Mail-in referendum will determine public support for proportional representation

A mail-in referendum will be held next year to determine if B.C. uses proportional representation to elect members of the legislature.

If 50 per cent plus one of those who participate in the referendum endorse proportional representation, it will replace the firstpast-the-post voting system at the 2021 provincial election.

A Kelowna man who champions proportional representation says the mail-in referendum strikes him as a fair way to gauge the public’s appetite for changing the way votes are held.

“I think it’s a good idea, since a lot of people will probably participate in a mail-in referendum,” Terry Robertson of Fair Vote Canada said.

Robertson noted one earlier idea for testing the public’s appetite for a switch to proportional representation was to have the question attached to the ballot in next October’s municipal elections.

“But very few people bother to vote in local elections,” Robertson said.

The turnout in the 2011 Kelowna civic election was 32 per cent, but it has dipped below 20 per cent in previous municipal elections.

The last time a mail-in referendum was used provincially in B.C. was in 2011, for a decision on whether to repeal the then-new Harmonized Sales Tax and return to the Provincial Sales Tax.

Fifty-three per cent of eligible British Columbians participated in that mail-in referendum, a slight majority voting to repeal the HST.

Advocates of proportional representation say seats in the legislature should be allocated in a way that more closely matches the level of popular support received by a political party.

Detractors say proportional representation will lead to a proliferation of small, narrow-interest parties which will be able to exert an outsize influence in the legislature.

When the Green party agreed to work with the NDP to topple the Liberal government earlier this year, it made a condition of the alliance a move toward proportional representation.

The NDP said such a significant switch in the electoral system could not be made without putting the issue to voters in a referendum.

“Today, we have taken the first step toward asking British Columbians if they want a change from the current voting system,” Attorney General David Eby said in a government release.

“We are taking steps to modernize our democracy today, while giving people the power to decide the future of our most fundamental democratic institution,” Eby said.