Lee preaches perils of PR
Michael Lee’s message in a visit to the South Okanagan was fill out your referendum ballot and get it in the mail before Friday. Lee, MLA for Vancouver Langara and Official Opposition critic for the Attorney General, was speaking last Friday at a BC Liberal function hosted by Penticton MLA Dan Ashton at Perseus Winery.
“A major flaw in this referendum is 29 different items from these three voting systems (on the ballot) are being left for determination after the vote,” Lee told a crowd of around 50 people.
“You’re voting between something that you’ve known for 150 years in this province versus a concept. For those who are in favour of change for proportional representation, they have to be very comfortable about the three proposed systems on the ballot.”
Penticton is presently in the top 15 in the province for returned ballots with 10.6 per cent. Nearby Boundary Similkameen is in the top three with 16 per cent.
BC Liberal leader Andrew Wilkinson has stated a binding referendum should require a significantly higher percentage of returns than what’s anticipated.
Lee used Prince Edward Island as a recent example.
PEI had five different choices in a similar referendum (including the present first past the post) and 52 percent chose mixed member proportional representation. Voter turnout was only 36 per cent.
“The premier (of PEI) decided after the vote, to have a second referendum in conjunction with the (2019) provincial election to make the mixed member choice binding. Thirty six percent was not enough to change the present system.”
Lee described two of the three options as, “a madein-B.C. solution,which don’t exist anywhere else in the world, that (attorney general) David Eby identifiedafter his online survey.”
He also stated the timing of the referendum, so close to the Oct. 20 municipal election, is unfair to voters. Referendum ballots must be received by Nov. 30. Lee also spent time in Armstrong, Saturday, with Boundary Similkameen MLA Linda Larson.