The following is an email I’ve sent to friends and contacts earlier today!
Title: BC-STV
This message is in English only, so no need to look further down!
Pas de français??? Non, pas cette fois!!!
Hello friends!
I am writing about politics. If not interested, you can just delete, I will never know and therefore not feel offended!
As you may know, there is an important referendum coming on May 12, here in BC. The referendum will ask people whether or not they want to change the way we elect our MLAs (Member of the Legislative Assembly) in Victoria. There are two propositions:
- FPTP (First Pass The Post) – the current system
- BC-STV (Single Transferable Vote) – the alternative
I personally clearly favour the BC-STV alternative.
In our current system, we vote for one candidate. This simple idea creates in reality hugely distorted results. For example, a Party getting a minority of the vote forms the government, or ever worst, the Party coming in second place can form a majority government! Also in our system, some parties can get a significant percentage of the vote and get no seats! All of this cannot be good for democracy!
In 2003, the provincial government created the Citizens’ Assembly on Electoral Reform. Ordinary citizens were picked by random throughout BC and had for mandate to look at the different electoral systems used all over the world. After careful consideration, they proposed that BC-STV would be the best system for BC. I was a bit surprised by their choice at the beginning, but after looking at it more closely, I really came to realise that STV is clearly the best option for BC.
Under BC-STV, each person gets to rank candidates in order of preference 1, 2, 3, etc. If your favourite candidate gets little popular support and is eliminated, your vote is not wasted; it is simply transferred to your second choice, and so on… No need to vote strategically for the “lesser of two evil” as we do currently. You just vote according to your conscience. You rank candidates according to your preference in different parties, or all in the same Party if you want, it’s up to you. And if you want to vote for just one candidate, that’s fine too!
STV is already being used in Ireland, New Zealand, Malta and Australia. These countries have amongst the highest electoral participation in the world! The reason is simple: your vote makes a difference! Experience in those countries also shows that STV creates legislature where the numbers of MLA in the assembly is very close to the popular vote. If a Party gets 40% of the vote, it will get about 40% (±2%) of the seats! That makes sense!
BC-STV will not fix all the problems in the world; it will not eliminate poverty in our province, fix our troubled economy or retrofit our schools for earthquake resistance (no one talks about this issue!). Some people don’t like that STV tends to create minority government. Experience elsewhere shows it makes coalition government where parties tend to work together (most of the time, it is still politics after all!). BC-STV will not fix everything, but I truly believe it is a tool to get our democracy to work better, to get governments more responsive to the people, to improve the “government of the people, by the people and for the people” as per Abraham Lincoln’s famous saying.
As you guessed, I am involved with the “Yes for BC-STV” campaign. Not sure exactly how to best utilize my talents (the story of my life!) but I’m trying to get involved with the reach out to cultural communities, where I feel I can best utilize my natural aptitudes.
If you are interested in helping out for the referendum, you can register on the “Yes for STV” website (http://www.stv.ca/) or contact me directly. If you know a friend or relative that might be interested, please spread the news. If you have questions about STV, this electoral process or whatever is on your mind, you can always email or phone me and I will try my best to answer neutrally (yes, I can do that!) your questions.
Please find below additional sites if you want to learn more:
BC government information website: http://www.bcreferendum2009.ca/
Citizens’ Assembly on Electoral Reform: http://www.citizensassembly.bc.ca/
Yes for BC-STV: http://www.stv.ca/
No for BC-STV: http://www.nostv.org/
Thank you for reading,
Frédéric
http://www.vancf.net/
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Great post. I can now see more clearly how I can email my friends and other contacts, even those who may not necessarily want to hear about politics.
As a member of Fair Vote Canada where I have voted for the National Council executive using an STV ballot, I do find that I am much more open about ranking highly qualified men and women of different economic and cultural backgrounds. I also find that the percentage of women who get elected to the National Council roughly equals the percentage of women running. STV is great for women who wish to get involved in politics. I do have full confidence in the National Council even if some of my highly ranked candidates do not get elected.
I wish I were living in BC. If I did, I could rank the best BC Liberals, NDP, Green, or independent candidates while ranking the nimrods within those parties with last preferences. Under FPTP, I am forced to vote for the local nimrod if I want the party to win in my riding.
Excellent email. Here are three blogs which are dedicated to the issue:
1. A Case for Electoral Reform.
2. Defending BC-STV: Responding to the critics.
3. Electoral Reform – Campaigning for BC STV May 2009.
These are all good and excellent resources for STV volunteers and other proponents of PR, including MMP advocates.