Contact UsSearch
Click for Search Instructions
Home > Get Involved

Submission BEECH-0386 (Online)

Submission By Robert Beech
AddressBurnaby, BC,
Organization
Date20040513
CategoryElectoral system no change
Abstract
The Assembly's efforts should be directed towards pressuring the existing parties to change their non-democratic methods of selecting candidates, and suggesting a "free votes" to  force MLAs to vote the wishes of their constituents. [2 pages]

Submission Content
With respect, I must point out some of the challenges and pitfalls to your efforts, which are indeed perhaps oversimplified by the label "Proportional vote".
 
To begin, as a public sector worker placed sufficiently high in the food chain to hear the sotto voce murmurs from the Executive Suite, I am disgusted with both of our major two political parties' tinkerings with the public sector as a whole.  In fairness, had the NDP governed pragmatically and with common sense, as opposed to ideologically with one eye always out for the photo op, we would not be in the position of having to bend over while Mr. Campbell vents his spleen on all those people who made him suffer in school -- the smart people.
 
But I must point out that historically in BC, we have been shafted by the proportional vote.  In 1953, British Columbia had the "Transitional Vote" [AV], a form of PR.  In that election, the CCF beat WAC Bennett's Socreds 21 seats to 14.  But thanks to the Transitional Vote and the fact the Lt. Governor was one of WAC Bennett's buddies, the Socreds were anointed by  the Lt. Gov. and became the government of BC for about 30 years.  First Past the Post would have given the CCF the victory.
 
As an aside, if the Lt. Governor has the authority to appoint Governments for real, as in 1953, and theoretically dissolves them before the Writ is dropped, then could a non-confidence motion/petition signed by a million British Columbians and delivered to Ms. Campagnolo's front door force her to dissolve this current pack of sociopaths?  It would certainly draw lots of media attention as U Hauls loaded with signed petitions dropped off box after box.  And certainly the people of British Columbia have been a very effective opposition until shafted by the BC Federation of Labour, for the second or third time in twenty-one years, depending on how you count betrayals.  There is a real need there to bypass the Fed and go directly to the rank and file.  Union leaders have ceased to be responsive to their members and that has led to the ascension of Jack Munro, Ken Georgetti, and lastly, (sigh) Jim Sinclair.  The Fed has forgotten that power comes from the shop floor.
 
However, to return to PR.
 
Assuming that a Proportional Vote was the appropriate way to go, there are several challenges to be faced.  First, before you can commence the task of creating electoral form, you must first become elected.  Currently, this means a First Past the Post Campaign.  Is there any political party in this Province with the political mojo to knock the Liberals off their perch?  I don't think so.
 
Carole James, the new leader of the NDP was another of the NDP Stepford MLAs during the Clark/Dosanjh (now a federal Liberal, you'll note.  So much for integrity and ideology within the NDP).  She has little to offer other than being politically correctly female.  As an example of how witless Carole is, the May 2 headline on the Provincial NDP website read , "Carole James Welcomes Resolution to Strike".  Which implied that she supported the iniquitous imposition of Bill 37 upon the HEU.  While Mr. Campbell has given away many seats through his own drunken stupidity, aided and abetted by sidekicks like Attorney General Geoff Plant, censured by the Law Society of BC (how bad do you have to be before even lawyers shun you?) and Solicitor General Rich Coleman, whose IQ is only slightly less than his belt size, and who nearly turned the tragedy in Penticton into a full scale disaster by scurrying out with a press conference exculpating himself before the bodies had stopped falling.
 
Should the NDP actually win the election on a FPTP basis, Proportional Vote will disappear faster than a six-pack at a biker rally.  They'll have the power and that will keep them reluctant to change the rules.
 
Are any of the other Parties who support Proportional capable of winning such an election?  I will avoid the obvious jokes and state that to be an effective legislator, one has to have some parliamentary experience.  Governing is more than simply setting policies and then saying, "Make it so".  I see no one in the Electoral Reform coalition capable of running the Province due to sheer lack of experience. 
 
In some cases, the coalition consists of Parties with only one issue.  You cannot govern a Province burdened by a multitude of issues when yours is to only to legalize marijuana, however worthy that goal may be.  It is ironic that the only political group in this Province that presents anything like a real platform is not a political party at all.  It is the "Prepare the General Strike Committee".
 
Another issue is that of democracy.  Assuming an effective process was in place, and the seats were awarded proportionally, how would the MLAs be chosen?  I have been a member of the NDP until recently, and a member of my union's executive counsel, and what I see every day is "Bloc Voting".  A few apparatchiks decide that so-and-so gets the job and the "election" is then rigged to create the desired outcome. Is that any more democratic than the system already in place?
 
As I see it, the main problem is the "whipped vote".  In short (and I'll avoid any reference to Kevin Kreuger's fondness for whips), despite an MLA's personal conscience, he or she must vote the Party line.  Therefore a simpler reform would be to abolish the Office of Party Whip, thus freeing every MLA to vote as he or she truly believes, as opposed to something dictated to them, no matter how personally distasteful.
 
There are two current Cabinet Ministers who must have found the homophobic dismissal of Ted Nebbeling, former Secretary of State for the 2010 Olympics, very upsetting.  But they stuck to the Party line anyway.  To object would have cost them their jobs as well.
 
In conclusion, efforts could perhaps be better directed towards pressuring the existing Parties to change their different, but equally non democratic methods of selecting candidates.  A "free vote" on every bill would force MLAs to vote the wishes of their constituents, rather than the power elite at the head of the Party.

© 2003 Citizens' Assembly on Electoral ReformSite powered by levelCMSSite Map | Privacy Policy