It's the constant question in Canadian elections: should you vote for the person or the party? And if you vote for the person but dislike the party's policies, can you be confident that your representative's voice will be heard in our stifling party-based political system?
In places like Squamish, we really don't even get that choice. The question here really is: should I go vote or go for a bike ride?
This seat is one of the safest Liberal ridings in the province. Couple that with an MLA who is active in the various communities and pretty responsive to the people, and the reality is that the NDP and Greens would do best to save their money and not even run candidates.
This election, though, we do have another reason to show up at the polls. We in B.C. have the chance to make the most significant electoral reform in Canada since women were given the right to vote, and that is by supporting the BC-STV initiative.
British Columbia Single Transferrable Vote was first conceived in 2004 by the Citizens' Assembly on electoral reform. The Assembly was created by the Liberals after their 2001 election victory to explore ways of making the electoral system more representative.
The Assembly's selection of BC-STV came about because they found that this system offered best addressed the overriding principles of proportionality, local representation and voter choice that guided the discussions.
And contrary to the naysayers, it's not a particularly complicated system. In a nutshell, voters simply rank as few or as many of the candidates as they wish. When the polls close, first place choices are counted and candidates who meet the required level of votes (or quota) needed to win are elected.
His or her votes-called surplus now that he or she is elected-are run through a pretty simple mathematical formula designed to ensure fairness and proportionality, and those electors have their second choices applied to the other candidates. The process continues until the number of candidates in the riding needed to the fill the seats of the riding have the required quota of votes.
The system is interesting because it allows voters to worry less about strategic voting and party affiliation, and to vote their conscience. It also means that MLAs will need to be more responsive to their constituents. It's a pretty radical idea, and it will completely change the way governments work.
The system is also designed so that there is better proportionality in the Legislature. If B.C. voters choose to try BC-STV, we'll see more independents in Victoria, and B.C. will have the first elected Green politician in Canada.
This system might be the only way to revive our moribund democracy and get people engaged once again in public life and public issues. Just imagine walking into a polling booth during the next provincial election and truly believing that your vote was going to count. It's been so long I hardly know what I'd do.
The citizen assembly website www.citizensassembly.bc.ca has some pretty good animations which clearly illustrate how the system works. There's also lots of background information and rationale.
