Voters have a chance to instruct the government of Wade MacLauchlan regarding its failures to modernize representation and try out proportional representation.
It is too hard for the Liberal Party and the Conservative Party to reflect on what their dominance and use of patronage has meant to the deliberative dialectic of our democratic community, how it has strangled ideas of diversity and change, how it has shut out progressive adaptation, crippling the opportunities of youth and newcomers by perpetuating established networks.
Through the second miracle of P.E.I. politics (the first being the election of Dr. Herb Dickieson as NDP member), Peter Bevan-Baker was elected to bring a Green Party voice and new ideas that can only be grasped from a profoundly environmental perspective on to the political battlefield.
It is time for a third miracle in P.E.I. politics, and for a more socialist approach to the crises arising from the end of easily available work as we knew it in the 20th century, the festering wounds of the Mi'kmaq land claim, the long shadow of human caused climate disruption over the future of this little island, or the despair of youth facing debt, the gauntlet of drug temptation and suicide.
These are collective problems requiring collective action and a rejuvenated electorate ought to consider the socialist voices that have been left out by the failure to change to a system of proportional representation. Prince Edward Island has been thrown into an existential crisis by the volatile circumstances of the early 21st century, it is time for a leap of faith and an end to the bad faith that killed proportional representation.
All parties that a significant proportion of voters, ought to be present in the conversation for the future of this province. Vote for Mike Redmond and the New Democratic Party to make the point that diversity, justice, honour and fairness matters in politics.
Four political parties have strong support in this region and four competing sets of solutions ought to expand the argument and end the two-party-tug-of-war and resulting one-dimensional use of power to prevent the bad guys from redistributing all the goodies so as to undermine your power. More than two parties in the legislature is a good thing for our future.
- Tony Couture, Philosophy Department, UPEI
