BC NDP and Electoral Reform – P4
Posted by: Frédéric Van Caenegem in British Columbia, Issues & politics, tags: Carole James, STVMy comment to this post:
http://challengingthecommonplace.blogspot.com/2009/02/bc-ndp-and-electoral-reform-p4.html
By this non-response, Carole James want the referendum to fail. She seem to say that if the yes for BC-STV is under 60%, then an other form of Proportional Representation (like MMP) will be proposed to British Columbians. But, by being vague, she makes no commitments toward this. In other words, she wants the referendum to fail and the current electoral system to continue as is.
To those who like MMP (and it is your right to prefer that system) don’t be tempted to vote No for STV in the hope of a theoretically better system in the future. The referendum is between STV and FPTP, people are asked to make a decision on these two options (I prefer STV personally). If you like a third alternative, I am afraid you are left to make up your mind on the systems proposed and continue promoting whatever electoral system you prefer in the future.
Frédéric Van Caenegem
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Yup – They’ve had an active Electoral Reform Society in Britain for 125 years now, and still haven’t gotten rid of FPTP there, so this is an extremely rare/valuable opportunity that shouldn’t be passed up!
I agree entirely Frédéric. It is folly to hope that you can vote against STV a second time and get a chance again for electoral reform in a generation. MMP referendums have failed in the past few years in Ontario and PEI. There are many reasons those referendums failed such as ill advised design and bad explanation of the system. But all people will get out of a No vote is “PR has been voted down 4 times in the past decade”. Even though thats a gross oversimplification and STV and MMP are very different and much more than just PR, that will be the story. You have to realize that these systems, particularly STV, are not in the interests of those politicians who want to hold onto power and control of their parties. STV allows the voters to select the particular candidates within a party that they prefer! MMP can’t even do that, and the politicians that are chosen from each party will set policy going forward. So essentially the voters have influence over party policy implicit in their vote. This is a scary thing for ambitious party operatives. Count yourself lucky we’ve got this second chance so soon.
After BC-STV is instituted the parliament can try it for one or two elections and then consider whether tweaks or major changes are necessary. This was in fact one of the suggestions of the Citizen’s Assembly that designed BC-STV.
Vote Yes for BC-STV
Mark Crowley
http://fairvoteubc.wordpress.com
Good to see someone else posting about this issue. It must be kept alive.
I agree with you and SD concerning what advocates of MMP should do. Without question, STV is better than what we have now. So if you support proportional representation in whatever flavour, then you should support this coming referendum.
There’s absolutely no assurance that a new NDP government would mount a MMP campaign or, for that matter, that such a campaign would be successful. Like it or not, fair or not, referenda on MMP in other provinces haven’t done as well as the 2005 referendum on STV did in BC.
So all PR advocates should get behind STV for the coming May 12 vote. Let’s get that 60 percent!
Then, anyone who prefers MMP should campaign for that.
Hi SD!
I self-hosted my blog using wordpress and the theme I use for the display is Mandigo. It’s done by a website designer based in Montréal. I really like it because it is multilingual and free (thought, donations are welcome)! Changing is one of the easy to use cool options of the Mandigo theme. You should contact him regarding the programming behind it. His website: http://www.onehertz.com/portfolio/wordpress/
How do you get your homepage to change colours?
For those of you who prefer MMP over STV, that is fine. I would suggest that you support STV first, then advocate for MMP.