A group of local leaders in B.C, including Quesnel Mayor Bob Simpson, have come forward with their support for a change in how we vote provincially.
Simpson says the first past the post system is becoming increasingly problematic…
“In terms of getting people to vote. Our voting numbers across the country are going down and secondly, is not representative of the vote when people do show up to vote. We’re seeing strange situations in New Brunswick where you get a party with the popular vote that doesn’t get the most seats, and you have a fragmented legislature there with the two parties fighting each other as to who should have control, a similar situation to what we have in British Columbia. Then you get situations like Ontario where you have an individual who is quite frankly the Premier of that province, where 60 percent of the population didn’t want him as Premier, but he’s got a majority in the house and can do what he wants.”
Simpson says even Northern BC residents aren’t getting represented according to their votes…
“If you take a look at rural British Columbia’s vote for both the NDP and the Greens, it is absolutely not represented in the legislature, so rural BC’s voice is lost in the legislature because of the current system of ridings being represented by the majority vote winner.”
Simpson says any new system will be on sort of a trial basis…
“There will be a referendum two elections after the implementation of any new system, so that people can feel comfortable that what they’re doing is an experiment in democracy that can be reversed if they don’t like how the experiment works. I think that that fail safe is a very positive aspect of what people are being offered here. The other piece I would add is it’s two votes. Those who feel comfortable with the first past the post system get to vote on that, they get to actually say I am comfortable with first past the post and I don’t want to change.”
People should start receiving their ballots in the mail next week.