Editor,
Ahh, Canadian politics. Ya gotta love it, whether provincial or federal.
Let the mud slinging begin. I’m so looking forward to the over use of the word “change”, when all it ever means is “more of same” under a different label.
But it never fails to work.
The other unchanging aspect of B.C. politics is our penchant for pendulum swings, not so much voting for a party based on it’s track record or promises to make all things good and proper, but dumping the incumbents after we’ve tired of their particular rhetoric and voting in the other guys for a (wait for it .... ) “change.”
Since both our federal and provincial systems allow a party that gets 40 per cent of the popular vote to form a majority government (despite a voter turnout that might be as low as 28 per cent of eligible voters), a lot of people have lost faith in the ability to affect meaningful “change.”
What might be effective would be a system of proportional representation that would most likely result in a coalition government as opposed to an overwhelming majority for a single party.
This would provide a broader political spectrum than we currently enjoy in province that celebrates its diversity.
But alas, that idea has been rejected twice in referenda, voters claiming not to know enough about the system to trust it. If it doesn’t start happening provincially, it sure won’t happen federally, so we are still going to be electing governments under a system that would be familiar to Sir John A.
It has been said that people get the government that they deserve and are willing to pay for, a reflection of the electorate. At least that portion of the electorate’s not yet disillusioned to the point where they see no point in casting a vote.
Todd Birch, Quesnel B.C.