Dear Editor,
Re: “MLAs take aim at electoral reform, projects in 2018,” News, Jan. 4.
It’s really no surprise that Richmond MLA Jas Johal told you that “The clear and present danger for myself...is proportional representation.”
Johal won his seat with the lowest percentage of the vote of the four Richmond MLAs, so his own position would arguably be the least secure if we move to a fairer voting system.
But self-interest, whether on the part of an individual like Johal or his entire party (which is no doubt delighted that they won all four Richmond seats on less than half the vote there) is hardly a noble or principled basis for keeping a system that has produced toxic, divisive, partisan politics in B.C., has consistently shut out differing voices (on both the government and opposition sides) across whole regions of our province, and has resulted in disruptive policy lurches when government changes hands.
I honestly can’t fathom the lack of empathy on the part of the four Richmond MLAs whom you spoke with for the nearly 25,000 Richmond voters who supported NDP candidates or the nearly 8,000 voters who supported Green Party candidates, not to mention the over 300,000 Liberal Party supporters throughout the province (and particularly in Metro Vancouver and on Vancouver Island) who are not represented by a Liberal MLA.
After all, if it’s good for Liberal supporters in Richmond to have Liberal MLAs, then surely it’s good for people with different political perspectives to also have an MLA they support. As Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “When it’s better for everyone, it’s better for everyone.”
Only toddlers want the whole cake for themselves.
Antony Hodgson
FAIR VOTING BC
VANCOUVER
