"Government FOR the people, and BY the people". That is the ideal of democracy. Our current system is not living up to this ideal. Rather, we get broken promises, lies, and corruption. We get "government by those with the money to buy votes". Proportional Representation would make it necessary for our elected officials to actually talk to each other, to compromise, to reach a consensus on important issues. It would result in politicians being held accountable for the commitments (promises) they make during an election campaign. Most advanced Western democracies have already moved away from the out-dated "First Past the Post" system. (Election aren't supposed to be like horse races.. ....) Let's make British Columbia the FIRST CANADIAN PROVINCE to take this giant step forward. (and do in BC what Justin Trudeau promised the Canadian people he would do, only to break that promise -- like he has broken so many. )
Sean - 6 years ago
This shouldn't be as complicated as the media and interest groups make it out to be. True democracy requires engaged voters who can effect change. FPTP perpetuates disproportionate results where governments are formed along a party lines and not in the interests of citizens; where majority governments are formed with less than 50% of the popular vote! The only argument for FPTP is "because we've always done it this way" or some level of fear-mongering. PR is a a real solution where votes actually count so decisions can be made that reflect the interests of society ( not just a political party), etc. I can go on...
First-Past-The-Post (FPTP) regularly produces false majority governments with less than 40% of the popular vote. 1 of every 2 voters in the last BC election saw their ballots go right in the trash.
Proportional Representation (PR) is extremely easy to understand in principal. The parties' shares of power are a reflection of the TRUE (popular) vote, and every PR system proposed in BC perserves regional representation as well.
PR is not an experiment; PR systems are used in almost ALL democratic countries. Anyone who opposes PR in favour of FPTP is pushing for an unfair system that ignores fundamental mathematics.
First-Past-The-Post (FPTP) regularly produces false majority governments with
Brian - 6 years ago
Larry , first past the post is always convenient for the MAJORITY governments that are elected with less than 50% of the popular vote !! B.C. And other dictatorial democracies around the world are fed up with a system that elects governments with opposition parties having the popular vote. Just look South at the moron who was elected with 48% of the popular vote !!!!
Richard - 6 years ago
Unsurprisingly, the only alternate to First Past the Post is various types of Proportional seats. Proportional is mostly controlled by the politicians. There are other forms that better represent the voters, but we are not given these as a choice.
What is the big educated guess. We need to retain first past the post. This is an experiment at the cost of taxpayers. The PR people don't even know how it works. I am hoping the people of BC vote this down. Would you buy a pig in a poke?
"Government FOR the people, and BY the people". That is the ideal of democracy. Our current system is not living up to this ideal. Rather, we get broken promises, lies, and corruption. We get "government by those with the money to buy votes". Proportional Representation would make it necessary for our elected officials to actually talk to each other, to compromise, to reach a consensus on important issues. It would result in politicians being held accountable for the commitments (promises) they make during an election campaign. Most advanced Western democracies have already moved away from the out-dated "First Past the Post" system. (Election aren't supposed to be like horse races.. ....) Let's make British Columbia the FIRST CANADIAN PROVINCE to take this giant step forward. (and do in BC what Justin Trudeau promised the Canadian people he would do, only to break that promise -- like he has broken so many. )
This shouldn't be as complicated as the media and interest groups make it out to be. True democracy requires engaged voters who can effect change. FPTP perpetuates disproportionate results where governments are formed along a party lines and not in the interests of citizens; where majority governments are formed with less than 50% of the popular vote! The only argument for FPTP is "because we've always done it this way" or some level of fear-mongering. PR is a a real solution where votes actually count so decisions can be made that reflect the interests of society ( not just a political party), etc. I can go on...
First-Past-The-Post (FPTP) regularly produces false majority governments with less than 40% of the popular vote. 1 of every 2 voters in the last BC election saw their ballots go right in the trash.
Proportional Representation (PR) is extremely easy to understand in principal. The parties' shares of power are a reflection of the TRUE (popular) vote, and every PR system proposed in BC perserves regional representation as well.
PR is not an experiment; PR systems are used in almost ALL democratic countries. Anyone who opposes PR in favour of FPTP is pushing for an unfair system that ignores fundamental mathematics.
First-Past-The-Post (FPTP) regularly produces false majority governments with
First-Past-The-Post (FPTP) regularly produces false majority governments with
Larry , first past the post is always convenient for the MAJORITY governments that are elected with less than 50% of the popular vote !! B.C. And other dictatorial democracies around the world are fed up with a system that elects governments with opposition parties having the popular vote. Just look South at the moron who was elected with 48% of the popular vote !!!!
Unsurprisingly, the only alternate to First Past the Post is various types of Proportional seats. Proportional is mostly controlled by the politicians. There are other forms that better represent the voters, but we are not given these as a choice.
What is the big educated guess. We need to retain first past the post. This is an experiment at the cost of taxpayers. The PR people don't even know how it works. I am hoping the people of BC vote this down. Would you buy a pig in a poke?