To the Editor,
The next election should be the first time we use a proportional ballot but, out of 37 million Canadians, five people — our five federal party leaders — do not want democracy.
That’s why we no longer elect governments, we elect virtual dictators.
We are stuck with a two-party electoral system that will continue to deny the people their basic human rights to have governments that represent all Canadians fairly.
Using our current first-past-the-post (FPTP) electoral system about 40 per cent of the voters consistently manage to elect the government — the remaining 60 per cent of the votes are wasted. They do not elect anybody.
It’s like shooting blanks in a competition. You will never win.
Using a proportional ballot virtually every single vote helps elect somebody.
New Zealand abandoned their colonial FPTP system some time ago, and adopted a multi-member proportional ballot (MMP).
Today, public input and consensus-based policy development produce stable and productive governments.
The Canadian political system has very quickly evolved into a three-way partnership between the Liberals and Conservatives, and a very aggressive group of lobbyists, sponsored by big business.
The Liberals and Conservatives know they will alternately form the government. Reading Stevie Cameron’s Ottawa Inside Out is a very clear perspective on this cozy relationship.
Playing by the rules and telling the truth is no longer vogue in Canadian politics.
When Stephen Harper was campaigning to become our prime minister, he promised the voters our democratically-elected Members of Parliament (MP) would be free to vote the conscience of their constituents.
That turned out not to be true, as he proceeded to hijack the party’s nomination process and used it to enforce “party discipline” to control how every MP voted.
More recently, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised the electorate a proportional ballot in exchange for their votes.
Like Harper, he did not deliver on his promise. That also became the last nail in the coffin for democracy in Canada.
Today, two of our democratically-elected politicians have the power to deny 37 million Canadians their basic human right to have free and democratic governments.
A multi-member proportional ballot will forever destroy that destructive lock on power, but Harper and Trudeau said no.
Andy Thomsen
Kelowna, B.C.