My husband and I are very pleased to see that this broad-based
citizens’ assembly has been struck and that you are
putting in such a wide-reaching effort to receive input. We applaud
your efforts on electoral reform and all the parties for supporting
it, from the provincial Liberals who initiated it, to the Green
Party’s Adriane Carr who worked hard on educating
people about it, to the NDP who would currently be so much better
served by it.
We believe that any changes that can be made to the electoral
system to get people feeling like their vote really counts would be
welcome in this politically polarized province. Effective education
through out public school system about the importance of voting and
the nature of our electoral system would also go along way toward
taking some of the electoral power out of the media and placing
back it into the hands of citizens where it belongs.
It’s somewhat ironic that it was the Liberals in
1996 who wanted to see some kind of electoral reform. Had the NDP
government of the day implemented a more representational system
then, they would be holding some 20 percent of the seats in the
legislature today, creating a much-needed strong voice of
opposition. It would be even hea.thier to see other parties bring
their perspectives to governance.
From the bit of research that we’ve done, it sounds
like the type of representational system they have in New Zealand
[MMP] might work. It sounds a bit complicated, but it
seems to more fairly reflect voters’
intentions. We certainly would not support creating
fewer ridings in the province, particularly taking any clout out of
rural votes.
Best of luck with your deliberations. We look forward to hearing
your final report and seeing what the government of the day does
with it.
[Entered online from a scanned document]
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