SUBMISSION
Propositions for consideration.
(a) The number of seats held by a party must reflect, to
some degree, the percentage of votes that the parties receive
across the province.
Would you consider a process in which there are; e.g. 80 seats.
This is about like B.C.
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There are 40 electoral ridings
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Regular elections determine the allocation of seats in those
ridings as is done now
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40 other seats are filled according to the percentage of popular
vote
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Therefore, if a party won 25 seats in the regular riding
process, but got 50% of the popular vote, it would be given 20 of
the other 40 seats
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This would require some system of party vote to establish a
priority list from which these first 20 members would be
established
I am not sure if all of this would be workable. However, I
believe that the difficulty of establishing such a
system is offset, easily, by the justice of some system
different from the one in existence in B.C. where we
have about 77 out of 79 seats with one party held on the basis
about 58% of the popular vote.
(b) Elections every four
years This is in place in B.C. as I
understand. Good
(c) Total of two terms only for any
member
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This would involve the cost of funding a good safety net for
ever member after 8 years
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With this arrangement, politicians would be more inclined to say
and do things for the public good rather than simply trying to beat
out another candidate.
The Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform has a huge and
complex task. I began to realize how difficult the job may be as I
have struggled with my suggestions over the last few
weeks.
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