Dear editor,
As usual, Tom Fletcher’s outrage and apoplexy (“Big unions living large”) is reserved solely for the government he disagrees with.
He accuses the BC NDP of greasing the hands of the unions. But even more telling is Mr. Fletcher’s suggestion that this relationship between politicians and business organizations is somehow unique to the NDP’s relationship with unions.
That is demonstrably not the case. As was made so very clear during the 2017 election, the BC Liberal Party is firmly tied to big business.
In fact, that relationship is so tight that the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association (ICBA) filed a court challenge to the proportional representation referendum on behalf of the BC Liberals. I say “on behalf of the BC Liberals” because I can’t imagine another reason why an association of business contractors would be interested in blocking a simple improvement to our province’s voting system.
The BC Liberal Party has stated openly that it’s their number-one priority to prevent any change to our voting system that would give voters better representation, and the ICBA is prepared to spend money going to court to achieve this for them.
So for Mr. Fletcher to suggest the BC NDP are somehow worse than the BC Liberal Party is laughable.
In fact, Mr. Fletcher’s rant makes it abundantly clear why electoral reform is so essential.
We need to change our voting system so that this kind of corporate capture of our governments - whether it’s business or unions - doesn’t continue.
We need governments that reflect what the voters actually voted for and that’s why proportional representation is essential. Proportional representation will give much better representation to voters and hopefully put an end to this kind of corporate control of our government.
Megan Ardyche
Comox