The Broad Coalition
The Broad Coalition has conducted a number of on-the-street voter
surveys over the past year. Forty per cent of the voters surveyed
were not aligned with any party. A large number of undecided voters
say they vote for the candidate based on their track record or
their platform. Many voters were conflicted because they may want
to vote for a certain local candidate but they want to support
another party. The frustration arising from these conflicts may
result in the voter not participating in the election.
The majority of voters surveyed were in favour of proportional
representation [PR] because they feel cheated by the
distortions of our current system (currently in BC), which always
under-represents third parties (except for regional parties) and
often over-represents the party forming government.
Electing an accountable government, a government that truly
represents voters, is not a sport. It's not about winners and
losers. We are selecting representatives from our communities and
indicating what values (platforms) we prefer.
Because voting needs to set an agenda (platform) as well as select
representatives that we respect for their ability to represent all
constituents, we need two votes.
MMP is the best system of voting because it allows voters more
flexibility and will increase the diversity of views in the
government. There will be more interest in the elections when
voters don't feel like winners and losers.
The current system with its winners and losers, encourages
strategic voting. This situation gives the media and advertisers
undue sway over voting behaviour.
The current system of winners and losers ramps up the pressure
during election campaigns giving rise to extremely partisan and
brutal tactics. Friends are pitted against friends and the
community is left with a bad taste in its mouth.
Under proportional representation (MMP), every vote will count
towards party representation, so the need for all-out war will not
be as beneficial. Also, fear tactics will not be so successful.
Better representation of all parties and the probability of
cooperation within government will hopefully usher in more
reasonable and respectful campaigns so voters can make better
decisions and elected representatives can work together after the
election.
The Broad Coalition surveys also heard very strongly that voters
are disgusted with the behaviour of members in parliament.
Adversarial politics turns people off. Many people don't vote
because they can't be bothered with the nonsense.
There is a real need to address the childish and adversarial
behaviour of the people we pay large sums of money to for their
service. This is outside the mandate of the Citizen's Assembly, but
I believe that better representation through MMP could be the first
step in giving the electorate the kind of government we deserve.
This is not a sport, it is very serious business. We want to see
the best decisions coming from our government, even if it takes
longer. Good decisions last longer.
We want to thank you for reading our proposal. We will continue to
survey the public up until the next election. This is one way that
we are promoting greater participation in our democracy.
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