I've sent a letter to the editor and to the TorStar's board, with cc's to
Carol Goar, Tom Walkom, etc. The letter combines comments from my last two
posts. I doubt it will be published, but the issue is too important for us
not to try to do something. Here's the letter:

-----------------

WISE is an ad hoc group and growing national movement that is led by women
in poverty. We are incensed by the Toronto Star's February 23rd editorial
"Bad Electoral Medicine," in which you deride the choice for proportional
representation by Ontario's Citizen Assembly for Electoral Reform.

At every presentation WISE does, we recommend democratic and electoral
reform as the first, crucial step toward addressing poverty and other
structural determinants of health.

Citizens can talk all they like about raising welfare rates, minimum wages,
fixing the broken EI system, implementing a GAIA, securing affordable
housing... But none of that will happen - or will happen in such dribbles
and drabs that the changes won't keep up with further erosion. Such issues
won't be seriously addressed until we have a political system that reflects
the values of the general citizenry, not Canada's elites among whom are
owners of our media.

Further, the illogical and ironic position of your editorial cries out for
comment:

1. Our current "first-past-the-post" method ... awards ridings to the
candidate who wins the most votes.
2. Voters in British Columbia ... have already rejected proportional
representation.

Voters in British Columbia did not reject PR, the provincial government did.
Fifty-eight percent of British Columbians voted in favour of electoral
reform (BC-STV). In a FPTP system, BC-STV would have won. Instead, our
government (like Ontario's government) imposed a 60% supermajority
threshold. That resulted in the choice of 42% of voters outweighing the
choice of the majority.

It's irresponsible and unethical for the media to take a position on an
issue that is so fundamentally a choice of the people, not corporate
entities. What the Toronto Star has done is crass propaganda, a move to
protect its own interests.

Chrystal Ocean, Coordinator
Wellbeing through Inclusion Socially & Economically
http://www.wise-bc.org/
250-748-8093

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