The upcoming referendum on our voting system is another version of the old shell game.
There’s a pea under one of three shells and no matter which one you pick the dealer wins. The dealer, in this case, is the NDP/Green cabal which wants to guarantee their permanence by replacing voter choice with party choice.
Under any of the three PR options on the ballot, local voters lose control of their MLA and their riding. All power shifts to the party which will appoint an unknown number of MLAs to an unknown number of ridings based on the percentage of votes each party receives.
So, a fringe party receiving five per cent of the vote will be awarded an MLA who can be appointed to any riding in B.C. North Okanagan residents could end up with an appointed politician from East Vancouver and because the lower mainland controls more than 50 per cent of the vote it is logical to conclude the interior, which is the source of B.C.’s wealth and power will play second fiddle to urban issues.
In attempting to replace the system of governance which has brought us great prosperity and stability, the referendum authors ignored the findings of an all party independant citizens coalition from 2004 which unanimously rejected the same PR options which are on this ballot.
This Horgan/Weaver pairing can’t answer the most fundamental questions from reasonable people, such as how many MLAs, the make up of ridings or who gets to choose the premier. Horgan’s answer is to trust him and take a leap of faith while Weaver promises B.C. will never again have a majority government.
It takes majority governments to make big decisions: new Hydro power, LNG plants, environmental controls, and Agricultural Land Reserves. Despite what the PR advocates claim, this isn’t about “Making every vote count” it’s about turning over tried and true western democratic systems in favor of chaos. And they know it. Vote in favor of FPP.
John Trainor