News release - Port McNeill hearing

Stronger rural representation urged

Pleas for stronger rural representation in the legislature, and smaller rural ridings, highlighted a public hearing in Port McNeill Tuesday of the Citizens Assembly on Electoral Reform.

Saying that equality of representation is what truly matters, Port McNeill mayor Gerry Furney argued for geographically smaller ridings in rural areas.

He cited the challenges rural MLAs face in their efforts to represent their constituents effectively, particularly mastering the wide diversity of issues and the time consumed in travel – both between the riding and Victoria and within the riding.

While Furney also favoured greater proportionality in B.C.'s electoral system, he said he preferred the Irish system of proportional representation through the single transferable vote (STV) – a system that uses a preferential ballot where voters rank their choices among candidates.

Suzanne Sawyer wondered aloud about the possibility of drawing a permanent Assembly, similar to the Citizens' Assembly, from members of municipal councils around the province. This, she said, could be a way of strengthening the rural voice in BC politics.

Harry Glasswick of Port Hardy ignited a lively debate when he asked if we want people voting who have not fulfilled their responsibility to become familiar with the candidates and issues. Speaking against proportional representation (PR), he said that, for him, the most important criterion for government is effectiveness.

PR, he argued, would lead to a plethora of minority opinions and conflicting views in the legislature, thus producing ineffective governments.

Glasswick, like Furney, supported smaller rural ridings having the same representation as larger urban ridings – in part, because the province’s wealth is generated by the rural resource sector.

Catherine Bell from Cumberland, federal NDP candidate for Vancouver Island North, spoke in support of proportional representation, saying: "Without proportional representation, our votes are not reflected in the governments we get. . . ." But, she added, it is "critical to maintain local representation, especially in rural areas of the province" which already feel under-represented.

Her solution was a mixed member proportional system (MMP) where some MLAs are elected from constituencies and others win seats based on the proportion of support the party receives.

The next public hearings are in Courtenay/Comox on Wednesday (May 26), Nanaimo on Thursday (May 27) and Vancouver on Saturday (May 29).

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.