BC Special Committee on Democratic and Electoral Reform – Now On!

As part of the Cooperation and Responsible Government Accord between the NDP and Green Party, the BC government has launched a Special Committee on Electoral and Democratic Reform to “examine and make recommendations related to democratic engagement and voter participation, and models for electing Members of the Legislative Assembly”. The Committee is holding public hearings until July 18th and accepting written submissions until July 25th. Both Fair Voting BC and our partner in the Charter Challenge, Springtide, have made submissions – learn more here (including ideas for making your own written submission). The Committee is scheduled to submit their report before the end of November.

Fair Voting BC has submitted a proposal for a Regional Representation model (see figure) that aims to satisfy seven key democratic principles that our current First-Past-the-Post system fails to, while minimizing both practical and political obstacles to implementation. Learn more about the Regional Representation model here.

What We’re About:

What’s Wrong With How We Vote?

Listen to Andrew Coyne’s humorous explanation of how our current voting system fails to deliver even the basics of what we think our democracy should look like. His punch line?

In sum, the present system allows the minority to rule over the majority, it gives some voters many times the voting power of others, it denies many voters the right to vote for the party of their choice, and wastes the vote of many others. Oh, and it almost killed the country a couple of times besides. Other than that, it’s a pretty good system.

Andrew Coyne, 2016

If a party’s candidates only win 40% of the vote, they shouldn’t win all the power – 40% of the vote should mean 40% of the seats.  You should never have to hold your nose and not vote for your preferred candidate, just because you’re worried about someone else you like less getting in.  And no matter where you live in BC, you shouldn’t be shut out of government, the way the Interior is now.  It’s time for your vote to really count, to make politicians more accountable to you.  It’s time for a proportional voting system that will make sure all voices are included in government.

We’re Going to Court!