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Submission SPURR-0396 (Online)

Submission By Peter Spurr
AddressSaanich, BC,
Organization
Date20040513
CategoryElectoral system change
Abstract
An MMP system would produce more diversity in our legislature, remove some of the power of the executive branch, dampen the wild swings in government, and encourage more voters to come out and participate in our democracy. [2 pages]

Submission Content
I am not satisfied with the kind of governments that we have been getting in Canada for many of the 40-50 years of my adult life, and I attribute a lot of the problems to our “first past the post” electoral system. I remember during the 1950s through the 1970s we had a number of minority governments at the federal level, and in many of the major provinces, and I remember the government and politics of those years as being more involved, and more progressive than we have seen lately. The governing party had to consult more, and more seriously, with the opposition and various interests, and negotiate policies that served broad cross-sections of our society and economy. Having seen the merits of more competitive states of government, I would like to see British Columbia adopt a mixed member proportional [MMP] representation system, as I am convinced that it would produce more diversity in our legislature, remove some of the power of the executive branch, dampen the wild swings in government, and encourage more voters to come out and participate in our democracy.

Unfortunately, our “first past the post” electoral system has facilitated a different electoral result, the big majority, which has come to be predominant in recent years. I suppose it was satisfactory to have the occasional big majority during the formative years of this country and province, when a very powerful government could force some important nation-building policies. That time has past. Now we need to manage our country in a way that reflects its many interests, many economic and social forces. We can’t afford to allow ham-handed idealogues of any political stripe to squander our public resources on their pet projects, at the expense of the broader public good. A PR system would better reflect the variety of wishes of our publics. I do not fear that Canadians would behave like Italians, and vote in ways that create great instability and result in very short-lived governments. I am confident that we, as a collective, are too sober and conservative to allow such flippancy.

Please consider this to be my appeal to you, to recommend to the government that British Columbia improve its electoral system, and its approach to democracy, by adopting a mixed member proportional representation system.

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