Electoral reform needed

Re: Power of authenticity, Mike Coates; July 21 Perhaps unintentionally, Mike Coates reveals a serious systemic pathology in the Canadian democratic process. In Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke, an electoral district of some 77,520 eligible electors, some 20 months before the date set for the next federal election, a mere 866 of these people have evidently determined who the Conservative Party candidate will be. This in an electoral district where the Conservative candidate, the current incumbent, has won each of the last six elections.

So, to all intents and purposes, the outcome of the federal election, not to be held until October 2019, has already been decided in this district. How many more electoral district pre-determinations are taking place across Canada months in advance of the next election? More than a few, I suspect. There is something definitely wrong with this picture.

Coates rightly suggests that the biggest challenge on the road to becoming an MP is securing a party nomination. Indeed, a candidate nomination is the fulcrum of the democratic process, for it is at this point one obtains maximum leverage per unit of effort or money expended. The late, unlamented Richard Daley, Sr., erstwhile mayor of Chicago and head of an infamous political machine, once aptly stated, “I don’t care who does the electing, just let me do the nominating.”

Reform to our electoral system ought to begin with the conduct of candidate nominations. This crucially important aspect of our electoral process needs to be removed from the control of party apparatchiks, standardized across all political parties and included within the regulatory framework of the Canada Election Act. To encourage maximum participation of eligible electors, we ought to consider a form of primary contest for party candidate selection.

David Marley, West Vancouver