A year ago a significant number of Islanders told Premier MacLauchlan and his Liberal government that we want to change how we vote. That we no longer want a First Past the Post system that does not reflect the voice of an equally significant number of Islanders; that a Proportional Representation system would.
Certainly PR will benefit smaller Island political parties like the one I represent. But it will also allow for more women, ethnic minorities, people with physical and other challenges, people in lower income brackets, even more rural based Islanders, to be elected which with having more political parties running candidates would do. This gives voice to segments of our population who believe we are not given that opportunity of influencing public policy. Fewer lawyers as it were!
As for PR allowing a more equitable distribution of elected Legislative representatives from political parties it will do so for the “main line “parties too. Others have already pointed out that had we had P.R. in place for the 2015 election the P.C.s [37.4 per cent of the vote] would have elected 10 MLAs while the Liberals (40.8 per cent) would have had 11. This would have better reflected what Islanders who voted really wanted in our Legislature.
The plebiscite results a year ago sent out a clear message: Islanders want a better and diversified democratic system in our legislature.
Honour the vote, Mr. Premier.
Edith Perry,
NDP P.E.I. representative
