Editor: The editorial in The Times (May 4) reads in part “He [Stephen Harper] needs to show the 60 per cent of voters who didn’t vote Conservative some respect.”
I agree on the respect part. A few people and a couple of other newspapers have pointed out that Stephen Harper has won a majority government with “only” 40 per cent of the popular vote. Why is this a problem now? Is it because the prime minister and his majority government are Conservative?
A little history lesson. Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chretien in 1993 had 41 per cent of popular vote, 39 per cent in 1997 and 40 per cent in 2000. Liberal PM Pierre Trudeau never got above 44 per cent of the popular vote.
Liberal supporters at that time did not have a problem with a majority government with less than 50 per cent of the popular vote.
Also of note, both Trudeau and Chretien did not show much respect for the West when they were prime minister.
Until we have electoral reform, first-past-the-post wins. That is the way it has been in Canada since before Confederation.
Steven Gunson,
Aldergrove