Emily Berrigan Brings Dean Del Mastro up to Speed on How Government Works -- Again

It's a good thing we have Emily Berrigan living in our riding. Back in December, she was able to set the record straight about all those constitutional myths Dean Del Mastro was carrying around in his head -- and perpetuating rather loudly, via a microphone, at his "Rally for Canada." (Short version: "Opposition. Traitors. Blah, blah, blah.")

Barely three months have passed, and Berrigan is being called to save the day yet again. As she notes in a Letter to the Editor of The Peterborough Examiner published earlier this week (Del Mastro missed his Scottish lesson - Peterborough Examiner - Ontario, CA), Berrigan argues that Del Mastro learned little from his information exchange trip to Ireland and Scotland.

Re "Del Mastro part of parliamentary trip to Ireland, Scotland" (March 20)

Dean Del Mastro's recent educational trip perhaps should have been extended because there still seems to be some confusion.

Del Mastro implied that voter turnout in Scotland went down as a result of moving to a proportional system. How absurd! There is no way for the voter turnout to have gone down for the Scottish Parliament because it didn't exist until 1999, and they have always used a proportional system.

Let's turn this ridiculous notion on its head by posing a question: Why didn't Scotland choose to model Canada's winner-take-all system? The answer: Because using a system designed for two parties in a multi-party legislature doesn't make sense.

Canada hasn't learned this yet, and is a perfect example of how dysfunctional voting systems create dysfunctional governments. The Scots, on the other hand, seem to prefer to represent what voters want rather then simply seeing who can win. What a novel idea!

EMILY BERRIGAN
Fair Vote Canada - Peterborough and the Kawarthas Chapter

If the information Del Mastro brought back was this garbled, you have to wonder what twisted version of the facts about the Canadian banking system he and his travel-mate, former Dion setup man Mike Duffy, inflicted on the people of these two countries.

Related:

Impolitical: Del Mastro to the UK
Impolitical: Del Mastro in action tonight