<HTML><HEAD></HEAD>
<BODY dir=ltr>
<DIV dir=ltr>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000">
<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">https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/01/11/a-short-surprising-history-of-democratic-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 style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ">
<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 style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: "> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: "> </DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 13pt; mso-line-height-alt: 13.0pt"><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: en-ca'><FONT
style='face: "Times' New roman?><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">Hepburn’s
Arguments Ill-Conceived</FONT></FONT></SPAN><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: en-ca'></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 13pt; mso-line-height-alt: 13.0pt"><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: en-ca'><FONT
style='face: "Times' New roman?><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">Bob Hepburn says
changing our voting system is a bad idea.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</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
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>What do those countries know that
Hepburn doesn’t?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </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 style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Systems using multi-member or larger ridings with additional MPs give
constituents more, not less contact with representatives.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </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>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV
style='FONT-SIZE: small; TEXT-DECORATION: none; FONT-FAMILY: "Calibri"; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; COLOR: #000000; FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline'>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt tahoma">
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #f5f5f5">
<DIV style="font-color: black"></DIV>
<DIV
style='FONT-SIZE: small; TEXT-DECORATION: none; FONT-FAMILY: "Calibri"; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; COLOR: #000000; FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline'>
<HR>
</DIV></DIV></DIV>_______________________________________________<BR>This is the
fvc-wat-disc mailing list<BR>Post a message:
fvc-wat-disc@listserv.thinkers.org<BR>Unsubscribe:
http://listserv.thinkers.org/mailman/listinfo/fvc-wat-disc_listserv.thinkers.org<BR></DIV></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>