Submission to the Citizens’ Assembly to
change our voting system
For the last several years I have felt disenfranchised by our
voting system in BC.
We do not have a democratic representation in our province any
longer! When the votes of 48% of the population do not count and
nearly every second citizen in this province is not represented in
the provincial government legislature, not even through an
opposition party, our voting system is abysmally wrong.
In a “First past the post “ system there
is only one winner in each riding, the rest are losers. I would
like to see a win-win party system where many voices and opinions
are represented. That makes for good dialog and healthy
democracy.
We have only had a two party system in this province since I
have been able to vote, for more than 30 years. And most of the
times it has been extremely adversarial. Most of the time the
swings in party ideology are either far to the right or to the
left. This does not make for good policies in the long run. There
are no minority opinions voiced in the legislature.
A smaller party like the Green Party cannot gain any government
experience and can therefore not grow and become politically
competent and efficient.
Power is distorted and rests in the hands of politicians who are
only looking after a certain part of their constituents.
I would like my vote to count in each election, because I will
want to be represented in the legislature, even if it is as a
minority party or in opposition. Good government has to listen to
many different opinions and vet its decisions against other views
and then come to a consensus. This is not happening now.
Our system can also produce a false majority where a majority of
people voted for one party, but the seats went to another party who
then formed the government.
I would like to see a mixed member proportional
[MMP] system based on giving voters two votes, one for a
constituency representative and one for a party list. The party
vote list should be open and should determine who is to be elected
from provincial and territorial lists as drawn up before the
election. The list should be flexible where the voter can indicate
his or her preference for a candidate or endorse the party
list.
I would also like to see a minimum of 7% 0r 8% threshold of
votes for a party to get party status.
A reform of our voting system is especially necessary with so
many people not even wanting to vote because they feel their vote
does not count, or voting against a party or candidate instead of
for what they believe. I have several times voted
“strategically” when I would have liked to
have voted for a minority candidate, because I knew this candidate
did not have a chance to be part of the government or
opposition.
Let us try to design a voting system where every vote counts and
all people are represented.
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