of an erratic and volatile U.S. President Donald Trump, alt-right elements in the Conservative party and the killing of six in a mosque in Quebec City, we have entered dangerous times in our history.

The political waters are choppy and it’s not the time to swap horses in midstream.

The key word should be stability.

The electoral system model called first-past-the-post (FPTP) tends to promote two parties to merge into one — just because of the mass — and it produces a stable government, quite frequently a majority one. Examples include the last election in India in 2014, and in Canada, 2016.

In contrast to the FPTP model, the proportional representation model fosters proliferation of parties and often it’s a daunting task to cobble together a coalition. For example, the Italian government descended into chaos in December 2016, after the government was defeated in the constitutional reform referendum. A.N. Kamal, Edmonton