Thursday, February 2, 2017

Electoral reform: letter to the Prime Minister

Dear Prime Minister,

I just wanted to let you know how profoundly disappointed I am that your government has abandoned electoral reform.
It’s true that I am a lifelong NDPer, and that I voted NDP in the last election, but I was, like so many others, so unhappy with the direction our country was headed under the Harper Conservatives that I would have voted Liberal without hesitation had that been the best way of getting rid of the Conservative MP from my constituency. I’d done it before. (the first time in 1968 when I was a University student, voting for David Anderson in Saanich)
As it turned out, my constituency went NDP, and we won on both counts.
So I celebrated, along with the vast majority in my constituency (and, I daresay, my party) the fact that the country had elected a Liberal government, and, probably more particularly, that the Harperites were in disarray.
But I’m not naive: I recognized then as now that history has taught us to be wary of Liberals and the cynicism that power breeds. In short, I was prepared to be disappointed by a good many of your government’s initiatives and moves.
I was not prepared, however, for your government to abandon electoral reform, not after having promoted the concept so vigorously both during the election and after you formed government. Not after you expressly promised that election would be the last decided by FPTP. Not after your government proved what most of us have long known: we may differ on the specifics of any alternative, but FPTP is a tremendously unpopular electoral system.  
What is particularly galling is that your government abandoning electoral reform leaves the door open for another Canadian encounter with radical neo-Conservatism after the next election. (Frankly, having it next door is more than scary enough.)
Like most NDPers, I believe MMPR is probably the fairest method. However, it’s pretty obvious that this would be a difficult sell to the Canadian public. So it’s probably off the table, if we’re being realistic.
Alternate Vote, which you claim as your preferred option, however, wouldn’t be a hard sell at all. It’s easy to understand and implement. It gives definitive results. Admittedly, it’s not easy on minor parties, but not, I should mention, impossible: the Liberal-Conservative coalition that brought it in in BC in the early 50’s lost to an upstart Social Credit. (Who promptly abandoned it after they had a majority, no doubt recognizing that the very same thing could happen to them.) The CCF survived the experience.
I don’t understand why you didn’t campaign for AV at all vigorously, and I don’t understand why a government with a solid majority didn’t just impose it for one or two elections, by way of a test drive and to prove it is a better system.
As I said, I’m profoundly disappointed, and I’m sorry those who tell us not to trust Liberals to keep their word are, once again, correct.