Letter to the Editor

Our recent municipal elections provided us with an opportunity to vote for representatives who will help construct a society, here at home, that we want to live in with our families.

I’m excited and thankful that within the next month I will also have a chance to vote on a referendum for electoral reform for B.C. How fortunate we are in this province to be given this opportunity when, along with our fellow Canadians, we had the promise of a federal referendum taken away by the Liberal government. I suspect that once they were elected as a majority government, their business and corporate supporters ensured that this promise was withdrawn.

The small, white voter’s guide on the referendum questions arrived in our homes last week. It is from Elections BC and gives clear, accurate information about the two referendum questions and the voting systems we are being asked to consider. There is no bias, fear-mongering or rhetoric, just solid, detailed information that is very helpful in informing us about the issues related to the questions, and what options we may have as voters within our democratic system. How often in our lifetimes are we given a choice and a say in one of the fundamental rights we enjoy as citizens within a democratic society?

Big business and corporate interests are campaigning relentlessly, spending lots of money to try to create fear around this referendum. They want to keep the present system, which serves their interests, and keep us from considering other systems, which would broaden the issues that our representatives would be free to work on within a more cooperative system of government.

The minority government of Pierre Elliot Trudeau worked with the NDP leader Ed Broadbent and his elected MPs to put the last piece of our universal health care plan in place for Canadians. When interviewed, he stated that, “sometimes we get to do the right thing,” which being a minority government leader allowed him to do.

This referendum on electoral reform is not a single party issue, but rather a multi-party one, that gives us all the chance to determine how we want our representatives and government to work on our behalf.

It’s exciting to be given this opportunity to look at our present system and compare it to others, and to have a say in which one we think might work best for us as British Columbians in the future.

If we choose to try a Proportional Representation model, there will be a review of this decision after two elections, and we will again have an opportunity to choose and refine our electoral process

I wish the federal Liberal government had honoured its campaign promise to put forward a referendum on our national election system, and I feel very fortunate to be a British Columbian who has this opportunity here and now.

Wendy Turner,

Cranbrook

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