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Submission LUCAS-1003 (Online)

Submission By Philippe Lucas
AddressVictoria, BC, Canada
Organization
Date20040810
CategoryElectoral system change
Abstract
This submission is in support of Mixed Member Proportional Representation.  It gives the reasons for adopting MMP and lists the disadvantages of the Single Trasnferable Vote [STV] system. [2 pages]

Submission Content
This submission is in support of Mixed-Member Proportional Representation.

MMP gives people a vote for a local representative and a vote for the party of their choice. Why is MMP a good choice for BC?

  1. it's fair in terms of proportional representation. A party gets a share of seats in the legislature proportional to its share of province-wide vote. 
  2. it retains local representation, which many British Columbians want. Ridings would have to be slightly larger but voters get two kinds of representatives: a local representative, and party representatives.
The fundamental problems with STV are:

  1. it is unfair. Some peoples' votes have a far better chance of getting representation, especially in a proposal like Nick Loenen's where some voters would still have single-member ridings like now.
  2. it is complicated in terms of vote-counting. Most people want to know how their votes are counted to have confidence in the system.
  3. it is too complicated for voters who do not want to rank lots of candidates.
  4. it is not proportional, especially in ridings with few members.
  5. it leads to more competitive politics (especially within parties). This appears to discourage women from running (Ireland and Malta, the two countries using STV, have among the lowest number of women elected in the world).
Other Commissions that have studied electoral reform have rejected STV including the Jenkins Commission in the UK, the Royal Commission on Electoral Reform in New Zealand and most recently the Law Commission of Canada in their recommendation of an MMP system of voting federally in Canada.

Voters in New Zealand firmly rejected STV. In 1992, in a non-binding referendum on electoral reform there, 85% of people voted to change their voting system: 70% specified MMP; only 17% specified STV. New Zealanders adopted MMP, the winner in the non-binding referendum, in a binding referendum held at the time of their general election a year later in 1993.

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