To the editor:
Feb. 15 was National Flag Day in Canada and the PM Justin Trudeau was apparently asking people to tweet out what the flag means to them.
As I am not on Twitter I am letting the PM know in what I think of his decision to break his clear and unequivocal promises on electoral reform and continue to deny all Canadian their Charter right of equality of law in respect to equally effective ballots in the simplest way I can.
I am flying our proud flag in the proper position according to international practice to indicate a condition of distress.
The displaying of the flag in an inverted position may be seen by some people as disrespectful of the flag, and I might agree if this were a petty dispute between an individual and some government official or politician over zoning or taxes.
However this is an issue that goes to the fundamental core of what this country stands for: Equality, fairness and truth.
It is simply unacceptable for our political leaders to overtly lie to the people and make promises that they have no intention of keeping.
The Prime Minister, by choosing to protect the interests of his party rather than championing the right of all Canadians to cast equally effective ballots in fair elections, has disrespected the flag and what it stands for, far more than anyone who legally protests his actions by the way they fly the flag.
A Charter challenge to the unconstitutionality of the current first-past-the-post (FPTP) electoral regime has in the last few days been initiated and I urge all those interested in Electoral Reform to check it out at https://charterchallenge.ca/ and contribute to the cause as I have done.
Until every Canadian’s right to cast an equally effective ballot in any election is assured by the replacement of the FPTP method with a system of proportional representation I will continue to show the distress signal whenever I choose to fly the flag.
Terry Robertson, Kelowna