I attended the Citizens' Assembly hearing on Salt Spring Island
and want to commend you on your efforts
I am strongly in favor of electoral reform. Our current system
is way to adversarial; just watch what is being played out on the
current federal election. BC politics is particularly polarized
resulting in wild policy swings that are disruptive, expensive and
not in the best interest of our citizens.
I am strongly in favor of the STV system. I believe that this
system offers the greatest range of choice and weakens party
discipline encouraging politicians to actually represent their
constituents. When I think of proportionality, I think
of it in terms of issues. Regardless of race, sex, or location, the
big challenges facing us cross all these lines. We need a system
that enables and encourages real debates on what is important to
the people. I believe that when people start to see that their
votes and voices actually count, more women and minorities will
want to run for office without the need for any form of affirmative
action.
I don't buy the proposal that we should ease into a PR system.
Why are we so afraid of change? We have seen that it can take a
couple of election periods to grow into a new system. So let's not
be trepid and embrace change that will give us the tools to have a
more representative government.
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