Looking for a better system

By Dan Hilborn
Published May 8, 2004


Are British Columbians in the mood to change the way they elect their provincial government? That was the impression given at a public forum with the Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform held in Burnaby on Wednesday night.

Almost 100 people were on hand at the Holiday Inn to listen to recommendations on changing the way we elect government, and four of the seven speakers who went to the podium called for some form of proportional representation - a system of voting that comes in many varieties and is used in most European countries.

All of the speakers opposed the existing 'first past the post' system which offers victory to the one candidate with the most votes, even if they have less than 50 per cent of the total votes cast in the riding.

Andrea Wiebe, of the B.C. Nurses' Union, asked the assembly to ensure there is better representation of both women and minority groups in the legislature, to better reflect the makeup of the B.C. population.

"For democracy to flourish, people must feel they are fairly represented," Wiebe said, citing statistics that indicate support for proportional representation in B.C. has leaped from just 50 per cent in 1996 to more than 70 per cent today.

She believes political parties should have seats in the legislature if they achieve a "reasonable threshold" of at least four or five per cent of the total popular vote. And she'd like those seats filled by some kind of 'mixed member' system.

Leslie Brown also spoke against the current system of voting, and said its problems can be seen in the results of the past two provincial elections. He noted the NDP won the 1996 election with fewer votes than the Liberals, and then the Liberals won 97 per cent of the seats in the 2001 election with only 58 per cent of the vote.

"In my opinion, both the 1996 and 2001 election results were unacceptable," said Brown, who urged the assembly to propose some form of election with "broadly proportional results" as recommended by the Law Commission of Canada.

Greg Dickey also spoke in favour of proportional representation, and said the existing system actually discourages people from voting if they believe their favoured candidate has no possibility of winning.

"The more insidious effect of first past the post is that it not only disenfranchises people after they've cast their vote, it actually discourages those votes in the first place," he said. "I don't believe that proportional representation is the be-all, end- all, but I believe it is better than the current first past the post system."

Dickey was also critical of the way the media covers elections, and said the release of public opinion polls during a campaign can often be a negative influence on voters.

The most ambitious proposal for change came from New York City resident Sol Erdman, who promoted a complicated system of double voting that he called 'interactive representation.'

Under Erdman's plan, after the election is held, voters would be given a second opportunity to choose a personal representative from among all the winning candidates, thereby ensuring that they are represented by a candidate who reflects their own political leanings.

Ian Macanulty spoke in favour of the single transferable ballot, similar to the voting system used in Ireland and the system used in British Columbia during the early 1950s.

"My main point is that the (political) parties are too powerful, and anything we can do to reduce the parties' power is a good thing," Macanulty said. "Voters should be on top, making as much of the decision as possible."

Patrick McMullen suggested that B.C. redraw its electoral map along geographic lines, giving voters in any particular riding closer ties and affinity with each other.

McMullen also suggested that run-off elections be held whenever a riding fails to give a single candidate more than 50 per cent of the vote on the first ballot, and called for all election funding to come from the public purse, minus an "affordable but significant fee" for the candidates.

"We need to repair the creaking structure of our democratic institutions, which have experienced hundreds of years of benign neglect," McMullen said.

And Monique McDonald of the B.C. Association of the Deaf-Blind called on the assembly to ensure that whatever electoral system is chosen, that it be made accessible to people with all sorts of physical challenges.

McDonald said the assembly should ensure that all voting information is made available in braille, large print and audio cassette formats, and that polling stations have enough lighting so that visually impaired voters can cast their own ballots.

"We believe everyone has the right to vote independently and privately," she said. "Often, deaf-blind people have to have someone else cast a vote on their behalf, and a lot of people are uncomfortable with that system."

McDonald also said that the 'template' currently used in British Columbia to help blind voters cast their ballots is poorly made and can result in either a vote for the wrong candidate or an inadvertently spoiled ballot.

Several members of the audience also offered their suggestions to the assembly.

William Lim of Vancouver said the assembly should be looking at amending the entire system of government, and not just the way we run elections.

"The weakness of our electoral system is more than the election of members. It's in the function of the legislature itself., and party control, party discipline and lack of accountability," Lim said. "Even with proportional representation, how do we eliminate the inequity of parachute candidates?"

North Burnaby resident Jim Ervin also complained that the scope of the assembly was too narrow. "Why is any aspect of political reform beyond this assembly?" he asked. "No matter what system you choose, aren't you overlooking the large number of people who feel no candidate is worthy of their vote?"

And one unnamed man with a long beard and flowing hair rose several times during the meeting to promote his idea of allowing 'none of the above' to be an option on the ballot.

Burquitlam MLA Harry Bloy attended the early portion of the meeting and thanked the members of the assembly for their work, while Burnaby-Edmonds MLA Patty Sahota arrived later and stayed until the end of the three-hour without announcing her presence.