News release - Princeton public hearing

Princeton considers voting systems

Princeton-area residents came out to discuss the pros and cons of increased proportionality in BC’s electoral system Monday night.  They heard a semi-proportional system detailed and discussed concerns related to the implications of enlarged riding size, the fairness of representation by population, the impact of voter apathy, and the need for voter education.

Speaker Harold Daykin proposed that BC adopt an electoral system that incorporates a limited degree of proportionality.  Under his system, most members of BC’s 79-member legislature would continue to be elected in single-member districts.  However, 18 members would be selected to add greater proportionality to the House.  These 18 “compensatory” seats would be allocated among regions of the province according to population. 

Daykin argued that having one quarter of the legislature made up of compensatory seats would be sufficient to be produce proportional election outcomes. 

He said that his system would give voters two votes – one for the local representative and one for the party – enabling voters to split their votes by using their first vote to back a local representative from party A, but using the second vote to vote for party B. This, he said, would result in more small parties getting representation in the legislature because voters would feel free to use their party vote to support a small party even if they did not believe that party’s candidate had a chance of winning in the riding.

The 18 MLAs elected to add proportionality would not be selected from party lists, but would be selected from the “top losers” – candidates who had contested the election in a riding but had been narrowly defeated.  So, parties whose share of constituency seats was lower than their share of the province-wide popular vote would be compensated by have the appropriate number of their top losers given seats in the legislature.  

Participants at the hearing also discussed whether it was fairer for each voter in the province to have equal representation or for the regions to have equal representation.  “The people who produce the wealth have few votes, while the people who consume the wealth have most of the votes,” said one participant.  “I think that representation by population needs to be addressed.  I think we should be represented equally by geographic area.  I think that’s fair.”

The hearing also covered such topics as:
• growing voter apathy and such possible solutions as tax incentives for voting and more education on voting and the political system in schools
• the need for voters to be informed on the issues surrounding electoral reform should there be a referendum

Hearings continue in the Interior this week, moving to Merritt tomorrow, Lillooet on Wednesday, Kamloops on Thursday and Williams Lake on Saturday.  There will also be a hearing in Ganges, on Salt Spring Island, this Saturday starting at a new time, 12 noon.  A full schedule of hearings is on the Assembly’s website at The Citizens’ 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.