BC is readying for another referendum on what they term “Fair.gov”
suggesting to proportionally allocate legislative seats based on provincial
results. This is based on each parties electoral balloting by percentage. This
has caused me to reflect on both our learnings from travel to other regions
that have proportional representation and our most recent experience in
attempting to effect change related to a traffic safety hazard in Ladysmith, BC.
There are some countries, primarily in Europe that have proportional
representation. You can look them up on the internet for a full list but three
countries come to mind illustrating their dysfunction, Greece, Belgium and
Italy. All are in serious financial difficulties, and the major issues relate
to the ability to action a government with a cohesive agenda and message and hold their elected
politicians accountable.
Many of these proportional models use what is called an additional
member system which introduces the balancing of proportional representation by
percentage/party, with that of constituency based polling. This causes an
increase in the size of elected representatives within the legislature which directly
increases the cost of representative government. There are no guarantees of
improved efficiency; in fact it slows down government action on most measures.
This is where our experience dealing with our government MLA
this spring and summer really highlighted the needs for accountability.
We initiated along with other south Ladysmith BC citizens a
drive to have a traffic intersection reviewed due to the safety hazards that
exist there. We sought the advice of some civic officials who we have long
respected and trusted and were given some cautionary advice regarding how to
action this campaign and who to trust. We followed their advice to the letter
and glad we did.
We felt that the volume of over 500 letters to the Minister
of Highways of an NDP government, with a local NDP MLA, and handled in such a
fashion as recommended to us that only the Minister would be held accountable
proved that the guidance we received was accurate.
The MLA vacillated; as
predicted by our civic officials. In this case the government has circled their
wagons along with a local politician who wants to claim he led the charge, in
complete contrast to the facts.
So, at least we know who to hold accountable in this
situation when it comes time to vote a future election, using current behavior
to predict future behavior.
If a proportional representation model were in
effect, imagine the scapegoating of excuses that would be permitted where the
government would not be able to be held accountable for its decisions or lack
thereof. It isn’t difficult when your issue is with a governing party. Imagine
if you dealt with a coalition.
Also an interesting non-political report by Canada's RCMP warns of how extremism can enter the mainstream of politics through the outside influences of fringe entities.
And the Financial Post indicates how this can manifest itself into a "useful idiots" campaign.
