Referendum vote threshold changed

When Islanders vote in the electoral reform referendum, it won’t be as simple as needing more than half the votes to bring about change. On Wednesday, the majority of MLAs in the legislature voted in favour of an amendment to the Electoral System Referendum Act that deals with the threshold needed for P.E.I. to change the way it elects governments. Green Leader Peter Bevan-Baker said the amendment was a vast improvement over what he saw as one of the major problems with the bill as it was first drafted. “I’m glad that government recognized that flaw,” he said. The change to the bill, which is still on the floor for debate, means more than 50 per cent of people who vote in the referendum must choose mixed member proportional. At least 60 per cent of the electoral districts must also have more than 50 per cent of voters choose change. Prior to the amendment, the legislation set the threshold for change at more than 50 per cent of voters in the general election choosing mixed member proportional on the referendum ballot. Bevan-Baker said he has a problem with wording of the amendment that refers to the referendum being binding. He says one government can’t make the outcome of a referendum binding on another. Environment Minister Richard Brown proposed the amendment and said if MLAs voted for that section of the bill they were committing to the outcome of the referendum. He said he was going to go a step further and sign a contract that would commit him to vote in favour of the outcome of the referendum if he is elected. “Each and every member that’s going to be voting on it today, I believe, is telling the people of Prince Edward Island today that they are committed to voting for the results that come in on the election and in this,” he said. Bevan-Baker said not all of the MLAs in the house are re-offering and others may not win their seats in the next election. “We cannot imagine what the makeup of this legislature will be after the next election so that’s essentially meaningless,” he said.