News release

Citizens study voting experiments

Members of B.C.'s Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform begin this coming weekend to take a detailed look at parliamentary government in Canada, and the effects of some past experiments with different voting systems.

As they dig into parliamentary government, subjects they'll be looking at include electoral systems and parliamentary consequences. Past voting systems they examine will include Western provinces' experiences with transferable votes and B.C.’s experiment with them in the 1950s.

Meetings are at the Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue at 580 West Hastings Street in downtown Vancouver: Saturday January 24 from 9 a.m. to 12:20 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. to 4:45, and on Sunday January 25 from 9 a.m. to 12:45. Space is limited. If you plan to attend, please register in advance: Call the Assembly office at 604-660-1232 or e-mail info@citizensassembly.bc.ca

The 160 Assembly members, randomly selected from all over B.C., will decide in the fall if they should propose a change to B.C.’s current system of translating votes into seats in the Legislature. If they recommend a change, it will be the subject of a referendum for all voters in the 2005 provincial election. Any change approved by the voters would take effect with the 2009 B.C. election