At the outset I would like to thank the Citizens' Assembly for
this opportunity, and for your time and efforts on behalf of this
valuable contribution to democracy.
I am in favour of a Mixed Member Proportional Representation
[MMP] electoral system in British Columbia. As a citizen
who has voted in many elections in this province, I despair for our
present electoral system which consistently leaves me and many
other voters highly dissatisfied with electoral results that do not
accurately reflect voting outcomes. There is no better example of a
horribly skewed electoral outcome than that which allowed for, and
created the present grossly unbalanced makeup of our provincial
legislature.
To my mind, our antiquated, first-past-the-post electoral system
not only leads to sham democracy that excludes legitimate
representation in government, it produces widespread voter apathy,
cynicism and rancor, something I consider deeply regrettable.
But the main point I wish to emphasize to you today is that I
feel strongly that our present electoral system undermines the
‘resilience’ of governments and the
citizens of our communities, cities and regions to respond
adequately to the challenges and issues arising in our
increasingly-complex society. Recently, I read an important book
that helped to illustrate this, written by U of T professor and
researcher Thomas Homer-Dixon. Entitled “The Technology
Gap”, the book posited and demonstrated that the
ability of our society to meet challenges is increasingly imperiled
by an ever-expanding matrix of risk factors, most of which can be
traced to human foible.
The kind of examples that illustrate this are quite simply the
most poignant problems facing us, including but not limited to: How
to ensure safety of our food supply, how to safeguard the
environment and our precious resources, how to provide adequate
health care, how to reduce militarism and terrorism and poverty,
how to address issues arising in an increasingly wired world, or
how to adjust to a world in which the supplies of petroleum are
known to be in decline at the same time demand is rising.
I’m sure you agree that meeting these, among other
challenges requires the best of human ingenuity that we
– including our governments - can muster.
Unfortunately, our ability to accomplish this greatly is impeded by
our present electoral system which works against this process
through each electoral cycle from voting night until the next
election by creating an outcome of pseudo
“winners” who characteristically perform
their governmental duties based on partisanship.
Partisanship, in turn, stifles democracy and reduces the
availability of political options required for addressing complex
challenges.
In the best examples of modern problem-solving, complex
challenges are faced and resolved by governments not through
narrow, partisan ideology or edict but when differing perspectives
are valued and taken into consideration. Such differing
perspectives nurture processes that encourage
‘beyond-the-box’ thinking, collaboration
and occasional compromise which work, in turn, to expand
government’s problem-solving potentiality.
My fellow citizens, it has been long-recognized in the field of
cybernetics that the person or system with the most choices or
options has the greatest chance of succeeding or reaching a stated
goal. From the field of ecology, as well, we now know
that ecological resilience – that is, the ability for
ecosystems to meet challenges and retain stability in the face of
unexpected events - depends upon the complex interaction between
biogeoclimatic systems and a range of flora and fauna broad enough
– or biodiverse enough - so that species commonly
interact and overlap in the unstated service of maintaining
ecosystem balance and resilience.
I think these examples drawn from cybernetics and biodiversity
are inspiring, valuable models that tell us that in the forest and
the swamp, and wherever human systems have evolved, the system with
the most options has the greatest chance of resolving or surviving
challenges.
To sum, I want my governments to gain such advantages, and I
believe that in order to acquire this ability, and improve
government resiliency, we must modify our electoral system and
expand the political options available in
government.
To best accomplish this, I am in favour of adopting a Mixed
Member Proportion, or MMP, electoral system, and I urge the
Assembly to put this option to the BC electorate through a
referendum question to be posed at the time of next
spring’s provincial election.