A recent letter in The Vernon Morning Star praising Proportional Representation as the way to vote in the upcoming B.C. referendum was published two days before elections were held in Sweden.
That country’s results demonstrate the major problem with the proportional system; the balance of power is now held by a single issue party, one with far-right anti-immigrant views. The two major Swedish parties were separated by only one per cent.
Surely we all agree that narrow issue groups, be they political, ethnic, religious or about social factors (e.g. abortion), should not be allowed to hijack or control our democracy.
First past the post has its flaws but has served us well. With more than two parties in contention in an election, expecting one of them to reflect more than 50% of the total votes cast, is not likely or rational and to my mind not a good enough reason to do away with our present time-tested system.
Tony Walter