<div dir="ltr">well done ... never give up ... your fight is well worth the effort!</div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On 12 January 2017 at 10:15, Sharon Sommerville <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:sharonsommerville@gmail.com" target="_blank">sharonsommerville@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr">Way to go Dave. It will be interesting if Martin responds to your email. What is so astounding is that all the best evidence in the world is contained in one tidy package, the ERRE report. We should send the link to it when obstinate type like Martin turn up.<div><br></div><div>Have a great day,</div><div>Sharon</div></div><div class="HOEnZb"><div class="h5"><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Jan 12, 2017 at 9:44 AM, Dave Arthur <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:arthurd23@bell.net" target="_blank">arthurd23@bell.net</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
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<div>Martin Reg Cohn had a column in today’s Star.</div>
<div><a title="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/01/11/a-short-surprising-history-of-democratic-reform-cohn.html" href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/01/11/a-short-surprising-history-of-democratic-reform-cohn.html" target="_blank">https://www.thestar.com/news/c<wbr>anada/2017/01/11/a-short-surpr<wbr>ising-history-of-democratic-<wbr>reform-cohn.html</a></div>
<div>I sent him an e-mail rather than a letter to the ed since they have so far
refused to publish my rebuttal to Bob Hepburn’s piece a few weeks ago.</div>
<div>Do they shy away from letters about their writers errors?</div>
<div>Anyway, here’s my e-mail to Martin and the submission about Hepburn’s
piece.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>
<div>Hello Martin</div>
<div>Just read your column today.</div>
<div>Too bad many in the media can’t seem to get their information
correct.</div>
<div>I sent a letter to the editor about the errors in Bob Hepburn’s piece a few
weeks ago.</div>
<div>It was <em><font style="COLOR:#333333">Changing our voting system a bad
idea: </font><font style="COLOR:#404040">Trudeau is smart to back away from
ill-conceived election promise</font></em></div>
<div>Your paper has so far refused to publish it.</div>
<div>I’ve included it below if you’re interested.</div>
<div>You and others point to the failed attempts to get PR in Canada.</div>
<div>The fact is that BC voted 58% for STV but the government, who didn’t really
want it, required 60%.</div>
<div>That in spite of the fact that 37% can give a government 100% power.</div>
<div>In the recent referendum in PEI the voters who were paying attention and
cared about their electoral system voted for MMP but there were too many who
were not paying attention or didn’t care and didn’t vote.</div>
<div>The Ontario referendum was a sham in that the government made no effort to
publicize the issue or the work of the Citizens’ Assembly.</div>
<div>Polls showed that 50% of Ontarians had no clue about the issue and 70%
didn’t know what MMP was.</div>
<div>Duh, it’s a two sided ballot where you vote for your choice of local
candidate and vote for your choice of party and a portion of the seats are
top-ups to achieve PR. Duh!</div>
<div>Yes, the UK (i.e. England) uses FPTP and voted down AV (not a PR
system).</div>
<div>But when Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland created their own parliaments
in 1998 they gave the boot to FPTP in favour of PR and without referendums. How
dare they?</div>
<div>90% of EU and OECD countries use PR.</div>
<div>Friends in Sweden, New Zealand, and Scotland can’t understand why Canada is
so stuck on an unfair and unrepresentative system.</div>
<div>I talk to a lot of Canadians about electoral reform.</div>
<div>Too many of them ask what’s that about, what’s wrong with what we have, or
why would I want to see parties other than the Conservatives and Liberals get
representation at my expense.</div>
<div>When I explain the issue, the distortions, the unequal votes, etc., etc.,
many of them come onside.</div>
<div>What is needed is education, education, education.</div>
<div>It would be nice if the media would help.</div>
<div>Dave Arthur, Kitchener</div>
<div> </div>
<div> </div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN:0in 0in 10pt;LINE-HEIGHT:13pt"><span><font><font style="FONT-SIZE:14pt">Hepburn’s
Arguments Ill-Conceived</font></font></span><span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN:0in 0in 10pt;LINE-HEIGHT:13pt"><span><font><font style="FONT-SIZE:14pt">Bob Hepburn says
changing our voting system is a bad idea.<span>
</span>But 88% of the witnesses and briefs submitted by Canadians who have
studied the issue say we need proportional representation, the system used by
90% of other developed democracies in the world.<span> </span>What do those countries know that
Hepburn doesn’t?<span> </span>PR countries
typically have more stable, longer lasting governments, better representation
for all citizens, more cooperation and consensus, less partisan bitterness,
longer range planning, less policy lurch, better voter turnouts, and sincere
rather than strategic voting.<span>
</span>Systems using multi-member or larger ridings with additional MPs give
constituents more, not less contact with representatives.<span> </span>Candidate lists adding proportional MPs
can be open and ranked by voters adding more democracy, not less. Canada
is almost alone with its unfair version of democracy. Friends in countries with
PR can’t believe we have stayed with a system where votes are not equal and too
many do not count toward representation.</font></font></span></p></div>
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