Re: 鈥淗organ, Weaver whip up rally for proportional representation,鈥� column, Oct. 24.
The title of this column is misleading. No whipping-up of support was needed for those attending the rally, who were a multi-generational crowd looking forward to a better voting system for the next generation.
Youthful speakers ahead of the party leaders stressed the need to know their vote would count and that their values would be represented in the legislature. If our democracy is to survive, we must ensure that our young people find it meaningful to participate.
The present first-past-the-post system simply does not work for more than two parties and promotes polarization rather than co-operation, the extreme case of which is evident south of the border. Even here there is a long and distressing tradition of hurling insults across the floor or thumping desks in the legislature.
In contrast, when I visited the New Zealand parliament several years ago, I was informed that there was rarely any major incivility in the house because most of the discussion relating to introducing legislation would have taken place in multi-party committees with members proportionate to their party standings.
New Zealand uses the MMP system of proportional representation, but a close examination of the other two choices on our ballot suggests that any of them would lead to a considerable improvement in diversity of representation and incentives to co-operate for the wider public good.
Judy Gaylord
Victoria
