Dear editor,
In response to Four options to be offered for BC voting referendum (May 5 Record)
I must admit I became slack-jawed when The Record chose Tom Fletcher to write an article about Attorney General David Eby’s referendum announcement. Reading like news but positioned on the Record’s editorial page (a mixed message if ever there was one), tasking Fletcher with writing a supposedly neutral article about the announcement is absurd. Fletcher, a well-known oppose-nik of all things proportional representation, can’t be neutral.
Besides the bewildering choice of Fletcher, why doesn’t Black Press fulfil its journalistic responsibilities by presenting facts and information rather than choosing a biased commentator who peppered his article with misinformation?
While the article has a number of factual errors embedded in it – beginning with the headline – the one that concerns me the most is the definition of Mixed Member Proportional (MMP).
To be fair, Fletcher has simply regurgitated what other news agency and network pundits keep repeating – that there’s only one type of MMP and that’s the closed list which largely allows parties to select its most loyal members to stand for election.
The actual referendum document discusses closed lists but also open and flexible lists. In part, the document states that “feedback from the public engagement indicated more support for open or flexible lists because they provide voters with more choice” and recommends more debate and discussion regarding the benefits of open, flexible and closed lists.
By providing the public with only half-truths, by repeating misinformation without performing due diligence, and, in this case, by refusing to recognize that open and flexible lists provide the public with an alternative to closed, party-controlled lists, Black Press disrespects its readers and the democratic process.
Pat Carl
Comox
Editor’s note: Aside from being a columnist, Tom Fletcher is also Black Press’s provincial political affairs reporter. Also, the article was not on the editorial page (Page 8). It was next to the editorial page (on Page 9).