Dear Editor:
Nicholas Bloomfield asked the question as to who, if not the Conservative Party, should be in power in Ottawa.
Given that the Conservatives were the most popular, one would assume that the answer would be — the Conservative Party.
However, let’s take a look at the numbers again.
The Conservatives won only 39.6 per cent of the popular vote. If we were, as we should be, basing our elections on proportional representation, they would only have taken 122 seats, rather than 167, which would once again put them into a minority government situation. This should really have been the case since their popularity only increased by two per cent since the last election rather than the 12 per cent increase in seats that they gained.
Using these same proportions, here is how the other parties would have fared:
The NDP, as well, should not have taken the 102 seats which gave them the position of the official opposition, rather, with only 31 per cent of the popular vote, they would have had only 95 seats. So, they too, benefitted from the first-past-the-post (FPTP) electoral method.
The badly defeated Liberals, however, won only 34 seats; however, they should have won 59 seats since they had nearly 20 per cent of the popular vote.
The Bloc were badly beaten by the FPTP system as well. They should have had 18 seats instead of the four they did get.
And, bless the people who voted for the Green Party. Talk about getting ripped off. With four per cent of the popular vote they should have had 12 MPs in Ottawa instead of just one.
So, Mr. Bloomfield, not all is fair in love and war, and certainly not politics.
Frank Martens
Summerland