Submission CHILTON-0558 (Online)

A statement on behalf of the FreeYourVote Society of BC [2 pages]

I am the Chair of the FreeYourVote Society, a registered association under the Societies Act of British Columbia. This Society was formed specifically 'to educate the public about the need for, and to promote the adoption of, a more fair and equitable voting system in BC.' To this end, we represent supporters of and carry on the work of 'A Citizen's Initiative to Establish a Proportional Representation Electoral System in BC', which was proposed by Adriane Carr in the summer of 2002.

This Initiative, which had only 90 days to organize the collection of 210,000 signatures, or 10% of registered voters in every riding, may be the most extensive educational campaign on electoral reform in BC history. During the campaign's 90 days, 250,000 newsprint broadsheets were distributed, experts from New Zealand were consulted and brought to BC to speak, and meetings were held all over the province. This campaign was truly a people's movement and represented a peaceful mobilization against what was viewed as an unfair voting system - a system where, in the 2001 provincial election, 58% of votes cast could gain 97% of the seats in the legislature; a system where, in the 1996 provincial election, 39% of the votes could form a majority government. Many people of all political stripes were deeply disturbed by these outcomes and finally realized that our electoral system needed fundamental restructuring.

In order to collect signatures for the initiative, a designated canvasser had to sign up with Elections BC and personally present the petition to the public at large. There were 4000 people willing to become canvassers! After the designated 90 days, canvassers collected 98,000 signatures, less than the number needed, but considering the time constraints, a very significant number. And in order to fully realize the difficulty of this Initiative, consider that a registered voter can only sign a petition specifically designated for their riding. Thus when a canvasser collects signatures in Vancouver, they must have over a dozen different petition sheets and be certain that the correct sheet is being signed, otherwise the signature would be invalid. A truly daunting task.

We have been asked, was the Initiative a failure? Certainly it did not collect the necessary 210,000 signatures. But it did serve to educate British Columbians to the advantages of another electoral system, in this case mixed member proportional representation. It gave people knowledge and it gave people hope. It opened up the possibility that our democracy could be improved, that representation could be more proportional and that elections could be more fair. It advanced the concept that 'every vote could count'.

And now, during the last 6 months, the newly formed Citizens' Assembly has been addressing the issue of electoral reform. Those of us who participated in the Proportional Representation Initiative are grateful for your dedicated work. And we are also thankful that our work was not in vain. The new FreeYourVote Society continues to be supported by individual donations from involved citizens and most of this money has been spent to produce and publish 25,000 copies of our 'Hope for Democracy' newspaper. This was sent out to every one of the 4,000 Initiative Canvassers, to public libraries and to the media. Members of the Citizens Assembly would also have received a copy.

So I am advising you that British Columbia has 98,000 people who form the vanguard of this movement towards electoral reform. They prepared for you, and yearn for you to act judiciously and with the best interests of the people of this province in mind. And they have all, with their signature, and with varying degrees of sophistication, signed our petitions which advocated a system of mixed member proportional representation. Ninety eight thousand people!

And let me make one thing very clear. Our organization, the FreeYourVote Society, has encouraged those who participated in the Proportional Representation Initiative to get involved with the Citizens Assembly. We strongly believe in the Citizens' Assembly. We strongly support the Citizens' Assembly. And despite the feeling by many that it is a futile and doomed exercise, we contend that it is the most important new enterprise that our current government has undertaken. As such, it is our hope that many of the people who supported the Proportional Representation Initiative will have made written or oral submissions to you. And believe me, they are speaking to you from their hearts, from deeply held convictions and from years of experience and participation in our current voting system.

I ask you today to lend these people your ear. I ask you to consider these people's wishes with the respect they deserve. They, like yourselves, have chosen to get involved. They, like yourselves, have stepped forward. They, like yourselves, have chosen to work towards a more functional democracy, and to make our government better reflect the will of the people. Please listen to these people, because they are the voice of a new and energized democracy in British Columbia.

Thank you