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Submission HIGGS-0737 (Online)

Submission ByMr Greg Higgs
AddressBella Coola, BC, Canada
Organization
Date20040623
CategoryElectoral system change
Abstract
I support MMP but am not convinced that an arbitrary minimum of 5% voter cut-off is necessary; there is automatically a threshold based on the number of seats in the Legislature, i.e. 1 of 79 seats is approximately 1.3% of the seats. [2 pages]

Submission Content
Times change. Democracy needs to change and evolve with the times. Within the scope of this mandate (to examining how votes should be translated into seats for the Legislative Assembly), the only fair way I can see is through proportional representation. If x% of the population of this province support a particular partisan platform, why should not their voices be heard, and thus represented by x% of the MLAs?

PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION

On the topic of proportional representation, I have lived in Germany and have first-hand experience with such a system that appears to work quite well.

For BC, I strongly hold the position that we should follow the example of New Zealand, the world's most recent example of a country/region which switched to MMP.

I am not so convinced that an arbitrary minimum of 5% voter cut-off is necessary, however (as is adopted by New Zealand), as there is automatically a threshold based on the number of seats in the Legislature (i.e. 1 of 79 seats is approximately 1.3% of the seats, which means that a minimum of about 0.7% of the vote is required, with rounding taken into consideration).

To get beyond partisan politics, it may be useful to augment this with continued form of constituency system, which I have noticed has already been proposed by many contributors to this Assembly (e.g. a 2/3-1/3 dual-vote system). I think this compromise would be quite acceptable.

Finally, I would like to ad that I am not afraid of any problems that would result from a MMP system that will almost eliminate majority governments. Majority government are often the very source of the problem: when a party has complete control, when a sizable portion or even the majority of the province haven't given them the mandate. With MMP, more opposing voices in the Leg. will ensure that the leading party/parties heed their promises.

LONG-RUN

In the long run, we need much more than just MMP. We need more citizens involvement then just marking a name on a ballot once in a while. One of the most important additional advances would be a form direct democracy (e.g. as practiced in Switzerland), which is very realistic these days with the availability of the internet in even the most remote regions of BC, enabling the public to easily participate in on-line referendums and other participatory decision-making processes.

Voter apathy is high. Reducing wasted votes through MMP will help solve this, but it is not enough: we need to enforce accountability of politicians. We also need to commit to a real effort to engage and empower the youth - the future of the province, the country, and the world.

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