I was fortunate to attend the Assembly hearings at the Wosk
Centre in Vancouver a few weeks ago to listen to the presenters
and to the discussions.
I was concerned that the prop-rep process (alone) was going to be
hijacked by the political parties and special interest groups
through the provision of lists of candidates to be put forward to
represent political parties based solely on the total votes that
each party achieved in the election with no (direct) vote input
from the electorate -- shades of Soviet Russia!
I do NOT believe on quotas of any sort be it in politics or
employment. Both should base the criterion for selection solely on
merit, experience and expertise, capability etc. NOT on either
minority or gender status!
The second major problem I see on the political horizon is that the
listed candidates will not have actual electoral combat experience
on the hustings with minimal if any financial risk that normal
candidates have in campaigning! This would cause major resentment
not only in the electorate but other candidates who had
worked hard and risked their own finances, -- as has
happened recently when PM Paul Martin appointed 6
Liberal candidates to replace local nominees who had worked
extremely hard to gain memberships. This style of corrupt party
politics has absolutely no place in a real democracy!
How to ensure that the BC electorate gets both the
candidates and parties they want to represent them?
The answer lies in the Mixed system of election by:
1. The alternative vote [AV] with preferential ballots
for the candidate of choice in 60 of 80 seats in the legislature
with the minimum to elect a successful candidate as MLA - not less
than 50% of all first preference votes cast per riding.
In the even that the candidate with the most votes still did not
achieve the required 50% total votes cast, the second preferences
of the least successful candidate(s) would be distributed until one
of the remaining candidates gained a majority. For the main body of
the legislature based on candidates (rather than party) the 60
proposed ridings would have to be realigned, based
primarily on population - 70,000/riding (+/- 5000) for a total of
4.2million BC population.
2. For the Prop-Rep election by political party, it is
suggested that the province be divided into 10 (ten) electoral
regions of 6 ridings each. Each region would then elect 2 (two)
candidates to represent the political parties of choice by priority
1-5 on a second ballot slip, 1 being the first party of choice etc.
The voter would then select the order of party by
choice. The party with the largest number of 1st choice
selection would get at least one seat, followed by the other
parties in priority of choice selection, based on the total votes
cast in each of the 10 regions.
The overall party selection could indicate that incumbent party A
with 50% of total prop rep votes would have 10 of the remaining 20
seats. Party B with 30% gets six seats
while Parties C and D receive 15% and 5% of the overall votes cast,
garnering 3 seats and 1 seat respectively!
The regional process would enable the political parties elected by
prop-rep to be represented by the local candidates who had the top
voter rating in the region for that party (based on the party list)
rather than have someone parachuted in from the lower mainland at
the expense the democratic wishes of local voters such
as in Peace River or the North Coast!
The party candidate (from the list) with the highest number of
choice of votes across the 6 ridings in a particular region would
be the candidate to represent the party in the Prop-rep seats. This
process of selecting from candidate lists would hopefully eliminate
the other odious practice of vote stacking at nomination
meetings!
When a candidate is elected by the alternative vote process, his or
her name is automatically deleted from the party lists for the
prop-rep election, prior to the Prop rep stage of elections, to
select the priority of parties and their candidates for the
remaining 20 seats in the ten regions.
While this mixed system of alternative vote and Prop-Rep is not a
perfect system of electoral democracy, it is far more democratic
and representative of voter wishes than the present system of
elections by which a party can get elected with less than the
acceptable (50%) majority of votes, because of vote splitting and
the blatantly corrupt nomination process to select a
party candidate!
The choice of the party is not necessarily the choice of the
electorate in the riding, so a political party may potentially lose
essential votes for election because of poor selection in the
nomination process, or that a candidate of preference
by the electorate has to be sacrificed on the table of political
expediency in order to prevent the other party from gaining a
majority! This is why the mixed Prop Rep/AV system of elections can
achieve both party and candidate of choice and true representation
of parties and seats in the legislature.
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