Legitimacy of vote in doubt
Dear Editor: Les Leyne raises interesting questions about electoral referendum’s legitimacy (“Inside B.C.,” Nov. 15).
With only 215,187 ballots or 6.5 per cent returned so far; the 14 days left, needs to average 81,000 returns per day, from now until the Nov. 30 deadline in order to reach a 50 per cent turnout. This is worrisome.
Low voter turnout puts in question the referendum’s legitimacy? The NDP have said they would accept the results no matter the voter turnout. But, can 10 or 20 per cent voter turnout really speak for all British Columbians?
In response, advocates of electoral reform always turn to their particularly favourite argument; that legitimacy also comes up when one party forms a majority government with 39 per cent of the vote. But, this does not answer the question it merely evades it.
The problem is that argument is not a straight apples-and-apples comparison, because, in a field of five political parties to choose from, 39 per cent is in fact the largest single group of voters, therefore a majority and the other 61 percent don’t go home with nothing, as advocates are fond of telling us; they also go to government, it’s just that they sit in opposition and have to work to get their party ready to win the next election.
Electoral referendum on the other hand is a yes-or-no choice, to make a one-way trip that will alter the fundamental structure of our political makeup forever; in a way, which all electoral experts during the year-long, Liberal cross-country panel warned will confuse voters and that confusion would likely weaken Canada’s political dynamic, before it would strengthen it.
So knowing this will fundamentally change us, it is critical for electoral reform legitimacy that the threshold be higher. Voters in B.C. are not blind to the obvious self-interest of the Greens and NDP parties in ramming this referendum through and this is why, at the very least, a 50 per cent turnout is the bare minimum for acceptable legitimacy.
Jon Peter Christoff West Kelowna