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Letter: Let’s vote for a return to democracy in November.

Letter writer says a coming referendum vote could change the way political power is distributed
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To the editor:

Within the next 10 months our province will have a third and final referendum on electoral reform. During that time I’m sure we will be bombarded with information extolling both the virtues and evils of the current first-past-the-post (FPTP) versus proportional representation (PR) systems. Because PR has never existed in our province, all information can only be conjecture and assumption.

However, years of FPTP has provided us with a few unrefuted facts. It repeatedly creates a disproportionate imbalance of power, as happened in 2001 when the Liberals garnered 97 per cent of the seats with only 57 per cent of the vote.

Our democracy is further eroded with a party’s refusal to allow our MLA’s a free and open vote reflective of the constituents, instead forcing them to “toe the party line”. We then have an autocracy which always leads to abuse of power and scandal (Wikipedia lists 21 instances dating back to W.A.C.Bennett).

Let’s vote for a return to democracy in November.

Robert Brown, Cranbrook

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