PR is way to solve polarization, collapsing middle

Letter to the Editor, The Toronto Star:

Back in the 1990s when the Reform Party and PCs divided the votes of right of centre voters, Stephen Harper wrote about the need for proportional representation. With the sudden demise of the PCs in the 1993 election, the absorption of the PCs into the reform fold was almost inevitable.

However, the new Conservative Party failed to attract as much support as the Reform and PCs could muster individually. The problem was that the new Conservatives were too right-wing for many, perhaps even most, of the so-called Red Tories. Faced with the choice, many went to the Liberals while others helped build the new Green Party.

The solution, which Harper correctly identified so many years ago, is not to restrict voter choice by merging parties that have little in common, but rather to implement proportional representation so that people can choose who best represents them.

Ask yourselves would you rather have to choose between the Conservatives and NDP, or have a choice of the Conservatives, Greens, Liberals and NDP? How would you feel if the PCs were also on that list, giving moderate Conservatives another option?

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