<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div dir="ltr">Strategic Voting occurred in the federal 2021 election. As Don Fraser said years ago, PR will radically change voting patterns. Had the last election been held under PR, the number of votes received by Max Bernier’s People’s Party of Canada would have been different. </div><div dir="ltr"><br><blockquote type="cite">On Sep 30, 2021, at 1:01 PM, Anita Nickerson <anitann88@gmail.com> wrote:<br><br></blockquote></div><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr">Please write to the Star! <br><br>Yes, the PPC is costing us supporters. <div><br></div><div>People are seeing those charts of 17-21 seats everywhere. It is costing us our own supporters - the many soft supporters, not the core long time people like you - and "the public". There is no doubt. I see it everywhere. <br><br>I'm not really convinced that valiantly arguing that the PPC getting 21 seats because they "deserve" it, that's "better democracy", when they were basically a one-issue party this election for people who think blocking hospitals is great, is a winner with the people we need to convince. We may be democratically and morally and technically correct, but we're only convincing ourselves by focusing on that. <br><br>There is no great argument that can defeat an EMOTIONAL knee-jerk fear people have of "extremists in Parliament." Logic does not overcome emotion. We have been thoroughly defeated on that field before.<br><br><b>Nevertheless, do try to give people something else to think about and focus on! <br></b><br>Like yes, remind people that Bernier sat in cabinet and came with 1.7% of winning the Con leadership. </div><div><br></div><div>Then these folks who are terrified of having a few isolated PPC in a corner of Parliament could have a Bernier running the country on 33% of the vote. That's a realistic fear - that we can address now with electoral reform now - or wait until it's staring us in the face, at which point it becomes much more difficult.<br><br>A PR system for Canada WOULD NOT deliver the PPC 17 or 21 seats. Here is the reality:<br><br><a href="https://www.fairvote.ca/2021/09/22/simulationssmallparties/">https://www.fairvote.ca/2021/09/22/simulationssmallparties/</a><div><br></div><div>Milder numbers may take a dent of the fear, but won't remove it. For many people one PPC seat is too many and makes them think they'd rather stick with "the devil they know".</div><div><br></div><div>The best tactic is likely to focus on the glaring flaws and consequences of our FPTP system for everyone. </div><div><br></div><div>$600,000,000 early elections. </div><div><br></div><div>Governments with 32.6% support who try to cooperate with others as little as humanly possible, when what we need are parties to cooperate to tackle issues that can only be solved by "all hands on deck" like climate change action. </div><div><br></div><div>25/25 seats in the City of Toronto going Lib and 14/14 in SK going Con - leaving NO VOICE for those with any other values. </div><div><br></div><div>The vast majority who again elected nobody and the massive disengagement that is causing as voter turnout plummeted to 59%. </div><div><br></div><div>Are we going to let fear of a handful of purple seats frighten us from solving those very big problems?</div><div><br></div><div><b>PLEASE WRITE TO THE STAR. So they see a LOT of people pushing back. </b>Much better than talking to each other on this list!</div><div><br></div><div>Anita</div><div><br></div></div></div><br><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Thu, Sep 30, 2021 at 7:08 AM stuchandler43 <<a href="mailto:stuchandler43@gmail.com">stuchandler43@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="auto"><div dir="auto">It doesn't take a genius to see through Bob Hepburn's bombastic blather about how scary PR is. It is truly unfortunate that he uses his position of "journalist" as a bully pulpit to spread his stupidity with such perceived authority. </div><div dir="auto">His piece contains the information necessary to refute his useless fear of Max Bernier and the PPC, who he claims would create havic with the 25 seats they may have gained under PR. 25 seats out of 338 would only be of influence if the Conservatives got about 160 seats, and needed the PPC to pass legislation. With all the polls of public opinion in Canada indicating that Canadians are overwhelmingly progressive politically, there is zero likelihood of that happening under PR. But it could happen under FPTP (!!!!!), which could allow the CPC to "win" enough seats with 30% of the votes (let's say) to gain a minority close enough to half that the few seats Bernier <i>might </i>get (in this hypothetical case) could allow them to form a coalition government capable of passing legislation. </div><div dir="auto">So, once again, PR proves it's better than FPTP since such a scenario is <i style="font-weight:bold">much </i>less likely to happen with a PR Electoral system.</div><div dir="auto">Moreover, under FPTP, Justin has just been showing us how easy it is for his minority Liberal party to ignore most of what the NDP wants because he's been pretty sure the NDP will prop the Liberals up rather than risk forcing an election that might allow the Conservatives to gain power. (Only Justin was stupid enough to risk that fate!!)</div><div dir="auto">Ain't politics Fun?</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Cheerio </div><div dir="auto">Stu</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto" id="gmail-m_-3318084747394694843composer_signature"><div dir="auto" style="font-size:85%;color:rgb(87,87,87)">Sent from my Galaxy</div></div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div><br></div><div dir="auto" style="font-size:100%;color:rgb(0,0,0)"></div><div style="font-size:100%;color:rgb(0,0,0)" dir="auto"></div><div dir="auto" style="font-size:100%;color:rgb(0,0,0)"></div><div style="font-size:100%;color:rgb(0,0,0)" dir="auto"></div><div dir="auto" style="font-size:100%;color:rgb(0,0,0)"></div><div style="font-size:100%;color:rgb(0,0,0)" dir="auto" align="left"><div>-------- Original message --------</div><div>From: Kevin Smith <<a href="mailto:kevedsmith@gmail.com" target="_blank">kevedsmith@gmail.com</a>> </div><div>Date: 2021-09-30 2:13 a.m. (GMT-05:00) </div><div>To: FVC Waterloo Region Discussion <<a href="mailto:fvc-wat-disc@listserv.thinkers.org" target="_blank">fvc-wat-disc@listserv.thinkers.org</a>> </div><div>Subject: [fvc-wat-disc] Bob Hepburn - anti-PR piece in the Star </div><div><br></div></div><div dir="auto">Things have gotten quiet apparently from the progressives calling for PR,, since the PPC would have been the main benefactor of it in this last election.<div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto"><a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/star-columnists/2021/09/29/max-bernier-and-the-folly-of-electoral-reform.html" target="_blank">https://www.thestar.com/opinion/star-columnists/2021/09/29/max-bernier-and-the-folly-of-electoral-reform.html</a><br></div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Kevin.</div></div>
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