90 countries use PR system

Dear Editor: James Miller thinks proportional representation “might very well be a good thing,” but would like to see a comprehensive series of maps (Courier, July 20). Electoral boundaries are set every few years by a nonpartisan, electoral commission, who also use input by citizens. The boundaries are not determined by the party in power.

Miller mentions that two of the three systems are untested and “apparently invented by the NDP-Greens.” All the systems proposed are based on voting systems used for decades by more than 90 countries around the world. Versions of Rural-urban PR are in use by a number of countries. Dual-member proportional was developed by someone at the University of Alberta, and while that exact system has not been used elsewhere, similar systems have been.

In B.C., we’ve had two-member ridings before — even here in Penticton. The three systems that will be on the ballot were recommended by many of the organizations and institutions that submitted briefs to the Attorney General along with more than 90,000 people who sent in their comments and preferences.

There is good information on how the B.C. government structured the ballot and chose the three systems that will be on the ballot. Miller’s editorial unfortunately repeated misinformation on the referendum.

As chair of the South Okanagan Similkameen chapter of Fair Vote Canada BC, I’d be happy to sit down with editorial staff and go over the benefits of modernizing B.C.’s voting system.

Results in other countries show PR doesn’t benefit one party over another. It’s in all our best interests to have every voter know that their vote counted to elect someone. Diana McGregor Penticton