Editor:
Our ongoing electoral reform referendum has finally lost all remaining credibility. Low voter turnout, complex and manipulative wording on the ballot, and political interference make this process a mockery.
Bizarrely, there are two options on the ballot that have never been tried out – anywhere! Perhaps more importantly, a host of critically important details have been left for a future decision. By whom? We don’t know.
Now the premier has waded in with his inappropriate dictates on the structure of the party lists that form an important part of the PR process. And he did so after many people had already voted! The government promised that these details would be left to an independent, non-partisan body. That was never going to happen anyway, but the premier’s manipulative interference makes things much worse.
Canada leads every other large, multicultural country on the widely respected Democracy Index; we don’t need to be “fixed.” The manipulative process to try to do so is fundamentally flawed and needs to die.
Keith Maxwell, Sechelt
