Editor:
Herewith my two cents’ worth on the provincial voting issue.
Someone’s way of having fun at the expense of the stereotype of French love of abstract reasoning was to imagine a Gallic pedant asking, “Yes, it works well in practice, but will it work in theory?”
I encourage opponents of changing our voting method to proportional representation to keep in mind that PR has been decided upon and used for some time by such countries as New Zealand, Australia, Belgium and Norway among others. Surely, we British Columbians do not want to reject PR out of hand because we simply lack the patience to understand it or need spelled out in detail its application to every single contested seat in government. Are we “thicker than the average Kiwi or Norwegian” (who seems to find that PR works in practice)?
Keep in mind that switching to PR will be a two-election experiment, voting reverting to our current system should the trial be judged to have failed. In the name of greater democracy, give it a shot.
David Evans, Sechelt
