News release - Vancouver hearing

Quota for women MLAs urged

A quota system to ensure better representation of women in the B.C. legislature was recommended Saturday at a public hearing in Vancouver of B.C.'s Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform.

Janet Wiegand noted that while females make up roughly 51% of the B.C. population, women have never made up more than 28% of the MLAs, and that dropped to 24% in 2001. "It is not democratic. There are studies that show that policies that affect women, or that are of particular concern to women . . . have not been adequately addressed or have not been addressed at all."

Wiegand said systems of Proportional Representation (PR) in other countries have been linked with an increase in the numbers of women elected, but it's not automatic. So she proposed "proactive measures" that would ensure men and women each got a minimum of 40% of the seats in the legislature.

"Proactive measures are also called quotas. When I hear that word I cringe, but there is a precedent: That is how members of the Citizens' Assembly were selected, one man and one woman from each constituency."

Wiegand said voters could be given two ballots, one listing the names of women candidates and the other males. If "party lists" were used in a PR system, then the names on the lists could be made to alternate between females and males.

Presenter Karin Litzcke told Assembly members that steps should be taken to end "the effective monopoly that political parties have on access to public office." She suggested that people who have run once or twice under a party banner should thereafter be required to run as independents.

And she proposed that the MLAs could elect a premier and cabinet ministers from among their number without regard to party. "After nearly cracking my head coming up with this vision, by the way, I discovered this is already how government is being run in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories."

Or, she added, voters could vote separately for premier.

Doug Wright called for a remake of the legislature: Instead of 79 MLAs who each represent a local constituency, he proposed a house of 75 members: 40 members elected at the local district level, 20 more at the "small regional district level", 10 more at a "medium large regional district level" and a final five at a "large regional district level." Voters thus would have four votes, one for each district.

"There would be some overlapping of districts," he agreed when questioned by Assembly members. "But that would be a strength. The different kinds of districts can bring consensus on the common geographic needs of the voters who elected them. . . . (And) virtually all points of view can be represented in the legislative assembly through their elected MLAs."

John Dennison proposed that the Assembly consider compulsory voting as in Australia, where there is a $100 fine for failure to go to the polling station on election day. "I can tell you that most people don't even talk about it now; it's just 'the way it is." And voter turnout is about 98%, he said.

But presenters Tim Howard and David Black objected. Howard said voters have a right not to vote, as an expression of their views, and compulsory voting would probably be unconstitutional. Black agreed: "If people don't want to vote, or can't be bothered, that's their choice."

From the audience of 70, one man suggested, instead, that people be paid $100 to cast their vote. "It would make politics more fun."

Black earlier spoke on behalf of Local 378 of the Office and Professional Employees International Union, and recommended a Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) electoral system, adapting the New Zealand model.

The next public hearings are in Surrey on Monday (May 31), followed by Coquitlam on Tuesday, North Vancouver on Wednesday, Whistler on Thursday and both Abbotsford and Sechelt on Saturday (June 5).  A full schedule of hearings – as well as information on how to sign up to make a presentation – is on the Assembly’s website at www.citizensassembly.bc.ca.

The Assembly is an independent, representative, non-partisan group of 160 randomly selected British Columbians. They must decide by December 15 whether to propose a change to BC’s electoral system. If they recommend a change, it will be the subject of a referendum for all voters in the May 2005 provincial election