Re: “Referendum a must before election reform”, (Citizen, Oct. 21)
I honour and respect the knowledge and experience which Martin Barker has accumulated as a political party candidate, and I acknowledge his right to support keeping the first-past-the-post electoral system.
But the knowledge and experience which I have accumulated, as a voter in 16 federal elections leads me to think there is room for improvement in an electoral system that enables a majority of seats in the House of Commons to be given to a political party which was voted against by over 60 per cent of the voters.
I acknowledge Martin Barker’s right to have an opinion that we should have a federal referendum before we allow any changes to our electoral system. But I would prefer to have an opportunity to experience an electoral reform before being asked to pass judgement on it. I suggest that we hold a referendum after we have tried out an electoral reform in a general election.
Robert Radford
Duncan