B.C. begins to set rules for electoral reform referendum
VICTORIA — A promised referendum on changing B.C.’s electoral system will be conducted by mailin ballot next fall rather than being linked to the 2018 municipal elections.
Attorney General David Eby introduced legislation Wednesday to authorize the vote, to be held “before the end of November 2018.”
The bill allows for more than one question. If multiple types of electoral systems are proposed, voters could rank their choices in a preferential ballot instead of selecting just one option. The voting system that receives more than 50 per cent plus one of the votes cast would be introduced for the 2021 provincial election, the government said.
The NDP had promised the referendum on electoral reform during the election and it was also in the power-sharing deal with the B.C. Greens.
Eby said the government hoped at first to save money by holding the referendum with the Oct. 20, 2018 municipal election, but it soon became clear that would cost more than a mail-in ballot.
“The challenge we ran into is there’s different voters’ list for municipal elections than the referendum,” he said.
Eby said Wednesday the government will hold public consultations to develop the questions for the ballot and to decide whether there should be public funding to the parties arguing for or against a proposed system on the ballot.
As attorney general, he would remain neutral. “My ministry will be providing factual info to British Columbians and the entire process will be overseen by Elections B.C.,” said Eby.
B.C. provincial elections use a first-past-the-post system, in which voters vote for one candidate in their riding. The candidate with the most votes, not necessarily a majority, is elected.
B.C. voters twice rejected changing this system, in provincewide votes in 2005 and 2009. Keeping that system would also be an option in the 2018 referendum.
During the election, Premier John Horgan told the editorial board of The Vancouver Sun and Province newspapers that he favoured a simple yes or no question on a single alternative voting system, to try to get it passed with a simple majority vote of 50 per cent plus one.
“A consensus on yes or no is pretty easy,” Horgan said in the May 1 editorial board. “You are going to have 50 per cent say yes or no.”
On Wednesday, Horgan said now that his party is in government it has received advice from government experts on how to proceed.
Eby said he moved off a yes or no question because he wanted meaningful public consultation.
“The concern that I had in working with staff in preparing this was limiting options out of the gate before the engagement process would send a message to British Columbians that decisions had already been made, that government was in some way attempting to direct this to receive a certain outcome,” Eby said.