Dear editor,
The BC Liberals and the federal Conservatives have something in common.
They will never form another government till they bury their contempt for democracy.
Forums and polls across the country have been telling them for literally years we want proportional representation (PR) a truly democratic political system like the one New Zealand adopted almost 30 years ago, and still embraces.
The B. C. Liberals are considering changing the name of the party, hoping people will forget a history of costly and insensitive decisions made by their party leaders:
• Former premier Gordon Campbell changed the land-use legislation, whereby mobile home park owners could sell those properties and give tenants only 12 months to vacate, with no financial compensation and nowhere to park their homes. About a quarter of a million mobile homeowners are affected by this legislation, and are still being evicted, while we are desperate for affordable housing.
• Campbell also eliminated the requirement for compulsory certification for 12 trades, opening the doors for building contractors to use less qualified temporary foreign workers (TFWs).
• Former premier Christy Clark pressed the start button on BC LNG, which has become an unbelievable disaster, proceeding without closure on claims for rights, lands, and compensations.
She also gave the green light for Site-C dam, which has become a massive financial disaster.
When the BC NDP government conducted a referendum on whether the people wanted a proportional ballot, former Liberal party leader Andrew Wilkinson conducted an extremely aggressive campaign, and managed to defeat that referendum.
Harper did not like the democratic ambitions of the Reform party, and finally managed to merge with the Conservatives, but those democratic sentiments are still alive and well, looking for a new home.
A multi-member proportional system would open the doors wide for our migrant immigrant society and help them build a party system that embraces all cultures and ambitions.
PR is also the political solution to the Indigenous people who will be able to pursue their ambitions under federal and provincial political banners in our Parliament and provincial Legislatures, and the Quebec Bloc party would no longer be constrained by provincial borders.
Our colonial political system was designed to produce consecutive majority governments, real and fake, promoting aggressive and divisive ‘divide-and-conquer’ tactics that have given our party and political leaders powers of dictators, while it is tearing our beautiful country apart at the seams.
PR is the only political system that will stop this mindless destruction.
Andy Thomsen,
Kelowna