May 30, 2017

An open letter to Joyce Murray, MP Vancouver Quadra


Joyce Murray, MP Vancouver Quadra
Room 508, Wellington Building
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6


Dear Ms. Murray

In 2013, during the Liberal Part of Canada leadership race, I was asked to introduce you at a campaign stop in Edmonton. I was glad to do so for two reasons: your position on pricing carbon and electoral reform. 

On electoral reform, you expressed a deep commitment to proportional representation. “The first-past-the-post system is damaging Canada's democracy right now,” you said at a campaign stop in Guelph.  “That is not what's needed when we are in a complex country with complex challenges. We have to work together.”

John Huizinga was impressed with your ideas. Her position on electoral reform “make[s] her stand out from the crowd,” he wrote in the Vancouver Sun.

Ms Murray, tomorrow, Wednesday, May 31, you will have another opportunity to stand out from the crowd. The House of Commons is expected to vote on a motion to adopt the report of the all-party committee on electoral reform. 

I’m sure the Prime Minister, who turned his back on his promise to make every vote count, is expecting all his MPs to vote against the motion, but I’m hoping that you and at least 19 of you Liberal colleagues will take advantage of the opportunity to do what’s needed for a complex country with complex challenges: Vote to adopt the committee’s report. 

Yours, truly
Peter Adamski