Blowing up first past post

Re: Blowing up first-past-thepost, Andrew Coyne, Sept. 27 I truly believe that first-pastthe-post is the single biggest reason nothing appears to get done at any level of government these days. In simple terms, it breeds complacency amongst the incumbents. They don’t have to work hard for our vote. Or more importantly, it means they don’t have to work well with each other. The “Left” and “Right” would have you believe that their beliefs are different, and that may be true, but once in power, the results are the same. Majority government A says black, Opposition B says white … and so it goes for four years. Then the election cycle begins with both incumbents and nonincumbents putting on their “They’re bad! Vote for me!” shirts, one of them wining the election and both going back to doing the same thing.

Any other electoral system would mean better representation, forcing politicians to work harder for our vote and in turn work together. If minority governments were so bad, then Europe would be in a constant state of disarray. Generally speaking, this is not the case. Coalition governments in Europe work together and get things done. Majority governments in North America get very little done.

I was supremely disappointed when Justin Trudeau reneged on his promise of election reform. But not surprised. His excuse was all too familiar: “lack of political will.” One only has to look at the 2007 Ontario referendum on the subject to know that politicians on both side of the aisle don’t want this … all for self-serving reasons.

Sadly, the world is what we make of it, and until John Q. Citizen educates himself and herself on the various systems out there and hold their elected officials’ collective feet to the fire, we’ll keep complaining and politicians will keep doing nothing. Austin Dumas, Mississauga, Ont. An older generation will remember newsreels from the Soviet Union where a sea of raised hands always voted unanimously for the communist party. One-party communism made governance easy, compared to messy democracy where opposition and different positions are, or at least should be, respected and considered. People who support first-past-the-post voting should remember that unwittingly they support a voting system that can result in one-party government. That is not just a theoretical possibility but happened in 1987 in New Brunswick when the Liberals won 60.39 per cent of the popular vote but got every one of the 58 seats in the provincial legislature. New Brunswick had a oneparty government with zero opposition.

First-past-the-post voting is undemocratic; we must get rid of it. Reiner Jaakson, Oakville, Ont.