Submission PATTISON-1144 (Online)
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Submission By | Lee-Anne Pattison |
Address | Granthams Landing, BC, Canada |
Organization | |
Date | 20040812 |
Category | Electoral system change |
Abstract
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In the end, if you choose to change our voting system which I
hope that you'll do, you'll have to sell it to the people of BC.
I'm a business woman. I know I can sell MMP, but I can't sell STV.
[2 pages]
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Submission Content
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Thank you for all your hard work in considering and designing a
fairer voting system for BC.
There is one thing that I ask you to do before your final decision.
Please take a couple of hours away from your comfortable seats in
the Wosk Center for Dialogue, go out on the streets and test out
your ideas to see if the public can understand and want the system
you may propose.
I am sure that if you try to explain an STV system with some parts
of BC getting large multi-member ridings with more of a chance that
peoples' votes will count than other areas where voters may get the
same old ridings and the same big chance their vote won't count,
people will tell you that's not fair. Be clear that even if their
vote counts, it might not be their first choice, but their second
or third choice that counts toward electing someone. Then try to
explain how the votes get counted under STV, or try saying to
people that "you don't need to understand, a computer or experts
who know how the vote-transfers work will do all the counting". Try
to get people to sign a petition saying they support an STV system
and I think you'll find that people will not sign.
Then ask them if they would support an MMP system where they would
get two votes, one for a local representative elected exactly the
same way they elect an MLA today and a second vote for the
political party of their choice, with over a 90 percent chance that
their party vote will count. Explain that they'll have a bigger
riding but, in exchange, they'll get both a local MLA and party
MLAs and that they can choose who they'll go to for help. Explain
that the party MLAs are filled from lists prepared by parties
before the election, just as candidates are nominated by parties
today, and that countries that use this system end up electing many
more women and minority group representatives because party lists
are balanced. Tell them that MMP ends up with more diversity in the
legislature and more coalition governments where parties have to
work together. You'll find people eager to sign up to support
MMP.
In the end, if you choose to change our voting system which I hope
that you'll do, you'll have to sell it to the people of BC. I'm a
business woman. I know I can sell MMP, but I can't sell STV.
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