Much has been said in many of the submissions that changes in
how government works is the need and that electoral reform isn't
really the issue. I believe the point being missed in those
submissions is that by changing the makeup of the legistature and
how the candidates present themselves in order to get elected is
just a first step. The discussion of how to get work done can be
opened up with input from representitives of particular points of
view which are subsumed in the current system.
Electoral reform which includes a fair amount of proportionality
will bring representation of more points of view to the
legislature. While MMP is not my personal preference
(see my previous submission
Reston
0749) I have an idea of how I would see it done.
1. Single Member Ridings
60-60% of the seats to be elected in single member ridings by some
form of preferential ballot system.
No form of FPTP should be retained -- no seat should be awarded
with less than a majority. Even though the total number of seats in
the legislsture is balanced by PR it doesn't negate the fact that
the riding MLA was chosen by less than half of the constituents.
Erring on the idea that this portion of the vote should be left
unchanged because it is "simple" gives no credit to the people of
BC. There are preferential style ballot systems that can be used
that are not much more complicated than FPTP. The voter may not
need to rank more than one candidate if they are willing to accept
the fact that other voters will accept a chance to support a second
choise.
2. Proportional Seats
35-40% of the seats to be elected from open party lists with the
candidates standing for both a riding and list or just list
according to the candidate's will or ability.
Open list seats would mean that all candidates must campaign in
some way to influence people to give them votes. A threshold of 4%
of votes for a first seat would seem reasonable.
It might be a good idea to create 4-5 reagions for the PR seats
so the list candidates are associated with those regions and the
constituents in those areas. Though to make a regionalized system
work well an increase in total seats to about 100 would be
needed.
ADDITIONAL SUGGESTIONS
1. Changes to suggested reform
If the Assembly recommends a new electoral system I think the
proposal should include mechanisms of how changes would be made to
the system. By this I mean that if the recommended system is
sucessful in the referendum the succeding government elected in the
provincial vote next May cannot unilaterally make alterations
before implementing it nor subsequent governments after the new
system is in place. While I realize that alterations may be desired
or even necessary changes must not be made without going back to
the voters who agreed to the original format.
2.Defining Roles
In order to avoid some of the problems following reform as
experienced in New Zealand and Scotland I suggest the Assembly
recommend a committee of political parties and citizens be formed
in the year before the first election to define how the work of the
legislature and constituency serviceing is to be devided between
the riding and list MLAs, in effect, job discriptions. Several
months before the election with the new format an education process
for the potential candidates for the seats and the general
population of the province on those decriptions and duties should
be started. This should deal with unspoken assumptions of all sides
which lead to dissatisfaction and stress. If everyone has some
basic idea of what to expect of the new relationships levels of
dissatisfaction should be kept to a resonable minimum. It might not
take 15 years to know if the change is working.
3. Voter turnout
The recent federal election was a good illustration of the
lack of interest of a large proportion of the population in getting
out to vote. While a new electoral system might cause a few more
people to come to the polls I don't think it would be all that
significant. People have gotten out of the habit of voting. We
don't even talk about it much among ourselves. As much as I would
like people to vote as a personal decision I have come to the
conclusion that voting should be made manditory with a fine for
noncompliance.
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