Dear editor,
I’m fed up with the campaign of misinformation about proportional representation. We’re seeing too many ads that are designed to frighten and manipulate the public. There’s plenty of evidence that PR is superior to our current voting system.
Most democracies on the planet use PR. They have better voter turnouts; minority groups have a greater voice; standards of living are high. Governments are more responsive, often collaborate across party lines, and waste less time undoing the work of their predecessors.
Those who would have us believe otherwise have plenty of money to wage war on the facts. They claim that PR leads to less stable governments and more frequent elections – false. They claim that PR leads to more minority governments and less gets done. Wrong again. Minority governments brought us universal healthcare, old age pensions, the Charter of Human Rights, votes for Indigenous peoples, and much more – things that made Canada a better place to live in.
They also claim that PR will allow fringe candidates to take power. In the US, a FPTP system has elected a volatile, KKK-endorsed, reality show celebrity with no relevant skills or credentials to the White House – this, in spite of the fact that his opponent got more of the popular vote. Doug Ford got less than 40 per cent of the vote, and is now wreaking havoc in Ontario with 100 per cent of the power. Clearly, FPTP is less effective at ensuring quality government than we’ve been led to believe.
I hope that people will ignore the fear-mongering ads, look at the evidence presented on the Fair Vote Canada website, and listen to their own common sense. I’m voting for PR because I’ve done my homework, and refuse to be manipulated into panic by those who are invested in our flawed, outdated system.
Marusha Taylor
Courtenay