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PR offers us an opportunity to make this approach to governance the norm, rather than the exception. What PR will do is give politicians the tools and incentives to find compromise and work together after an election to see policy advanced that more British Columbians can support. It is a structure to support more governance based on shared responsibility, not unilateral power. To be sure, PR will not be a panacea for everything that ails our province. We will still have fiercely fought elections and parties will continue to argue passionately for their points of view. But PR will be a major step further toward the type of government the Green party wants for B.C.

Shortly before our caucus decided which party to support in May 2017, we wrote an op-ed in The Vancouver Sun, articulating our promise to British Columbians — our promise to make the most of this unique minority government to put people first. We believe that British Columbians are better served by political parties that are willing to work together than the left-versus-right, winner-take-all fight that has engulfed B.C. for much of the last two decades.

Whatever the result of the referendum on electoral reform, we will continue to work to ensure British Columbians have an option that puts good public policy over politics. But if you have seen what is possible when parties work together and believe that no single party should have 100 per cent of the power when a majority of British Columbians does not support it, I urge you to vote for PR. What began as a fluke of our FPTP system in 2017 can be the way forward for a stronger, more accountable and more representative democracy in B.C. into the future.

Andrew Weaver is leader of the B.C. Green party and the MLA for Oak Bay-Gordon Head.

Letters to the editor should be sent to provletters@theprovince.com. The editorial pages editor is Gordon Clark, who can be reached at gclark@postmedia.com.

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