To the editor;
Re: “The voters have spoken,” Dec. 1
The writer states that the voters have elected the very best people to move Surrey forward.
In reality, this slate of developer shills is moving Surrey “forward” into a glorified version of the past.
The “future” is going to be far different than anything you have experienced in your life – welcome to the “real” 21st Century!
With this election, it is safe to say the “The Future Died Here”.
At present, while the federal government is confounding the environmental conference at Durban, we can see that the environment is truly a local rather than national issue because it is here, inch by inch where the mayor pushes nature out of her way.
More people would vote if the voting process was not flawed in favour of big money – to call this a “modern” system of voting is a sick joke. To give voters a proper choice on a ballot, especially in municipal elections, there must be a no vote on the ballot, actually two types of no votes.
The first one, right across the top, must have a yes/no choice for the question – “do you support the present system of governance?”
In virtually every municipal election, I would vote “no” for this item. If you vote yes, then you proceed to the second section, the list of candidates, each of which has a “yes” and “no” box. In the candidates’ section (for each seat being contested), you are allowed one “yes” and one “no”.
In such a system, I could vote “no” for the candidate that I most dislike (i.e. Mayor Watts) and then vote “Yes” for my real choice.
The “no” votes would have to be deducted from that candidate’s “yes” votes. If you vote “no” for the system of governance, then you have voiced your complaint against the present system and of course leave the candidate votes blank.
Then for every contested seat where a candidate does not get a majority of the votes, there has to be a runoff election the
following week until there is a majority winner.
It is important to have the runoff elections – this is the best way to fix the “first-past-the-post” system.
If these two improvements are implemented, then it would be possible to make voting compulsory.
Robert McCroskey
Port Kells