I am writing to express my very strong desire to see British
Columbia (and Canada) adopt an electoral system of Mixed
Proportional Representation. I worked on Adriane Carr's
Initiative to Establish a Proportional Representation Electoral
System in BC in 2002.
I agree with the proposal by "Free Your Vote" for a New
Zealand-like MMP voting system in B.C.:
-
Keep 79 MLA seats in BC's legislature and change to a ratio of
2/3 constituency seats and 1/3 party list seats. This
would mean 53 constituency seats and 26 party list seats for all of
BC.
-
Require political parties to run candidates in at least 50% of
the constituency seats in order to qualify for list seats.
-
Require political parties by law to select list candidates in a
democratic way that grants every party member a say in the
selection process and require that they file with Elections BC a
detailed description of how their party's selection system
works.
-
Have flexible lists where a voter can choose either to accept
the list as ranked by the party or choose one candidate on a
party's list to be placed at the top of the list (as recommended
for Canada by the Law Commission of Canada). If a candidate exceeds
a threshold of 8% of the party's voters placing that person first,
the candidate moves to the top of the list.
I look forward to voting on this idea in the May 17, 2005
provincial election, and hope that a Mixed Proportional
Representation system will be in place by the following
election.
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