LETTER: Huge Provincial Subsidies Threaten Health, Prosperity
Dear Editor, BC taxpayers miss out on almost a billion dollars every year due to our government's dangerous and misguided fossil fuels subsidies; dangerous because fossil fuel expansion threatens to further degrade the health of BC's citizens and environment, misguided as it unfairly skews the market away from the clean energy...
Letter: It's not just about fairness; an Ontario citizen cautions BC voters
So far, most of the discussion about Proportional Representation (PR) has focused on fairness. Without a proportional voting system, there’s no way to make every vote count equally. But there are other reasons to adopt it, arguably as valid: it would bring social and financial stability and cut waste. In elections using...
Letter: BC needs a new voting system
Several times in our province we have had election results distorted by our current voting system (first past the post). As a result the political landscape has been plagued by polarized politics for as long as anyone can remember and many voters find themselves voting to block something they despise and/or not having their...
Letter: Confused about proportional representation? Read this.
A key ingredient in any democracy is that people choose their leaders based on their values. In our current voting system we are often forced to choose between a person or a party or to vote “strategically”. The make-up of the government often doesn’t reflect the popular vote so a party may only get 10% of the seats even if...
Letter: Plus ca change
Plus ça change..... One hundred years ago, in 1919, William Lyon Mackenzie King proclaimed that 1921 would be the last election held under FPtP. Once elected, he lost his appetite for change, declaring that the Liberal Party was in favour of proportionality, in principle only. A few years later, facing election, King again...
Letter: Please don't believe the lies.
To The Editor: Would you vote for a party list without candidates? Of course, you wouldn't, and neither would anybody else. Of course, we will keep local representation under pro rep, and of course nobody will be 'appointed' an MLA unless we vote for them. How dumb do Liberal Party bosses think BC voters are that we would...
Letter to the Editor: My personal fact check
Electoral Reform : My Personal Fact Check #1 Having read through the selection of ‘news and reports’ on the nobcprorep website, there are a few claims that lack support: one is that proportional representation will lead to a string of minority governments along with economic instability. I also just skimmed through the World...
Letter: PR levels playing field
To The Editor: One of the things that first attracted me to proportional representation, PR, apart from the fact that it just made sense, is that it is supported by people across the political spectrum. At my first PR meeting in 2004, I sat next to someone from the Canadian Rate Payer's Federation and Andrew Coyne was the...
LETTER: Canadian democracy not a matter of fairness
Canadian democracy is not a matter of fairness. Since European invasion, Canada has had 200 years of colonial autocracy, then 50 years of elections without votes for women, and an additional 50 years without votes for Indigenous people. In every form democracy has taken since Confederation, it has been used to defend the...
Letter: Cabins at Paradise
Dear Editor When driving into Trail from Columbia Gardens/Waneta I am always awed at the beautiful Rossland Range. Normally, I don’t think much beyond the view, except to note the increasing white patches (clear cuts) on the landscape. Recently, I learned that Red Mountain Resorts was approved by Rossland City Council, to...