PR voting nourishes new ideas

Re: “Dosanjh: Say no to ‘proportional,’” June 29.

I find it surprising that former B.C. premier Ujjal Dosanjh seems to think it fair that his party was reduced to two seats in the 2001 B.C. election, yet it received, if I remember correctly, about 30 per cent of the vote. This suggests that a lot of people were left out in the cold.

Our former premier voiced his concern that “fringe parties” might arise under a freer voting system. This might be, begging the question of how one defines “fringe.”

At one time, the NDP/CCF in Canada was considered a (probably dangerous) fringe party. Yet my understanding of Canadian political history is that the presence of this socalled fringe group forced the governing Liberals to introduce social programs. Even though I have never been a member of the NDP, I do think they have provided a lot of impetus for our welfare state.

Without the welfare state, we would be back in the mid-Victorian era where the existing order involved a neo-liberal hell where most laboured under Dickensian conditions. It seems that those opposed to proportional representation do not wish to upset the existing order.

It also seems to me that if people are denied an outlet for their political inclinations, they might seek another outlet for their frustrations.

Proportional representation allows new ideas and new solutions to come forward and have a chance of representation.

Our existing first-past-the-post system stifles all new thoughts and alternatives to the current way of doing things. David Pearce Victoria