I have reviewed much of the material on the Citizens Assembly
website and I attended the meeting in Vancouver last night. I would
like to offer two additional questions for consideration. They are
implied or alluded to among the materials presented, but I would
like to bring them up for explicit deliberation.
1) Historically Canadian voters, both provincially and federally,
have often voted against the existing government rather than for a
government or party or platform. Which of the systems under
consideration best allows the voter to vote FOR a government?
2) The entire discussion seems to assume that my sole interest as a
voter is to elect a party or government to power. But surely I also
have an interest in the opposition that keeps check on the exercise
of that power. Is there a system that lets voters overtly express
both sides of that interest (as distinct from those that simply let
a person vote for more than one candidate or party)?
As an additional thought, I was intrigued by the presentation last
night that suggested abandoning general elections for cyclical
by-elections. I hope the Assembly members will have the time to
work through that idea in some detail to gauge its feasibility.
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