A system best for Canada

Re: Opposition parties need to get serious, Jan. 26.

Columnist Andrew Coyne stresses again the need for co-operation between the opposition parties if they want to beat the Conservatives at the next election. He again proposes to make this election into a referendum on electoral reform. According to him, this reform should be “based on some form of proportional representation.”

The only way to get really serious about this, is to use the time until the next election to work out and agree, before the election, on exactly what reform would be proposed, even on whether it should be this or that form of proportional representation, or a form of preferential ballot. During this period, all three parties would need to co-operate in a joint process to work out what system would be best for Canada as a whole, and be easily preferred by the vast majority of the Canadian electorate.

To do this is quite a challenge, but only by already co-operating in this way would they be ready for Coyne’s election/referendum of 2015.

THEO GERAETS, Ottawa Professor emeritus, University of Ottawa