[To see the submission in its original format,
including endnotes, see the linked document below]
Electoral Reform – Why Should We
Change
Our present system divides the country into ridings. Voters
elect one rep per riding. The party with most winning reps forms
the government.
So what’s wrong with that?
In 2001, the Liberals obtained 98% of the seats in the
provincial legislature although they received only 58% of the
vote.
That’s not fair representation.
What about the rest of us—the other 42% of the
voters?
The NDP won 2 seats with their 22% of the vote.
The Green Party with 12% of the vote got 0 seats.
In 1996 the situation was even more unfair. The government was
formed by the NDP (39 seats) who received less votes (39%) than the
Liberals (33 seats and 42% of the vote).
Our present system works as follows. The electoral area is
divided into ridings, and voters of each riding make one choice
from the list of candidates on the ballot. The candidate with the
most votes wins the seat of the riding. Many voters do not choose
their favourite candidate, but vote for the candidate they think
stands a chance of beating the candidate they like least.
For example, in the last election I voted for the Green Party
candidate. Whenever I told someone whom I planned to vote for, he
or she would invariably respond “you’re
wasting your vote”. Because the Green Party would
probably not attract enough votes to win, my friends thought that I
should vote for the NDP. Otherwise the Liberals would win.
However I did not want the Liberals or the NDP to win. I wanted
the Green Party to win. So, along with 2008 others in my
constituency —11% of the constituency voters -- I voted
for the Green Party candidate.
I wonder how many other potential Green Party voters were
dissuaded from voting honestly.
“Good voting systems should elicit good candidates
and then reward honest voting. Voters should be motivated to vote
for their true favourites rather than feeling pressured by a bad
voting system into voting for the lesser of two
evils.”
Our present system favours the big entrenched parties who have
sophisticated campaigns and lots of money behind
them—parties who can buy a lot of advertising and whose
party names are bolstered by many years of political history. The
Liberals have been around a long time. Also the NDP. It is hard for
smaller parties and independents to get elected and one reason is
because people are afraid to vote honestly for fear of
“wasting their vote”.
Many people do not vote at all, especially young people, who
tend to be more idealistic than the rest of us. Rather than
“waste their vote”, many people simply say
“why bother”, and avoid the process
completely. “Voter turnout at traditional ballot box
elections is declining throughout North America. While this trend
is historic, a recent federal study suggests it may be at an all
time low. Turnout of voters who are registered at BC
provincial general elections has been consistent for the last two
elections, however the percentage of eligible voters on the voters
list continues to decline. At the 2001 general election, only
77.64% of eligible voters were registered. Turnout at that election
was 70.95% of registered voters, representing only 55.09% of
eligible British Columbians.”
Our present system turns elections into an ugly mud slinging
war. Note the proposed sample ads (not yet approved) from the
National Liberal Party campaign (“If Stephen Harper was
Prime Minister last year, Canadian troops would be in Iraq this
year.”).8 Our politicians do not work together to serve
the nation. They band together into large organized gangs to win,
and after winning preserve their power by attacking and suppressing
the ideas of their rivals. If results were more in line with
people’s honest choices, we would have more parties
represented in parliament. There would be more
“voices” in debates, more ideas to draw
from. Power would be shared, and politicians would cooperate more
with each other.
Electoral Reform—How to Change
I think if we had a fair voting system, more people would show
up to vote.
A new system should be simple enough for voters to learn and use
accurately.
A new system should be close enough to our present one that
people will accept it without fear or mistrust. Most Canadians are
not very radical and would balk at too big a change.
I advocate that we try Mixed Member Proportional Representation,
as advocated by Adriane Carr of the Green Party.
In a Mixed Member Proportional Representation system, voters
have 2 votes: one for their preferred candidate in their riding,
and one for their favourite party at large. The preferred candidate
votes are tabulated in the same way as our present system. The
candidate with the most votes in each riding is elected, just as
now. The second set of votes, for the favourite party at large, is
used to elect “at large” party members from
party lists. That is, the parties who win these “at
large” votes choose delegates from their own lists of
ready, willing and able candidates to serve in the
government.
In order to make the system workable, we would have to increase
the size of the ridings. Otherwise we would have twice as many
politicians in the Legislature.
For example, in BC we would change the 88 ridings into 44
ridings. 44 candidates would be elected, one for each riding. The
remaining 44 candidates would be chosen from the party lists,
according to the percentages of the total vote the party obtained
in the party ballot. If, for example, the Green Party obtained 12%
of the party ballot votes, they could choose 5 legislature
delegates from their party list (44 x 12%).
This system would let us choose the individual we want to
represent our area, and would also give us the opportunity to
choose the party platform that we want. So I could vote for the
Green Party, the party of my choice, and know that my vote would
help get a Green Party rep into Parliament. Even though in my
constituency, the Green Party rep might not get elected.
This system, Mixed Member Proportional Representation, is now
used in Germany and New Zealand.10
I recommend that we try it out here in BC. I want my vote to
count. I want other voters to be encouraged to vote honestly. I
want to have a fair government that truly represents the voters. I
think Mixed Member Proportional Representation will provide the
fairness and honesty that I desire.
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