Voting system needs change

Editor: On May 31, our MPs will be voting on whether or not to adopt the ERRE/all-party committee’s report that overwhelmingly recommended proportional representation.

The Liberals campaigned and won the election on the commitment to ensure that 2015 would be the last time a federal election was conducted under the first-past-the-post voting system — a clear and unequivocal commitment to change the way we elect our MPs.

Some time later, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arbitrarily abandoned his commitment, insisting “a clear preference for a new electoral system, let alone a consensus, has not emerged.”

That was nothing less than a blatant lie, and when Liberals vote on this issue May 31st, their loyalty to the voters will be tested.

Will they deliver on their commitment to the people who elected them in good faith to change the way we elect our MPs — or — will they allow Trudeau to control their vote.

The consensus among MPs from all federal parties is that our parliament no longer functions:

Our MPs are being controlled and manipulated like a bunch of useless pawns, and Question Period has become a perpetual disaster. It has been reduced to an uncivilized, disrespectful barking dog contest.

Party discipline has crushed meaningful debate on all major issues, and destroyed the opportunity to function as a productive, consensus driven legislature.

A proportional ballot will end party discipline.

There will be no more ‘fake’ majority governments representing only one-third of the people, and our MPs will finally be liberated to represent the people.

Andy Thomsen, Peachland