Throw away lists, give voters choice

My two bits on the proposed change in our voting system. I am in favour of changing from the present system but I do not like the systems being proposed.

Having someone select MLAs from lists provided by the political parties seems to prone to favouritism and corruption. Selection of MLAs must be left to the voters.

I favour the system of allowing each voter to indicate his/her first, second, third choice on the list of candidates.

On the first ballot, only first choices would be counted. Any candidate receiving more than 50 per cent of the first choices should be elected. But if no candidate gets 50 per cent of the first choices then second choices should be counted. The candidate who gets a first or second choice from more than 50 per cent of the electors and more of those choices than any other candidate should be elected. In rare cases it may be necessary to count their third (and possibly fourth) choices.

Most electors vote for a party rather than a candidate. Making them consider a second choice might encourage them to find out more about the other candidates to make themselves visible in the riding rather than allowing the party leader to do all of the electioneering.

Still on the topic of the coming referendum I concur with M. Waw, who wrote in Friday’s paper, “Tell us Mr. Editor, who is the group buying the full page ads. My bet is that it’s the BC Liberal Party.” Ross Pearce Prince George