My preference is some form of mixed member proportional
representation (MMP).
The proposal Initiative to Establish a Proportional
Representation Electoral System - IP-2002-001
http://www.elections.bc.ca/init/i2002.html
(the Carr initiative) is a good start. I would propose
two changes to this:
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That the vote threshold of 5% before parties are 'topped up' be
eliminated or reduced to 1% at the most. I believe that it is
important to encourage rather than discourage new ideas and it is
best that these new ideas receive exposure in the Legislature
rather than fermenting in some smoky back room.
-
That the number of Members of the Legislative Assembly be
increased to accommodate proportionality even if that means
increasing the physical legislature chamber. The physical size of
large electoral districts precludes full democratic participation
of the sparsely populated regions of the province. Even with the
2001 election which was, hopefully, a gross anomaly, a 133 seat
legislature would have assured complete proportionality. In other
years the size could have been smaller. A province with the
diversity and large sparsely populated areas like British Columbia
needs more, not less, representation. The cost relative to a $24
billion annual budget is small and the greater diligence that a
larger house could exert would quickly pay for the cost.
On the other hand I prefer a closed party list. A party's list
and the method that the party used to build its list will be more
revealing of that party's suitability to govern than all the
expensive and sometimes stupid election promises that they make. A
party would be foolish to stack its list with unelectable party
hacks. The classic example of misuse of open party lists is Sri
Lanka where the governing party tried to place a number of people
of the Tamil minority near the top of its list. The voters went on
to re-arrange that list to block Tamil representation. The last
time I looked there was a civil war going on there. More to the
point, the New Zealand experience is that all parties have chosen
to provide for fair gender and minority representation through
their party list and have, as a result, moved towards greater
parity in their Parliament.
Getting voter assent through referendum
Coming up with the greatest method of selecting representatives
in the decision making process, or even a better system than we
have now, is the first part of your task. The best proposal in the
world will come to naught if the electorate refuses to ratify it by
60% and all the other hurdles to jump over.
Other Contenders
STV
STV similar to the Irish system has been proposed by a number of
experts in the field. It has great appeal to mathematicians but it
does have flaws.
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It does not give proportionality to large (in area)
rural/remote, single member electoral districts--areas that already
feel very alienated from the electoral process.
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It is difficult to understand/explain to people. I
have found it easy to explain to many people how MMP works. I have
had little success with STV--even though I would promote it for
local government elections.
-
It has some unresolved problems with "The Last Received
Sub-Parcel" and "STV is Non-Monotonic"
http://www.math.nus.edu.sg/aslaksen/voting.html
; problems which I cannot even pretend to understand, but do scare
me. I could not in good conscience campaign for a system with these
problems unresolved.
-
Malta and Ireland use STV. These are small more or less
homogeneous countries. Both these countries appear to have elected
few women members to their parliaments. Are there any good examples
where units of comparable diversity of BC use this system? Federal
nations like Germany seem to flourish under MMP.
Preferential Balloting
Preferential balloting under our present area based system would
alleviate the 'vote splitting' problem but would not necessarily
lead to proportionality. Preferential balloting would be compatible
with the constituency side of MMP. If the choice was between MMP or
Preferential Ballot, I should chose MMP.
Citizens' Assembly
Off the wall, it might be a good idea to just retain the
Citizens' Assembly to make the decisions and eliminate the
Legislature. Perhaps the qualities required to get elected--lying
with a straight face, raising large quantities of money without
questioning the strings attached, spending large sums of money with
little diligence--are not the qualities that we want in our elected
decision makers. The way the Citizens' Assembly was chosen makes
for a much more representative assembly than the beauty contest we
call democratic elections. But while I do not believe that the
voter is ready to do this yet, I do hope that in the Assembly's
final report there will be reference to how the Assembly process
could be improved upon and, perhaps, some indication of which tasks
would be appropriate to a Citizens' Assembly.
The Problem with Parties
Many BC voters are disgusted with political parties. And little
wonder given the performance of the performance of the 37th, 36th,
35th, 34th, 33rd and the 32nd parliaments of British Columbia--all
elected by the current system. It is hoped that a more proportional
system of electing members to the legislature will encourage new
parties with new ideas and less baggage to gain a platform to
express their ideas. Proportionality, hopefully, will eliminate the
sorry spectacle of one party with less than a majority mandate from
imposing its will with the merest of lip service to the
Legislature.
The only way to completely eliminate political parties would, I
believe, be to ban the right of assembly for all. I would be one of
the first to form an assembly to fight that ban!
My Story
I am an active member of both the Green Party of Canada and the
Green Party of British Columbia and I admit that a change to MMP
will be a great advantage to the Green Party. But I also believe
that that would be an advantage for the province and the country. I
was a member of the original committee that drew up the proposed
legislation to change the electoral system in BC which became the
Carr Initiative and worked on that campaign. I made three formal
presentations in the Comox Valley promoting that initiative (See
slide show at:
http://members.shaw.ca/cvfreeyourvote/cvfreeyourvote.ppt)
and found for the most part much enthusiasm for the proposal. The
Comox Valley was the third constituency to achieve the 10% plus
success.
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