Letter to the Editor

On the last day of January, we held a presentation at the Cranbrook Public Library on our voting system, its problems, and what our options are.

It was a well attended meeting, including Kootenay East MLA Tom Shypitka. We had a lively Q and A session, with almost everyone in the room speaking their mind. It was very encouraging to experience such a high level of engagement. Democracy in action.

Tom Shypitka told the audience he was open to change, provided people are well informed. I couldn’t agree more. That’s why we are holding these presentations.

I want to take this opportunity to publicly thank Tom Shypitka for coming out to our talk, for speaking his mind, and for listening to his constituents. He also signed a commitment that he will vote yes for Proportional Representation in 2018. And to volunteer.

You can imagine how surprised I was when, just one day later, on his MLA Facebook page, he told people to vote against PR.

What is it Tom? There are so many diverse voices; I can imagine how hard it is to represent all the voters in the riding. That is one of the main reasons why we need proportional representation, to have all our views represented.

But under our current system, we have only one representative, and it would be nice to know which side of his mouth speaks for the true Tom.

Over to you Tom. Do you support changing to a proportional system, a system that reflects the popular vote, which is fair and equitable to voters, fosters better and more resilient economies, and is widely used in developed countries around the world? Or is it the status quo, which distorts our votes and divides us into winners and losers?

Ann Remnant,

Fairvote Kootenay leader,

Nelson

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