VANCOUVER – Fair Voting BC congratulates mayor-elect Pete Fry, as well as all incoming councillors and members of the school and park boards, and calls on the new administration to make moving towards fairer, more inclusive elections a priority in the coming term.

“While last night’s results mark a significant change in the makeup and policy directions of council, substantial numbers of Vancouver voters are still not fairly represented on our elected bodies” said Fair Voting BC president Antony Hodgson. “For example, approximately 10% of voters voted for each of TEAM and the Vancouver Liberals, but did not see any of their preferred candidates elected.” In addition, ABC and OneCity candidates attracted votes from almost 30% of voters, but these groups of voters were rewarded with only one council seat each.

The mayoral campaign also demonstrated how the way we elect our mayor pressures voters to vote “strategically” – that is, for someone other than their true first choice. Indeed, COPE’s Stephanie Allen and OneCity’s William Azaroff withdrew several weeks prior to the election to avoid splitting the progressive vote. “Voters should be able to express their genuine preferences without fearing they will help elect their least-preferred candidate, and we were heartened to see the Greens, COPE and OneCity collectively commit to adopting a ranked ballot”, said Hodgson.

Fair Voting BC further welcomes COPE’s explicit platform commitment to adopting some form of proportional voting for council and board elections, including using ranked ballots in multi-member wards, and its support for a Vancouver Citizens’ Assembly on Electoral Reform. OneCity also committed to convening an assembly before the next election. These commitments provide a strong foundation for cooperation in moving towards adopting a more inclusive voting system in future.

Mayor-elect Fry has previously expressed support for proportional representation, along with previous Green Party candidates, and has warned that single-member wards could “disenfranchise tens of thousands of local residents simply by virtue of where they live.” Fair Voting BC urges him to build on his earlier commitment by working to convene a Citizens’ Assembly in the coming term to recommend the best proportional voting system for Vancouver.

Vancouver already has a roadmap for how to proceed. The 2017 Independent Election Task Force convened by the city recommended both adopting proportional voting and convening a Citizens’ Assembly to recommend the model best suited to Vancouver. It proposed recruiting at least 50 randomly selected residents reflecting the city’s various neighbourhoods and its demographic diversity, and that council formally ask the province to amend the city charter to allow Vancouver to implement the recommended system. The new council should fund that assembly promptly, establish a timetable, and work with the province to enable a sensible and broadly acceptable reform to be put in place before the next civic election.

Last night changed Vancouver’s leadership, but still left many Vancouverites without fair representation on our governing bodies. Our job in the coming term is to fix that.