As a former citizen of Australia I have personally experienced
the effectiveness of that country's federal system of preferential
voting [the alternative vote] and would recommend it for
British Columbia. In my experience the Australian system does not
result in weak minority governments, but rather in well-balanced
representation of parties with an opportunity for smaller parties
to have some effect on the outcome of elections. For BC it has the
advantage of not being an extreme change from the present system,
and might moderate the wild swings in representation and unbalanced
numbers that have caused us so much ideologically-inspired grief
over the past decade.
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