I thought this was from the BC government to go online and tell them I voted. But really, it’s from the shady Liberals trying to influence the vote. Ugh!
PSA: If you get this in the mail, trash it!
–
Submitted by @vortexintime.
I’ll debunk the B.C. Liberals talking points here, just in case anyone takes this garbage seriously.
From this article:
Electoral Reform: Myths and Misinformation Prop Up the Status Quo
1. They claim MMP leads to extremism and first past the post doesn’t.
Supporters of FPTP argue there is something unique about proportional representation that leads to extremism. There’s a simple, two-word response to that false claim: Donald Trump. Trump was elected under FPTP with less than 50 per cent – not unusual under our current system. The claim is often made that with proportional representation extremist parties sometimes get elected to parliaments and legislatures, so change should be rejected. But compare the impact of a small minority extremist party in a parliament to the extremist president of the U.S., a racist, misogynist, egotist with his finger on the nuclear button, elected under FPTP.
2. They claim MMP leads to unstable parliaments and FPTP doesn’t.
Supporters of first past the post say that there’s something about mixed member proportional representation that leads to unstable governments that fall before their mandate is up, while FPTP guarantees stability. But they should read our history a bit more closely. Between 1957 and 1965 there were five Canadian federal elections under our current system – one every 20 months. One government lasted less than nine months.
And it’s not just Canada. In the 1920s, Britain had three elections in less than two years using out current first past the post system. So much for stability.
3. They claim that under MMP “party insiders” and “backroom boys” would have tremendous influence on who gets to be a candidate and under FPTP they don’t.
This is laughable. We all know that under the current system party heavyweights intervene all the time to influence and even control who their candidates will be. Justin Trudeau did it. Stephen Harper did it. Virtually every party and every party leader has been caught out trying, and often succeeding, in “managing” who becomes a candidate and who doesn’t.
Defending FPTP candidate selection as pure and uncontaminated by party insiders is just silly. Under mixed member proportional, each party will create a list of candidates to correct unfairness and lack of democratic representation. These lists can be determined in many ways – including open, democratic primary votes by party members or the general public.
Vote for proportional representation in BC’s referendum because the Liberals are scared of it!
Many thanks to @allthecanadianpolitics for getting this out there!
These arguments against MMP were raised in New Zealand back in the 1990s. MMP was selected via referendum in part because the establishment was so against it. The old logic of “if they hate it so much, it must be good”.
In the 25 years since adoption of MMP,
There has been no extremist government.
All governments elected under MMP have gone full term, with only one Prime Minister (Jim Bolger) being ousted by his own party before an election. His successor, Jenny Shipley, promptly lost said election.
Back room deals over MP selections existed before MMP and everyone knew it, so it was never a big deal.
Nava 