Editor:
Re: “Watts makes pitch to Liberals in Sechelt,” Dec. 8.
I know that, being a politician, one will play with the truth in order to appeal to the largest base of voters. But, from “we [BC Liberals?] have to be socially progressive” to “treating ferries as part of the highway system,” I found Dianne Watts’ biggest pants-on-fire remarks reserved for the upcoming referendum on proportional representation.
Ms. Watts complains that if you’re going to change how people elect their representatives, you need to go to the people and ask them, “Would you like to change the system? Do you want electoral reform?” Yet that is precisely what a “referendum” is for … look it up.
As to the latest BC Liberal canard – the claim that proportional representation would be unfairly taking away the voice of rural communities, repeated often enough in the hope it lodges as an alternative fact in B.C. minds – I say, having had the experience of living in a “rural community” for 20 years and not once having my voice represented in the legislature, that is what is truly “not fair.”
PR takes away no one’s voice. It gives voice to those who have never been heard before in all communities, all parties, rural and urban, and that is a fact.
John Claxton, Gibsons
