May 14, 2002
Kamloops Daily News


The race is on.  Starting today, canvassers from the Pro
Rep committee in Kamloops have 90 days to come up with
signatures of  B.C. voters who will support electoral
reform.  They need 10 per cent of the voters on their
petition.

The Pro Rep committee doesn't want to throw out the old,
they want to add proportional representation. The new system
would be half proportional representation and half the
system we now use, called "first past the post."

Why fix something that isn't broken?  The advocates of
proportional representation think that our current system is
broken and needs repair.  It's not a radical idea. 
Thirty-two countries around the world use a form of
proportional representation, including Australia, New
Zealand, Japan, and Sweden.

The problem with the current system is that the winner takes
all, the losers' votes count for nothing.  In the last
election, the B.C. Liberals got 97 per cent of the seats in
the legislature with only 58 per cent of the popular vote. 
The remainder of the voters got two NDP seats.  They may not
have even voted NDP, but that's what they get.   

"The current system is a travesty of democracy," Denis
Walsh, spokesperson for the Kamloops Pro Rep committee told
me.  Walsh ran for the Green party in the last provincial
election.  But despite his affiliation,  he says that this
petition is something that all parties can support, even the
Liberals.

After all, the Liberals say they are in favour of electoral
reform.  One of the Liberal New Era promises is to "Appoint
a Citizens Assembly for Electoral Reform that will be
responsible for assessing all possible models for electing
MLAs including proportional representation, preferential
ballots and first past the post."

Proportional representation alone is not a solution. 
Countries that use only that system have difficulty forming
governments because too many parties are elected.  Notably,
Israel and Italy have pure proportional representation but
their governments are made up of splinter groups and don't
last.

First past the post systems have the advantage of clear
outcomes and stable governments.  They also produce a MLA
that represents voters in a riding, someone you can go to
for help (at least in theory) on local issues.

The Pro Rep committee proposes a combination of both.  One
half of the MLAs would be chosen by proportional
representation and one-half by the first past the post
system.  It's the kind of system used in Germany and New
Zealand, a kind of Goldilocks solution -- not too
proportional and not too rigid -- it's just right.

It would work this way.  The number of seats in the B.C.
legislature would be reduced from  79 to 68.  One half of
those MLAs would be chosen from existing ridings and another
34 would be chosen from party lists.  The party lists are
prepared in advance of the election by each party according
to who they think would represent a winning team.

Each voter gets two votes.  One vote for a local candidate
of their choice and one vote for the party of their choice. 
The party vote elects MLAs from the list in the order that
they appear and according to the popular vote. 

The nice thing about this system is that it allows for
creative voting because local and party votes need not
match.  For example, you might like Kevin Kruger as a local
representative but you also like the platform of the
Marijuana Party.

If this system was applied to the last election, there would
be 43 Liberals, 16 New Democrats, and 9 Green Party MLAs in
Victoria now.  The Liberals would still win, but there would
be an effective opposition.  The threshold to elect anyone
from the party list is 5 per cent of the vote.

Walsh plans to have official canvassers at each of his two
Moviemart stores and hopes that other places in Kamloops will
officially register so that voters can sign the petition. 
If you want to help out, phone 319 8418, or email
kamloopsprorep@hotmail.com

Proportional representation gives a chance for more voices
to be heard in government.  But it also increases the chances of
minority governments, which means that political parties
must be less adversarial.  That's something that we could
use in B.C. politics -- a little more light and little less
heat.

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