[fvc-wat-disc] my letter to Macleans

[Bob Jonkman]

Would make a good article on the blog, even if it isn't picked up by the MSM...

--Bob, who's willing to cut'n'paste that for you.



Dave Arthur – Thu., 28. September 2017 16:43
> The recent Macleans of Sept 18 had an interview of David Johnston 
> by Paul Wells.
> 
> Based 
> on that interview I sent the following letter to Macleans’ 
> editors.
> 
> I have 
> heard nothing from them and suspect they will ignore this 
> letter.
> 
> I know 
> it’s not easy to get letters accepted, especially if the editors have a bias 
> against the ideas presented.
> 
> However, our discussion group last night 
> emphasized we must keep doing everything possible to keep ER and the 
> government’s broken promise out there in the media and in front of the public 
> and the MPs.
> 
> While 
> some strategies may wait until closer to the election, letters to the media can 
> be ongoing and frequent at every opportunity.
> 
> If 
> possible, social media connections could be useful as well.
> 
> Dave 
> A
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> In Paul Wells’ conversation 
> with David Johnston in the September 18 issue of Macleans, Johnston states that, 
> if you wanted to name countries around the world that seem to have government 
> that pretty well satisfies the needs of the vast majority of people and has a 
> degree of trust, you’d probably have on that list: Denmark, Sweden, Norway, the 
> United Kingdom, Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, Canada. He asks what’s 
> common to those? They’re all constitutional monarchies with vigorous 
> parliamentary democracies. So, according to Johnston, something has been working 
> well for us.
> 
> Johnston also states that in 
> the Edelman Trust survey, for the first time in eight years, Canada is a 
> “distrustor nation.” More than 50 per cent of our population don’t trust their 
> public institutions. So we’re now in the middle of the pack on that. We used to 
> be in the top third.
> 
> I point out that all eight 
> countries, with the exception of Canada, have stronger representative 
> democracies than Canada with the use of proportional representation PR. Denmark, 
> Sweden, Norway, Netherlands, and New Zealand have fully proportional 
> democracies. Australia uses a proportional system for their senate and ranked 
> ballot for the house of representatives. Although the United Kingdom uses 
> first-past-the-post for the house of commons, Scotland, Wales and Northern 
> Ireland use proportional systems for their own parliaments created in 1998. 
> These countries join 90% of all EU and OECD countries that use proportional 
> representation. 
> 
> Trudeau promised that 2015 
> would be the last federal election using first-past-the-post. He set up a 
> special committee on electoral reform that received testimony and written 
> submissions from thousands of Canadians and held town hall meetings across 
> Canada. The vast majority of those supported proportional representation. They 
> did not support Trudeau’s preference for a ranked or preferential ballot, 
> another winner-take-all system that would have clearly benefited the Liberal 
> Party. As a result, Trudeau broke his promise and dropped electoral reform 
> saying there was no consensus. 
> 
> I join the many Canadians whose 
> trust in our flawed and unfair electoral system has been further diminished by 
> our prime minister’s broken promise. His promise to base policy on evidence does 
> not warrant trust. Evidence from other countries shows that PR countries have 
> better representation for all citizens, more cooperation and consensus, better 
> long range planning, less partisan politics, fewer distorted results, and better 
> government in general.
> 
> 
> 
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