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Submission HARLANDER-1494 (Online)

Submission By Helga Harlander
AddressFort St John, BC,
Organization
Date20040901
CategoryElectoral system change, Minority representation, Regional representation
Abstract
A system of proportional voting with 60 members chosen from party lists, 8 to represent regions, and 10 to represent minority and other interests. [2 pages]

Submission Content
After attending the recent hearing in Fort St. John I gave the topic some thought and am forwarding this brief submission.

I believe we do need to go to a type of proportional representation system in BC as well as on the federal level.

My vision of this system is that approximately 60 MLAs would be elected indirectly. By this I mean that the various provincial parties establish prioritized lists of candidates. I.e. should a party receive 50% of the vote province wide, the first 30 persons on the list would represent this party.

I would also be in favour of the concept that a party needs to achieve a minimum of 5 % of the popular vote in order to be represented in the legislature.

The remaining members of the legislature would be representatives of the regions and of minority and interest groups.

Eight geographic regions would each directly elect one MLA (I.e. Vancouver, Lower Mainland, Vancouver Island, Kooteneys, Okanagan, North-East, North-West, Cariboo) to represent the unique perspective of the respective regions.

The remainder of the seats (10) would be assigned to various minority and interest groups (i.e. First Nations, people with disabilities, visible minorities, agriculture etc.) The various groups would be responsible to democratically elect their representatives within established provincial organizations.

Thank you for taking the time to consider this proposal. I look forward to your final report and recommendations.

[Entered online from a scanned document]

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