Current election system flawed too

Dear editor: Thanks to Jim Thornton (PR system not the answer, Herald, Letters, June 15) for sharing his views on proportional representation.

This fall in B.C., a mail-in referendum on pro rep needs just over 50 per cent to pass. I agree with Mr. Thornton that voter turnout is important.

It appears that our present first-past-thepost voting system has not encouraged voter turnout. Voter turnout has been more and more dismal over the past number of election cycles.

The present system presents a simple ballot and a simple outcome. No need to get the most votes, just more than any one of the two or three other candidates. Thirty per cent can easily win a seat in the legislature. Discouraging outcomes dampen voter enthusiasm.

A future proportional representation ballot would be less simple, but with pro rep one need not bypass a good candidate or party in favor of one whose worth we doubt just to prevent a win by a candidate or party we reject.

Mr. Thornton warns that in pro rep, MLAs selected from a party list are “answerable only to party headquarters.”

In B.C. today, unless elected as an independent, MLA’s are under the party whip when the house calls a vote. MLAs generally fall in with party line.

There is an unmistakable partisan flair in Mr. Thornton’s closing volley: “British Columbians will see through the NDP and Green Party’s transparent attempt to give themselves jobs for life at taxpayers’ expense.”

Liberals, Greens and NDP have all presented us the pro rep option over the past decade. All have done so in good faith and there is something in that.

I’m for proportional representation because I believe it will do us good to engage with a process that is bound to provide fairer and more robust democratic governance.

A pro rep system will draw more of us to the polls and that will be a good thing. Dave Cursons

Cawston