Fair, Accountable, Transparent Voting for All Elections in BC

FVBC Addresses Local Government Elections Taskforce

Following our successful Think Democracy Forum (see below), we have begun preparing Fair Voting's submission to the premier's taskforce on local elections reform.  We spoke recently in front of Vancouver City Council in favour of a motion to have the city run a public consultation process in preparing their own submission (passed unanimously).  We also have about 25 people signed up with our Civic Reform working group (see link to left), and we invite anyone interested in this to join us.

(learn more about the Local Government Elections Task Force and FVBC's response)

FVBC Reaches Out at Anti-Prorogation Rally

About a dozen FVBC members attended the anti-prorogation rally in
Vancouver on January 23rd to distribute Fair Voting flyers and collect
signatures in support of Fair Vote Canada's Declaration of Voting Rights
(see link to right).  We were very successful in collecting over 400
signatures and nearly 200 new email contacts.  Thanks to all who turned
out.  A highlight for FVBC members was Citizens' Assembly Alumnae Shoni
Field who was one of the featured speakers and who made a very strong
argument that fair voting systems are a necessary foundation for
ensuring that governments ae accountable to parliament.

Thanks to those who joined us at the Think Democracy Forum

We had a fascinating evening on Dec 4th in Vancouver.  Special thanks to Shoni Field, former Citizens' Assembly member, who introduced the participants to several different ways we could potentially elect our city council using much fairer voting systems.  We'll post her presentation here shortly.

Provincial Level:  All is Not Well

BC voters know that all is not well with our democracy.  With barely half the eligible voters turning out to vote in a comparatively closely contested election earlier this year, our government is facing a serious threat to its legitimacy.  According to Elections Canada, the four main reasons why people don't vote are that they are not interested in politics (ie, they don't see that it's relevant to them, they don't like the parties and candidates, they don't feel that their vote matters, and they don't care about the issues being focused on in the elections.

Referendum Result Doesn't Mean Problems Have Disappeared

Reasons such as these were why the BC government created the BC Citizens' Assembly in the first place and why the assembly reached a near-unanimous recommendation to change our voting system to one intended to produce better representation of voters' wishes and more accountable and responsive MLAs.  Although the assembly's recommended BC-STV system did not pass the 60% hurdle in 2005 and fell below 40% support in 2009, no-one believes that the problems with our democratic institutions have disappeared.

New Democratic Reform Initiatives Coming Shortly

Fair Voting BC is therefore renewing its efforts to bring about meaningful democratic change at all levels of government - provincial, federal and municipal, as well as in non-governmental organizations such as societies and universities.  We will shortly be announcing several new initiatives and offering our supporters a variety of ways to be involved in improving our democracy.  Check back soon!