Voters want their ballots to count

Barry Cooper argues that there is no need for electoral reform because “every vote counts now and has done so since the Constitution Act of 1791.”

Unless an elector voted for the winner under our present plurality-majority system, their vote was lost in the wilderness of unsuccessful candidates’ votes, which in the last two general elections made up the majority of votes.

Canadian voters, like voters in most of the civilized and democratically advanced world, want to cast votes that help to elect MPs and MLAs. They want every vote to count, not just a ‘winning minority’ in some electoral districts. Why? Because it is 2016, not 1791.

Cooper argues that “… precedent matters. After 225 years the existing electoral system amounts to a constitutional convention.”

The existing electoral system has been amended without referendum several times, granting women and indigenous peoples the vote, and most recently by the Conservatives in the Fair Elections Act, which effectively deprived many voters of their right by raising barriers.

If “precedent matters,” Cooper himself argued effectively against a referendum. Mark Hambridge, Calgary Does the NDP government think they have solved the health-care problem by naming Verna Yiu as the new president?

I have needed a hip replacement for well over a year and still have three weeks left.

In April of 2015 I told my family doctor I thought I needed a hip replacement.

After countless X-rays my doctor said I was wrong. In August I paid for an MRI which confirmed severe degeneration joint disease and that I needed a new hip.

Upon meeting the orthopedic surgeon in November, he was shocked I needed an MRI to convince my doctor.

We agreed that in April 2016 I would have the surgery. In April, I required a bone scan. A month later I was told they had done the wrong bone scan.

It has been a long, expensive and painful journey.

I have tried to be optimistic and hopeful but I no longer can. I have never spoken to my surgeon except for the 10 minutes I saw him in November.

I am only 66 years old and have lost one-and-a-half years of my life. Dorinda Young, Calgary