I wish to make a submission in favour of some form of mixed
proportional representation [MMP] in future BC elections. This
system is widely used around the world because it preserves local
representation while ensuring that elected seats more accurately
reflect the popular vote. The proposal for a mixed single
transferable vote (STV) in the urban parts of the province and keep
the current for the rural is so blatantly political it should be
cast aside without further serious discussion.
The STV is not very popular anywhere in the world (I think Malta
uses it) and we used to have a form of it here and it too provided
wild political swings in BC.
I am also kind of worried about the panel of presenters who will
communicate with the province about the options. Something like 75
- 80% of the public presentations favoured some kind of
proportional representation, yet a majority of the 9 presenters
don't favour that system. So, I have some questions:
-
How were these people chosen?
-
Who chose them? Who chose the choosers?
-
Why does their selection not more accurately reflect public
input? Why was considered public input so disregarded?
-
Is there another agenda at work here?
I would really appreciate some timely answers to these very
serious questions.
Using proportional representation will provide governments that
more accurately reflect the voters wishes, and will provide more
balanced government than BC has seen in the last 30 years. There
should be a reasonable threshold of popular vote to get
representation. 5% seems adequate to me.
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