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LETTER: Liberals would have far stronger presence on Vancouver Island with proportional representation

Dear editor,
10446610_web1_letter-to-the-editor-PM

Dear editor,

This is an open letter to the voters of the Comox Valley:

The B.C. government has initiated a referendum on electoral reform to take place this November to determine if voters want to modernize our provincial voting system to a proportional one in which most voters are heard and most votes count.

Because first-past-the post still governs our elections, more than 62 per cent of the voters in the Courtenay/Comox riding do not have someone representing them and their beliefs in Victoria. On Vancouver Island, 23.5 per cent of the votes cast supported Liberals, but the Liberals have only one of 14 MLAs in the legislature, yet that party’s leadership contenders are committed to defeating proportional representation, a change which would most certainly lead to increased Liberal representation on the island. Here, for example, is leadership candidate Dianne Watts emphatically stating, “Defeating proportional representation is my number one priority. I’m hell-bent on ensuring we defeat it.”

There is an active group in the Valley committed to leaving political partisanship at home and working together to win the November proportional representation referendum. Unlike the opponents to change, we believe the more diverse the legislature, the better voters are represented and the more stable and healthy our democracy. If you are one of the many ignored voters tired of casting a protest vote or a principled vote that gets counted only as a statistic, we invite you to join us in this effort to remove winner-take-all-first-past-the-post and replace it with proportional representation, an historic advancement in our democracy. Contact fairvotecomoxvalley@gmail.com

Mel McLachlan

Fair Vote Comox Valley