Les Leyne column

MLAs are starting to fret about electoral reforms

[The following column ran in the Victoria Times Colonist on April 15, 2004. It is reproduced here with the kind permission of the Times Colonist.]

Les Leyne

Times Colonist  

Liberal MLAs reached the same conclusion last week that I did: the Citizens' Assembly has decided it wants to make a change in the voting system.

And they don't appear to like it one bit.

The delicious part is: There's not a damn thing they can do about it.

The key element in the way Premier Gordon Campbell devised the citizens' assembly process is coming into play. It is completely autonomous, doesn't report to any branch of government and can do almost anything it wants, within the laws of the land.

There is a special committee of MLAs watching the process, but assembly chairman Jack Blaney reports to those members only for informational purposes. He gave an enthusiastic report last week on the progress the 160 citizens are making.

But the Liberal MLAs seized on a preliminary report from the assembly that gives every indication it has arrived -- or is arriving -- at a conclusion that some degree of proportional representation needs to be introduced into the voting system.

The assembly, just starting public hearings next month, has two key decisions to make. It has to determine whether a change is needed. If no, then the process concludes with the status quo. If yes, then the assembly has to recommend a specific change, which goes to referendum in the May 2005 general election, where it needs 60 per cent approval in 60 per cent of the ridings to pass.

Then the change would take effect in 2009.

The assembly says it hasn't concluded anything. It says it's deliberately refrained from doing so. But the preliminary report is terribly keen on making changes.

It discusses proportional representation in glowing terms and highlights the potential benefits. Among them; "a move away from highly charged adversarial politics ... might foster politics more in keeping with the values of contemporary British Columbians."

Kamloops Liberal MLA Kevin Krueger said he was surprised the report "so clearly demonstrated that the assembly had made up its mind."

He protested to Blaney: "It wasn't expected that the assembly would steer the outcome, or the input to the outcome, any more than MLAs wanted to steer it."

Krueger warned the assembly shouldn't steer the outcome and "genuinely listen to the people as they attend the public hearings."

Vancouver-Kingsway MLA Rob Nijjar got the "exact same feeling" from the report.

"It's pretty clear what they've decided, pretty clear what they're thinking. It's proportional representation." Nijjar also objected to a letter to the editor written by an assembly member that he considered highly politically charged and inappropriate.

Blaney and other officials assured them no conclusion has been reached. The assembly has just identified two major components of any system: local representation and proportionality, and discussed both.

But Krueger insisted the assembly has decided on change, and should now make clear to the public that swinging to proportional rep "would carry with it some problems" regarding local representation.

(Pro rep means some seats would be allocated on the basis of party standings in the general election. So the party would pick people to fill its allotment, rather than install the winners of local contests. Some degree of local representation would be lost.)

Krueger said the report changes the dynamic, with the assembly wanting to know if it's agreed that a more proportional system would better reflect basic values.

"Now I think there is an extra onus for the assembly to make it clear that there are consequences to such a change that would bear very heavily on this other local representation aspect."

But Krueger and Nijjar are just kibitzing from the sidelines. Their suggestions and criticisms have as much weight or as little as anyone else's. Committee chairman Jeff Bray waxed enthusiastic about how historic the process is. But it's clear some MLAs are getting a little anxious about where this is going, and how it's going to get there.

Nonetheless, it's the 161-member assembly that will chart this course, without any input from the Liberal caucus, thank you very much.

Just So You Know: Several other provinces are also examining democratic renewal, but the autonomy given the CA in B.C. is attracting widespread attention. Observers from elsewhere are coming and "sitting there with their mouths open," by one account, marvelling at the process.

And Blaney will be at Harvard shortly lecturing on the experiment.

leyne@island.net

© Copyright 2004 Times Colonist (Victoria)

[Reproduced here by courtesy of the Times Colonist]