Isn’t it time that we stopped thinking that our elections are horse races?
Electing members to parliament is not a race where the prize is the control [enslavement] of 35 million people for four years. Often as many as 60 per cent of those eligible to vote did not support a so-called majority government. Those 60 per cent are not people on the sidelines of a race track cheering the contestants and who will then go home afterwards to await the next race. They are citizens, taxpayers, and workers whose lives will be affected by those winners.
FPTP, first past the post, is a relic of the past where voters were restricted to a certain class of people, the few thousand men with property assets over a certain value — as long as they were not Catholics, Jews, Quakers or any other non-protestant. There were two parties — mainly made up whether you were for or against the monarchy.
The world is a difference place now.
I am surprised at how so many are willing to let those who are chosen by only four out of 10 voters to make all the decisions on health care, who you trade with, your taxes, or who you will even go to war with.
You wouldn’t buy a particular car, or even a t-shirt, if six out of 10 of your friends advised you not to.
Trudy Thorgeirson
Duncan