Horgan, Wilkinson set for electoral debate

The leaders of British Columbia’s two main parties will square off tonight in a debate on electoral reform.

Voters need to mail in their ballots by the Nov. 30 deadline to either support moving to a form of proportional representation for the next election or to keep the current first-past-the-post system. A majority of 50 per cent plus one is needed to change the system.

Premier John Horgan will debate in favour of reform, while Opposition Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson will make the case for keeping the current system.

Green Leader Andrew Weaver, who supports proportional representation, is not participating in the debate.

Prof. Richard Johnston, an electoral system expert at the University of B.C., said in order to understand electoral reform in the province, it’s best to look back decades at baffling election results, political characters and shifting allegiances to the idea of changing the system.

The referendum is B.C.’s third such question on electoral reform, with previous votes in 2005 and 2009. Both ended in defeat. Horgan said last December in a year-end interview that he believed the third vote would be the province’s last.

Johnston said current voter reform history dates to B.C.’s 1991 election, where Mike Harcourt’s New Democrats won a majority that spelled the end of Social Credit rule. But more surprising was the rise of the Liberals under then-leader Gordon Wilson, who shot from no seats to Official Opposition status, signalling a political shift to the centre from the traditional right-left parties.

“That surge to the Liberals was as clear a centrist signal as you could ever imagine an electorate sending,” Johnston said.

Then came the 1996 election, where then-Liberal-leader Gordon Campbell received more votes but lost to the NDP’s Glen Clark. Campbell promised to pursue electoral reform after his defeat, Johnston said.

But in the subsequent 2001 election, Campbell’s Liberals decimated Ujjal Dosanjh’s NDP, winning 77 of 79 seats and capturing almost 58 per cent of the popular vote. Campbell, “much to his credit,” went ahead with the 2005 reform referendum, which was tied to the provincial election campaign, Johnston said.

The turmoil of those years provides the backdrop for the current vote, he said.

“There we were from 1991 to 2005, one of the most dysfunctional electoral operations in the world,” Johnston said. “Everything that could go wrong under first-past-the-post kind of did.”

The 30-minute debate is at 7 p.m. on CBC Television, CBC Radio One, Global B.C. and CKNW Radio. CBC Vancouver’s Stephen Quinn and Global’s Lynda Steele are to serve as moderators.