Kelowna forum draws crowd
About 250 people hear expert on electoral reform speak on proposed switch to proportional representation in B.C.
To change or not to change? That is the question. It seems simple enough, but electoral reform expert Dennis Pilon knows B.C. has a tough decision to make when it comes to sticking to the current first-past-the-post voting system or moving to proportional representation.
Pilon, an associate professor of political science at York University in Toronto, was the guest speaker at Changing B.C.’s Voting System events Thursday night at First United Church in Kelowna and earlier in the week in Penticton.
“Obviously, there are two sides to this debate,” said Pilon, the author of “The Politics of Voting and Wrestling With Democracy.”
“Each side has a right to express their opinion. However, we shouldn’t take all of either the pro or the no side’s claims at face value.”
About 250 people attended the Kelowna session, an indication the community is interested in the fall referendum that will ask British Columbians if they want the voting system to remain as is or change it to proportional representation, according to Pilon.
“Both systems work as democracy,” said Pilon.
“But my research shows proportional representation is a more democratic system. It tends to make every vote count.”
First past the post is the term used for B.C.’s current system, which sees the candidate with the most votes in a riding elected as MLA.
Candidates in second, third or fourth place win no representation, no matter how many votes they received.
The elected MLA usually has a party affiliation, so the party with the most MLAs elected forms the provincial government and the party leader becomes premier.
However, that’s not quite the case currently in B.C.
The Liberals have 42 seats, the NDP 41 and the Greens three.
However, an NDP-Green pact made the NDP’s John Horgan premier.
Pilon said Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. are three of the few democracies still using first-past-the-post elections.
“Most other democracies, and these are countries with high GDPs and quality of life, have some form of proportional representation,” said Pilon.
“That includes Germany, all of Scandinavia, New Zealand, Belgium and Holland.”
In the past, B.C. has had two other referendums that saw proportional representation, known as the single-transferable vote, defeated.
In both cases, the referendum question was a simple Yes or No.
This time around, the referendum will be by mail-in ballot from Oct. 22 to Nov. 30.
And it won’t be just a Yes or No question.
The first question is clear enough: Should British Columbia use for elections to the legislature the current first-past-the-post voting system or a proportional representation voting system?
The second question asks: If British Columbia adopts a proportional representation voting system, which of the following voting systems do you prefer? People will be asked to rank three choices: dual-member proportional, mixedmember proportional and rural-urban proportional representation.
Mixed-member would give each voter two ballots — one to decide the representative for their singleseat constituency and one for a political party.
Dual-member would see about half of single-member ridings replaced with two-member ridings, with the first seat going to the top vote-getter and the second awarded to one of the remaining candidates so proportionality is achieved.
Rural-urban would see multimember seats in urban areas and single-member seats in more sparsely populated regions with regional top-up seats added to make the system more proportional.
“This is a stacked deck and a rigged game for the NDP-Green coalition to get the outcome they want,” said Kelowna-Mission Liberal MLA Steve Thomson in May when referendum recommendations were released.
“We wanted a simple Yes or No referendum. Yet, what we’re getting is two multi-pronged referendum questions that are very complicated, and a very low threshold of voters will vote because it’s complicated and will end up changing a system that works and people understand.”
The Greens have a different outlook.
“Proportional representation requires parties to work together to put policy ahead of politics,” said Green spokesperson for electoral reform Sonia Furstenau in May.
“Under the first past the post in B.C., parties have received 100 per cent of the power with as little as 39 per cent of the vote and do not have to consult or collaborate with anyone.”