[fvc-wat-disc] [fvc-wat-announce] BC Needs Our Help

[Donald Fraser]

Hi Everyone,

Just for your info, My Brother in Law, Chris, and his wife Lynne were just
visiting us in Waterloo from Prince George,BC. I made a point of asking
them how they would vote and why.

Chris (retired) was the chief librarian for BC, reads constantly and is
very well educated.

Lynne is a retired General Practitioner (medical) , travels the world
constantly with Chris and definitely has a world view.

This is important because their views represent those of intelligent, well
educated and informed BC citizens.

I informed them that I was 'interviewing' them to present their views to
FVC, and they were OK with that.

I presented:
(1) my favourite argument for PR; namely, better long-term-planning for big
projects taking more than 4 years to complete
(2) fairness ... every vote counts
(3) better and more robust legislation because the present government
(coalition) participated in the legislation of the previous government, so
it gets tweaked and improved rather than being scrapped as happens in
adversarial FPTP
(4) more participation (voting) since every vote counts
(5) strategic voting becomes unnecessary ... you can vote for the party of
choice

Lynne said she isn't voting for PR because nobody is telling her what she
is getting specifically ... she wants the details of how PR would work in
BC ... of course I tried to tell her that there are many ways to implement
PR and that we deliberately avoid getting into this because it tends to
turn off voters and that the benefits apply to all forms of PR ... I
explained MMPR, with both open and closed list top-up methods, but she
wouldn't budge ... she wants to know the exact method.

Chris was less rational and got his back up to my arguments (typical male
to male).
He brought up the usual argument of fringe parties disrupting government
... I explained that PR countries typically use 'threshold' rules about
participation to avoid this problem.
He argued with:
(1) in that all governments chug away as usual regardless of who gets
elected ... true, I agreed, about tax collecting, snow removal etc but not
for specific problems like London-to-Oshawa transportation ... but I didn't
persuade him.
(2) he didn't acknowledge the difference between votes being 'counted' and
every vote 'counts'. Intellectually, of course, he no doubt could grasp
that, but perhaps didn't listen and just wanted to argue
(3) (4) (5)I don't recall a coherent answer ... he had become bored with
the discussion by this time.

So you can see what we're up against ... let's hope they are not in the
majority of respondents.

cheers,
Don





On Sun, 28 Oct 2018 at 01:59, Anita Nickerson <anitann88 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Thank you, Sharon! Yes, we need help everyone. If we're going to win in BC
> we have to get out our vote. People have their ballots now for the most
> part.
>
> Anita
>
> On Sat, Oct 27, 2018 at 8:50 PM Sharon Sommerville <
> sharonsommerville at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hello FairVoters,
>>
>> Many of you know that BC is currently having a referendum on moving to
>> Proportional Representation. Voters in BC received their ballots in the
>> mail this week. If PR wins, it will be the turning point for electoral
>> reform in Canada.  The "No" side is well organized and has money to spend
>> on getting their message and vote out.  We have many, many supporters in BC
>> which we need to remind to mail in their ballot.  Can you help win the BC
>> referendum?
>>
>> We can make calls to 9000 PR supporters in BC from the comfort of our
>> homes here in Waterloo Region.  You can make as many or as few calls as you
>> like. Everything will be of help. You need to take the online training but
>> we need to do it now as people are already mailing  their  ballots.
>>
>> Thank you for your support to make a win possible in BC.
>>
>> Kind regards,
>> Sharon
>>
>>  Online training:
>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89fwyFJJyPQ&feature=youtu.be
>>
>> Sign up for a live training here:
>>
>> https://organizingforchange.org/trainings/
>>
>> This is the call hub, once you are ready to call!
>>
>> *https://app.callhub.io/embed/agent-signup/?user=OFCGOTV&embedkey=40fa2b5d20fff980c1289759b0e2767
>> <https://app.callhub.io/embed/agent-signup/?user=OFCGOTV&embedkey=40fa2b5d20fff980c1289759b0e27676>*
>>
>>
>>
>> Attachments area
>> Preview YouTube video Call Hub Training to GOTV BC
>> Call Hub Training to GOTV BC
>> <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89fwyFJJyPQ&authuser=0>
>>
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>
>
> --
> *Proportional representation delivers more of what YOU voted for!*
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