Editor, The News:
I don’t want Canada to go down the same road that the United States has gone down.
If we stay with the ‘first past the post’ electoral system, we will likely lose every alternative to the Conservatives and the Liberals. Not very democratic, if you ask me.
Many people already don’t vote because they feel that their vote doesn’t count. They wouldn’t vote for the Liberals or the Conservatives, but their choice doesn’t have a good chance of winning because of the first past the post requirement.
If smaller, less represented parties decide to amalgamate to raise their chances of succeeding, our choices get fewer and fewer, leading us toward an inevitable two-party system, where no other alternative stands a chance, like in the U.S.
If we lose diversity in our political party choices, or if we are denied representation in Parliament because our choice isn’t the first past the post, we are denied democracy.
Too many Canadians fit that mould.
On June 16, 2015, Justin Trudeau promised Canadians that, if elected, he would ensure that 2015 was the last election using first past the post. He promised to make every vote count. Let’s hold him and his party to those promises.
Sean Orcutt
Maple Ridge