Citizen’s Assembly of BC Recommends New Electoral Process
Feb. 4th, 2005(better late than never)
The Citizen’s Assembly of BC, the body appointed to review election processes in BC, has recommended a new electoral process called BC-STV. The electoral changes as proposed by the Citizen’s Assembly will be put to referendum in the upcoming Provincial Elections, to be held on May 17th, 2005. The new process for electing members to the Legislative Assembly in B.C. intends to make the outcomes of an election more proportional to the will of the people, if adopted. Other benefits include shifting the political influence on politicians from the parties to the people of their local constituencies as well as giving the voter a greater choice of candidates.
The three values expressed to the Citizens’ Assembly by the people of BC during the fact finding mission were local representation, fairness of representation (or proportionality) and voter choice. After reviewing the different systems available the Citizen’s Assembly created a unique system to meet the specific needs expressed by the people of BC. That system is BC-STV, British Columbia’s unique single transferable vote electoral system.
Change in our electoral system has been on the minds of British Columbians for some time now. The last election is clearly indicative of a system that is not working.. The winning party in the 2001 election won 77 of the 79 seats in the Provincial Legislature (97%) while only receiving 57.62% of the popular vote. Less than a third of those elected in the 2001 election had the majority of support in their own riding.
Many in favor of “First Past the Post” system (plurality), which is currently used in B.C., claim that it creates a strong and decisive government. They assert that the BC-STV will make weak governments based on minority coalitions. While this is true in some Countries that use proportional representation it is not true in all cases. Germany has had only one single-party majority government since 1949. Many also believe that governments responsive to the needs of the people are less apt to make sweeping changing that can appear detrimental to the populace as demonstrated by the pendulum political environment currently in full swing in BC.
The Citizen’s Assembly who has recommended the electoral changes was an independent, non-partisan assembly of 160 randomly selected British Columbians. Their mandate was to review the current electoral system to see if changes would be preferable and if so what changes would be best given the needs expressed by the people of B.C.. For more information on the recommendations we encourage everyone to go to http://citizensassembly.bc.ca so that they can make an informed choice for all of B.C..
© 2005 Scott Etches
Feb. 4th, 2005(better late than never)
The Citizen’s Assembly of BC, the body appointed to review election processes in BC, has recommended a new electoral process called BC-STV. The electoral changes as proposed by the Citizen’s Assembly will be put to referendum in the upcoming Provincial Elections, to be held on May 17th, 2005. The new process for electing members to the Legislative Assembly in B.C. intends to make the outcomes of an election more proportional to the will of the people, if adopted. Other benefits include shifting the political influence on politicians from the parties to the people of their local constituencies as well as giving the voter a greater choice of candidates.
The three values expressed to the Citizens’ Assembly by the people of BC during the fact finding mission were local representation, fairness of representation (or proportionality) and voter choice. After reviewing the different systems available the Citizen’s Assembly created a unique system to meet the specific needs expressed by the people of BC. That system is BC-STV, British Columbia’s unique single transferable vote electoral system.
Change in our electoral system has been on the minds of British Columbians for some time now. The last election is clearly indicative of a system that is not working.. The winning party in the 2001 election won 77 of the 79 seats in the Provincial Legislature (97%) while only receiving 57.62% of the popular vote. Less than a third of those elected in the 2001 election had the majority of support in their own riding.
Many in favor of “First Past the Post” system (plurality), which is currently used in B.C., claim that it creates a strong and decisive government. They assert that the BC-STV will make weak governments based on minority coalitions. While this is true in some Countries that use proportional representation it is not true in all cases. Germany has had only one single-party majority government since 1949. Many also believe that governments responsive to the needs of the people are less apt to make sweeping changing that can appear detrimental to the populace as demonstrated by the pendulum political environment currently in full swing in BC.
The Citizen’s Assembly who has recommended the electoral changes was an independent, non-partisan assembly of 160 randomly selected British Columbians. Their mandate was to review the current electoral system to see if changes would be preferable and if so what changes would be best given the needs expressed by the people of B.C.. For more information on the recommendations we encourage everyone to go to http://citizensassembly.bc.ca so that they can make an informed choice for all of B.C..
© 2005 Scott Etches