Local participation in vote on electoral reform higher than province’s as a whole

Interest in the referendum on proportional representation is running higher among Central Okanagan voters than among those across the rest of the province.

In the three ridings that include parts of Kelowna, just under 10 per cent of eligible voters have mailed in their ballot, Elections BC says.

The provincial average is 6.5 per cent. However, there’s a wide variation in the response rate across B.C.

The highest response has been in the riding of BoundarySimilkameen, where 14.9 per cent of voters have already sent in their ballot. The lowest is in Surrey-Fleetwood, where just 1.1 per cent of eligible voters have mailed in a ballot.

The response rate is currently 9.2 per cent in Penticton and 9.7 per cent in Vernon-Monashee.

Ballots must be returned to Elections BC by the end of November to be included in the counting of votes.

The Daily Courier asked the two Kelowna area members of Parliament how they voted in the referendum.

Kelowna-Lake Country Liberal MP Stephen Fuhr, who has advocated for proportional representation at the federal level, did not respond this week to two emails that asked for his views on the provincial referendum.

Dan Albas, Conservative MP for Central Okanagan-SimilkameenNicola, says he’s supporting retention of the current first-past-thepost voting system.

“In this B.C. referendum, politics are at play where Premier John Horgan and the NDP are politically manipulating a process to favour their preferred system of mixed member proportional.

“This B.C. process does not answer simple but important questions such as ‘How massive will a riding be,’ or ‘What would be the definition of a rural riding?’” Albas wrote in an email.

“Whenever a political party puts self-interest first and does not use an independent process, that creates serious concerns,” Albas wrote. “This process intentionally left out important details, leaving citizens in the dark.

“That to me is unacceptable, which is why I voted against proportional representation and cannot support this NDP politically created referendum process,” Albas wrote.