Contributions to referendum highlight partisan nature of fight
Cash donations to electoral-reform campaigns mirror NDP-Liberal divide
Monetary contributions to the Yes and No campaigns in B.C.’s electoral-reform referendum break along traditional lines of support for the NDP and B.C. Liberals, according to an analysis by Postmedia.
The finding underscores the partisan nature of the campaign to sway voters, which is unfortunate because a deeper debate would be helpful, say political scientists.
“Very early on, this became a partisan, party-based referendum, which is why you see contributors lining up the way they are,” said political scientist David Moscrop, a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Ottawa’s department of communication.
“It didn’t have to be that way, but it did, and there’s no going back,” said Moscrop, who was recently a researcher at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby.
British Columbians being asked to vote on a change to proportional representation (PR) from the existing first-past-the-post system. They are also asked to rank three PR choices that use different methods to make the popular vote match the number of seats in the legislature.
Voters must have their mail-in ballot to Elections B.C. by Nov. 30.
Campaign contributions filed with Elections B.C. show the Yes side has collected $55,840 from 168 donations, an average of $332 per donation. The No side collected $94,500 from 97 donations, an average donation of $974.
Individual contributors are allowed to donate up to $1,200. Each side has also been given $500,000 by the B.C. government.
Contributors to the No side include property developers and owners, commercial realtors, lawyers and mining executives. Included are Ryan Beedie, president of the Beedie Group, a property developer and owner; Suki Sekhon, president of the CRS Group of Companies, a commercial real estate owner and developer; and Hassan Khosrowshahi, founder of Future Shop and chairman of Wesbild, a property developer.
These are the type of contributors who donated heavily to the B.C. Liberals in the past decade, according to an earlier analysis by Postmedia published in 2017.
Retired realtor Eric Charman said he donated money to the No campaign because he believes the existing system is solid and well-proven.
“Quite frankly, I am not interested in all sorts of minorities holding us up for ransom,” he said. “Also, when I vote, I want to know who the hell I am voting for.”
Under proportional representation, coalition governments are the norm. Under first-past-the post, most elections result in majority governments. That means the winning party can carry out its platform unimpeded.
Charman said he believes the main interest of the NDP and Greens in the referendum is to stay in power.
The minority-NDP government rules with the support of the Greens, the first time such a coalition-type government has been formed in B.C. since 1949.
Contributors to the Yes side include union members and officials, government workers and social and environmental advocates. Those are also the same types of donors who backed the NDP in the past decade.
Included are Terry Dance-Bennink, chair of Fair Vote Canada; Ian Boyko, a Unifor union communications official; and former COPE city councillor Ellen Woodsworth.
Adrienne Peacock, an artist and former Douglas College science instructor, said she donated to the Yes side because she is tired of political dictatorships that last four years.
“It doesn’t seem to matter who gets in. Once they are in for awhile, they forget who elected them,” said Peacock.
Boyko, who donated personally, said he believed that business has had their interests exaggerated under the first-past-the-post system.
University of B.C. political scientist Max Cameron said there is clearly a partisan story here — the NDP and Greens seeing advantage, the Liberals fearing a threat.
The partisan nature of the campaign is unfortunate because it means there is not a deeper debate about how the legislature works and what change would mean, said Cameron, director of UBC’s Centre for the Study of Democratic Institutions.
The campaign has also meant the public is not exposed to more-neutral information, said Cameron.