Democracy is more than voting
Dear editor: Asking questions and pointing out inconsistencies helps voters understand a little better and help avoid hail-Mary choices.
Because this electoral referendum has no reverse, think Brexit. It is important to look past the sloganeering about how fair it is going to be and understand how the mechanics of a new voting system actually work and how that affects us.
Fair Vote Kelowna’s spokesperson Terry Robertson (Courier Aug 27) thinks asking unpleasant questions is fear mongering, but, thankfully he at least admits PR has “debatable features.”
Both systems are flawed, but one is the lesser of the two evils. First past the post streamlines governance; proportional representation fragments the political landscape and produces diverging rather than converging voices.
Democracy is bigger than voting. Our democracy is not only limited to government. We have the forth estate that generally refers to press, journalists, but includes the people. This segment of society wields an indirect, but significant influence on government, even though it is not officially part of the political system.
Social media, demonstrations, street protests, formal presentations to government, writing your MP, engaging the political system, no matter how small, staying abreast of current events and taking an interest in your community would go much further in giving us better democracy than changing our voting system.
Ian MacKenzie (Courier Aug 27th) thinks PR makes “Party power ... subordinate to the power of compromise making everyone a potential influencer.”
This is utter nonsense. Members of a political party are not free agents. Without political party’s military-type discipline that takes diverging opinion and streamlines this internal party dialogue into a coherent public platform, then nothing gets done. Government works on consensus. And consensus requires discipline.
Both systems offer stable government, but one system diverges political dialogue and the other converges it.
Jon Peter Christoff
West Kelowna