First past post doesn’t work

Dear editor: Re: Jon Christoff’s letter to the editor, “Canadians can be proud” (Courier, May 29).

According to Christoff, in his description of our current electoral system, “Why change something that works? Fix what’s broken.” Something that works? Something that works for 40 per cent of voters and doesn’t for the other 60 per cent. In the last federal election, around ninemillion voters voted for someone who didn’t get elected.

In essence, their votes didn’t count. They might as well have stayed home.

The vast majority of governments in B.C. and Canada have been elected with less than 50 per cent of the popular vote. Usually, it’s around 40 per cent. If 40 per cent of the voters deciding things for the remaining 60 per cent is not broken, I don’t know what is.

In B.C., around 50 per cent of the votes are ineffective, not electing anyone. In countries using proportional representation, such as Denmark, Sweden and Norway, more than 95 per cent of the votes go to electing a candidate of the voters’ choice.

If you are a Liberal voter in an NDP or Green riding, such as many in the Lower Mainland or Vancouver Island, you might as well stay home on voting day. Do something useful like mowing the lawn, because your vote is not going to count.

The same applies to a Green voter or an NDP voter in a Liberal riding, like Kelowna. Daryl Sturdy Kelowna