MLA logic challenged

After reading Mike Morris’s letter, I believe that he was telling us the way government is supposed to operate, that the Members of the Legislative Assembly are not beholden to the party line.

If they asked the majority voters of this province, they would say very clearly that statement is false. In the Legislature, as well as in Parliament, parties have whips and their job is to make sure party members walk, talk and vote the party line.

If they don’t, they will likely have kissed goodbye the chance of running for that party in the next election. There is no doubt of how you voted because you stand up when you do and your fellow party members see how you voted.

Respect between parties doesn’t happen.

So how could good discussion and compromise take place?

Sometimes good ideas come from opposition benches, which are totally ignored under the existing political process we have now.

Some of the problems our system of government has are special interest groups, which have the resources to attend party conventions.

These groups tend to be very organized and have the ability to control the government agenda.

Thereby, the needs and wants of the majority of people are not heard.

Another problem is much of government business comes from the floor of their party’s conventions.

This means if the popular vote in an election is 40 per cent for the ruling party, the population of B.C. is 4 million and if 1,000 people attend a political convention of the winning party, you have a problem of only 1,000 are being heard out of four million.

The vast majority of voters don’t belong to political parties nor can afford to. Therefore their ideas or concerns are never heard. During the last federal election, the Liberals under Justin Trudeau promised us a new way in which the next election would be run. They did a 180 on that after they were elected. Nathan Cullen, MP for Skeena North, traveled across Canada meeting thousands of voters unhappy with the decision. He drafted a bill and put it forward to Parliament but the federal Liberals defeated it.

I disagree with Morris and Todd Whitcombe that first past the post is the best system. I’ve voted in every election since I was eligible.

I have always felt that I was being shortchanged with our first past the post system.

I believe that if we go to proportional representation we’ll have better government that is more responsive to the needs of the population.

Change is always hard but it is the thing that is constant.

Stan New Prince George