Editor:
Re: “Lesson of referendum” by Alan Donenfeld, Letters, Jan. 4.
Mr. Donenfeld’s letter reiterates the spin the No side used against Proportional Representation. He states, by implication, that those who voted in favour of proportional governance are the same people who voted Green provincially because the percentages are about the same. A leap to conclusions, I think! I know NDPers who voted in favour, Greens who were opposed, apolitical people who voted either way as well as not at all, many people who wanted additional information, and more who didn’t trust the political involvement in the process. The Greens were a handy scapegoat for the No side.
The outcome of reliable, true education about the different electoral systems is speculation. We were given meaningless generalities. New Zealand had months of multi-media, in-depth lectures, discussions and debates. I found many people did not even understand FPTP or how it results in false majorities. Most eligible voters don’t participate in the FPTP system and the result is that a small minority “holds sway over the majority.”
Pro Rep will come. Or maybe the jackboots marching on Vancouver streets will be those of your children and grandchildren captured by the globally powerful: the press, the telecoms, the agricultural complex, the pharmaceuticals, the oil companies, the financials. Or maybe Gaia, distraught and disgusted by the greed and waste of us who have it all, will arrange our own extinction.
Nancy Leathley, Sechelt
