The currently used single member plurality method of
transforming votes into seats is past its time. It was adequate for
a small, fairly homogeneous society but cannot reflect the
diversity of opinion, culture or needs in modern socity.
Before the middle of April my opinion was there should be
proportional representation:there should be more positions voiced
in the Legislature. I had only the vaguest idea of what PR was much
less the complexity of the number of ways there are to turn votes
in to seats. Since then I have spent many hours reading texts from
the reading list and submissions to the Assembly. I watched the
broadcasts of the Assembly winter sessions and attended the local
puplic meeting. It has been a most interesting process.
Over the last few months I have talked to my family and co-workers
about the Assembly and electoral reform. I was suprised and
disappointed when only one of the about twenty people has expressed
any interest in following up on the subject. I work in public
health care and most of my family are educators so
public/governmental policys are not armslength relationships. I
expected a higher level of interest. More than one person said that
once a government was elected they didn't feel the general
population had any real influence over decisions the government
went on to make. I think before the election next spring there will
have to be fairly massive education/publicity on any referendum.
My preference for a new electoral system would be the Single
Transferable Vote with districts of at least five seats. While it
might not be strictly proportional it has aspects I like.
Mr. Loenen (
Loenen
0035) outlines a version of STV where the northern portion of
the province retain single seat ridings with a majority
preferential ballot(AV)while the central and southern portion are
multi member STV ridings. He feels many constituents who already
say there are problems with MLAs servicing the widely spaced
populations in large area ridings would not vote for a system which
increases the riding size to whole north end of the province. It
would seem to me that my earlier point about being able to claim
the attention of more that one MLA as a constituent would be of
even greater advantage in such areas. What could be considered is
how several MLAs elected in a district form a natural block which
would better represent an issue specific to an area in the north
more effectively that a singleton who is the only representive of a
minor corner of the province.
The bottome line is that electoral change is necessary and that
change must include some fair amount of proportionality so that
more points of view are represented in the legislature, even if it
isn't my exact preference. Thank you all for taking on the task of
creating the referendum.