Last week, the all-party BC Democratic and Electoral Reform Committee released its findings from a province-wide tour, hearing presentations from individuals and groups.<\/p>\n
Of the 161 presentations that included an opinion on the voting system, 94 per cent advocated for proportional representation.<\/p>\n
Proportional representation was supported by 29 of 31 organizations and 122 of 130 individuals who spoke to the committee.<\/p>\n
I'm not entirely sure proportional representation would work any better than the first-past-the-post system we currently have. What I do know is that many people are very disillusioned about the present state of our democracy.<\/p>\n
In 2015, former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau famously promised the 2015 federal election would be the last to use first-past-the-post. It was a popular promise and the Liberals were elected. A parliamentary committee later recommended taking it to a referendum.<\/p>\n
Then they just dropped it. It was not the first, nor will it be the last time a political party didn't have the political will to follow through on a promise.<\/p>\n
Now it's back on the table, but what we don't need is another referendum in B.C. The last one, in 2018, failed. They have also failed in P.E.I and Ontario. <\/p>\n
People want change, but they, like me, don't really know what the change is they want, so when the question is crafted and put to a vote, it's hard not to vote no. And referendums are costly.<\/p>\n
If we are going to get change, we need political will. It seems like there is overwhelming support for change. The multiple parties need to negotiate a system that is acceptable to all of them, and the government needs to legislate it.<\/p>\n
We tend to like the idea of "the people" having their say, but that's not always for the best. Sometimes we need strong leadership.<\/p>\n
We also tend toward thinking democracy is sacrosanct. It's not. It's what we make it. In B.C., we've changed the way we elect our government 15 times (not including redistricting). <\/p>\n
Most people don't even realize that before 1991, we had block voting and members at large in the B.C. legislature.<\/p>\n
My point is, what is the harm in trying it? We don't like how things work now. Can it really be any worse?<\/p>\n
And, if we don't like it, we can change it again. We've done it before and we will likely do it again. <\/p>\n
Democracy is an evolving proposition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Proportional representation is back on the table in B.C., Thom argues we should just do it and see how it turns out<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":130,"featured_media":133771,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,19,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-133766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columnists","category-opinion","category-top-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n