Last night I received two messages, both criticizing majority government rule. One was a mailing from the Liberal Party of Canada and the other was a robo-call from the Ontario NDP. Two sides of the same coin. Most people are unhappy with majority governments, unless of course it’s their party of choice that’s in charge. My own feeling is that majority governments, like the FPP electoral system, are unsustainable. I’m sick of elections, sick of robo-calls, sick of unbridled partisanship, sick of the politicized media, sick of politicians who constantly engage in divisive powerplays.
I’m glad to see Stephane Dion out and having the conversation about electoral reform. Judging by this video I found from the Fair Vote Canada AGM 2012, not everyone is pleased to have him around and I can confirm that my own position on electoral reform has been challenged because I’m a Liberal. But I’m a Western Liberal. We don’t elect Liberals in the West very often. It wasn’t until I moved to Ontario that I had a snowball’s chance in hell of electing a Liberal. The Western Liberal experience is a perfect example of why electoral reform is so necessary. You can be a member of a party that’s in power and still be left behind. Policies are not targeting you because you live in the wrong region. Your voice is not heard because you have no MP. Your vote is not really valued even within your own party because it can’t win a seat.
So yes, I’ve lived the frustration of having my vote rendered meaningless and no one can ever say that I have no credibility on electoral reform. And living in a Liberal friendly province has not changed my mind one bit. What’s changed is that now when I talk to people about electoral reform, I see them nodding their heads in agreement when before they used to wave me off as a kook.
The only thing I’m not sure about is whether any political party that gets elected to government under FPP can ever really be trusted to keep their word on electoral reform. Stephen Harper is proof of that. I don’t believe we can achieve electoral reform unless enough people want it and they can make a convincing case to their peers. No politician will ever have more credibility on electoral reform than someone like me.
