I’m sure that you’ve already received eleventy-million emails about this, but can you please do something about your Readers’ Choice list? You know, maybe make it location-specific to give everyone an equal shot or, failing that, just exclude nationwide chains altogether? Or you could do a separate “real” list for people who aren’t 16, hicks or new to the city? You could even slip it near the back, so as not to ruin your rep.  PHIL BABCOCK

No props for PR
Unfortunately, I find that you’re way off base as to why the proportional-representation (PR) referendum ultimately failed (“All in proportion,” Notebook, March 19).  It’s because everywhere else outside of Toronto simply didn’t want it; in fact, only the Toronto-based ridings were in favour. As such, we need to reconcile the fact that the appetite for this type of electoral reform may not really be there anywhere else that’s not named Toronto. Furthermore, it’s clear to me that we’re clearly not ready to take on this debate and that it may take quite some time for us to revisit this issue.

In this political climate, it is imperative that we have stable governments that can, rightly or wrongly, fulfill their mandates as much as possible.

We needn’t look any further than the unstable minority governments of Belgium, Italy, Israel and Iceland, especially the latter two (Israeli politics has always had a tendency to be volatile as it is, and who can forget the collapse of the coalition government in Iceland in the face of this economic crisis we all find ourselves in?) to show us what might befall us if ever we abandoned first-past-the-post on a whim. 

We need to demand more from our politicians at all levels of government and re-instill a sense of civic engagement, though we must not insist on trying to find the Canadian equivalent of Obama. It may be my own small-town Northern Ontario upbringing talking, but we must find it within ourselves to get involved in whatever way we can, whether it’s with a riding association or otherwise, instead of saying that any form of PR will cure our political ills. NAME WITHHELD BY REQUEST

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