[This submission was amended on 17 June 2004 by adding
a linked document recommending the institution of a
Senate for British Columbia. To view the linked
document, see below]
Recommendation that a Proportional Vote Allotment [PVA] of seats
be added to the British Columbia Legislature in addition to the
‘first-past-the-post’ seats that are now
part of the Provincial electoral system.
In that regard I respectfully submit the following outline as a
modification of the present first-past-the-post system in our
Provincial process and one which also would ensure that party
members and true political choices would not turn out to be simply
tools for a party list taking percentages of the provincial
election results from the top.
Likewise in preferential voting which ensures party machinery
control and also involves the undemocratic and absurd thought of
each voter having to actually vote for all parties and individuals
on the ballot (by a so-called preference in rating). In
such a scenario true political choices based on integrity and
conviction would be lost.
The aim of the voting system hereby being written would be to
reflect both the simple majority of each riding and also reflect
the true representation of the political parties in the
Province on a percentage basis of total ballots
cast.
In order to obtain seats in the Proportional Vote Allotment it
would be necessary for political parties to obtain 5% of the
Provincial Votes cast. The percentage basis in many
jurisdictions is awarded from a party list starting at the top
which only represents the party hacks. A true list must
be arrived at by awarding the party seats to those candidates who
have received the highest votes compared to other unsuccessful
candidates of the party in question in the particular
election..
An example to take would be say the Surrey-White Rock Riding in
a Provincial election. Say the Liberal candidate gets the most
votes in the riding, then he or she would get the majority vote and
so automatically receives a seat. In this election the
Reform Party candidate say gets the third highest vote in the
Riding but at the same time received the highest vote of any
unsuccessful Reform Party candidate. He or she would
then fill a Proportional Allotment seat in the Legislature for the
Reform Party. In this way all members sitting in the
Legislature who represent Proportional Vote Allotment seats would
truly represent the voters preference for a party and would not
simply be fronts for a political party.
The PVA allotment in the Legislator must reflect the actual
political will of the people. First-past-the-post
candidates might not even represent half the voters in a
riding. Consequently although the governing party
garnered the most of provincial seats it could not claim any PVA
seats as it would already be represented by 45% of the voters
choice in the form of its first-past-the-post
candidates. All opposition parties would be governed by
the same principle; the PVA allotment would include
their first-past-the-post successful candidates.
In all this parachute candidates and swollen candidate meetings
negate any form of representation. Political parties
and the legislature must take pains to ensure that there are
guidelines to ensure that true representation is obtained in a
democratic fashion for all party members of each party when the
election is called as well.
For your consideration.
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