Submission HARTWIG-0621 (Online)

MMP could lead to splitting and fractioning of political parties as they try to appeal to sectional or religious or regional cleavages which might increase rather than decrease the unchecked influence of the premier's department. [3 pages]

I wish to register my opinions and concerns about the electoral system in British Columbia and I am very pleased that our government has seen fit to organize this Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform. I am a registered professional biologist in BC and I reside in Duncan where I have a consulting firm, Ecodomain Consulting.

I am interested that the focus of electoral reform for many people is proportional representation as a panacea for what ails us politically in the province. I believe the basic principles underlying proportional representation are reasonable: first, that all voters deserve representation and second, that all political groups in society deserve to be represented in our legislatures in proportion to their strength in the electorate. Equally of importance, however, is:

I am here to take the role of a Cassandra, not that I can see the future, but that I have concerns that proportional representation could exacerbate the divisiveness and wide swings, and legislative experiments that we experience in this province. I am particularly concerned about the recommendation from the independent legal commission to the House of Commons that Canada move to a mixed form of proportional representation [MMP].

I will not bother to give details on the advantages of PR, others will rush to do that, particularly smaller political groups and single-interest groups. As far as boosting numbers, PR according to the literature that I have read, can only hope to raise voter turnout by 10-12%, an improvement, but certainly not the amount that some would hope. Increasing the numbers of women and minorities and the representation of smaller political parties and interest groups sound very appealing to some and there could be some advantages with this. However, what would we be trading?

Indeed, what worries me the most, is that proportional representation could lead to splitting and fractioning of political parties as they try to appeal to sectional or religious or regional cleavages. This is the concern that the political scientist at the University of Saskatchewan, John Courtney has expressed. I am convinced that mixed proportional representation could lead to a fractured, fighting and deadlocked legislative assembly that may lead to further concentration of power within a beleaguered Premier's office and possibly the type of mayhem of an Italian or Isreali parliament or perhaps just a lack of direction and a government that cannot govern much less move forward as rapidly as our current societies, economies and environmental issues demand.

Small parties and single-interest groups do not easily compromise on their issues because they are not given a mandate by their constituency to make deals. While many of us abhor deal-making, I suggest that the public has become rather too jaded about politicians and we ignore the need for democratic institutions to make sound compromises, to govern and to make the tough choices based on mixes of social, economic and environmental issues. Today we have these same interest groups, these same small political groups and interests, but today these groups work out some of their interests and issues within political parties. Without an incentive to work together before an election, these small interest groups might attempt to work out their differences in the legislature. Without the incentive of forming government, however, many small groups would be there simply to grandstand or champion their own narrow issue. This may be true even if minimum 5% limit is placed on the parties and in fact, I think the limit would have to be closer to 20% to be meaningful. Currently in BC, political parties, those large enough to gain a majority, form party platforms and develop comprehensive approaches to governing. The advantage to this situation is that the people in a political party understand that they are there to form a government, to comprehensively run all the functions not just to represent one group or one issue.

I think it is very important to define carefully what our electoral problems are and then see if we can match the solutions with the problems. So what are our electoral problems?

I do not believe that changing our electoral system will do much to avoid these wide swings in political positions in this province as I believe that it is part of the make-up of this province and of the country that we have some broad divides between some sectors in our society, particularly labour and business. This may not change even under different electoral systems. I do believe, however, that there are some problems with the excessive power in the hands of one party and particularly in the hands of a few people in an administration.

There are some ways to address this problem. These include:

Please note that I have strayed from electoral reform but I truly believe that our problems are not on the election side but are in the governing system. I am not convinced that proportional representation will assist in solving the problems, in other words, the solution of electoral reform does not fit the problems. I would hope that the Citizens' Assembly would consider recommending to government that the solutions should fit the problems identified.