Letter: Ontario needs proportional representation

Re: Ontario goes blue — June 8

If there ever was an example of why proportional representation is needed in Canada, the result of the Ontario election is it.

Our present system of first-past-the-post elected as follows: PC (76), NDP (40), Liberal (7), Green (1), other (0). Under proportional representation, the result would have been PC (50), NDP (42), Liberal (24), Green (6), other (2).

The polls show that Ontarians had already decided to dump the Liberals. It was clear that they did not favour Doug Ford as leader, but to accomplish their goal they voted accordingly. Now we face the ‘policy pendulum,’ where, at great expense in time and money, the good legislation of the Liberals will be erased to be replaced by PC legislation. Four years from now the opposite could easily happen and so on until we learn there is a better way.

If we had the proportional representation results above, we could have a coalition including the NDP, Liberals and (I hope) Greens too. The good Liberal legislation would be tweaked and improved, the bad thrown out and/or reversed.

In this way, as demonstrated by most of the developed world which employs proportional representation, legislation is strengthened and improved instead of gutted. Long-term planning for projects needing more time than the election cycle of four years could get started and then continued through several elections.

Let’s join the rest of the free world. Donald A. Fraser

Waterloo