One of the more interesting PR ideas I have heard is that of the
weighted vote in the legislature.
It is easily done because it does not demand large changes from our
current way of electing members to the house.
What happens, in essence, is that each party will be given a voting
strength equivalent to its results on election day. When
legislation is being passed through the house, the votes counted
from each member will depend on the percentage of votes gained in
the previous election.
Thus, in the current house, the two New Democrats elected would be
entitled to a voting strength of approximately twenty per cent
[estimate of percentage received in the last election] of the votes
being taken on any particular bill being passed through the house.
Their individual voting strength would express the popularity of
the party at the previous election.
For Liberals, each member would have a voting strength of somewhat
less than one vote because Liberals are overrepresented in the
house at the moment.
As the Greens do not have any members elected, they would be
entitled to have a party member seated in the house to represent
their twelve per cent of the vote received in the previous
election. This member would be chosen by finding the Green Party
member who had achieved the highest percentage of the vote in the
last election. This one person would control twelve percent of the
voting strength on any bill that is being passed through the house.
She would be representing Greens from throughout the province.
The last election was pretty atypical and a more usual result would
produce a House that truly represented all of the citizens of
British Columbia and not just those who were first past the post.
But even given the skewed results of the last election, it would be
possible to ensure the voice of the rest of the electorate would be
heard through the relative strength of the parties in the house.
I think one could modify the concept to ensure that at least five
members or so would sit for each party in addition to the
constituency-elected representatives. These people would be chosen
from the most successful of the second choice results in elections
throughout the province. I wouldn't want to see party lists used to
produce members.
I believe that such a system could be put in place easily, without
a lot of expense, and could be implemented before the next
election.
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