BarrieToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected]. Please include your daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter from Oro-Medonte resident Klaus Kuch touches the need for electoral reform.
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In a first-past-the-post electoral system, every vote counts — but only until it's been counted. Thereafter, the newly elected government decides what will happen with roads, taxes and health care, regardless of dissenting votes.
If government commands a majority, it can do whatever it thinks right, even when the opposition is screaming bloody murder.
You may say that's too bad. They won fair and square.
Think again.
Our elections may be entirely lawful, but how closely does our winner-take-all system reflect voters' intent?
Just do the (very simplified) math: Suppose 60 per cent of eligible voters actually bother to cast their vote. Suppose these 60 per cent then elect a "majority government" with 50 per cent of all votes cast (which would be a landslide in a four-party system).
Unfortunately, such a "majority government" does not reflect public opinion.
Only 30 per cent of all eligible voters actually voted for it. Thirty per cent voted against it. And 40 per cent of eligible voters considered voting pointless. That's a recipe for voter apathy and protest.
Proportionate representation would mitigate this massive problem least somewhat. In such a system, all votes cast translate into parliamentary seats. It reflects public opinion more accurately than our current system. It may lead to more multi-party coalitions and more haggling before decisions are made.
But it would be less divisive than the all-too-common "my way or the highway" of artificial "majority governments."
Klaus Kuch
Oro-Medonte Township
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