By David Black, MoveUP President
The time to finally modernize our electoral system is now underway and the opportunity for us to strengthen our democracy is right in front of us. From October 22 until December 7, when the referendum period for changing our electoral system is underway, we have that opportunity and we cannot afford to let this slip by.
Regarding this referendum, I have heard many people asking whether this is going to help this political party or that political party, or what it’s going to do for a different political party. This is really looking at it from the wrong point of view.
Democracy is critically important to our society. It is who we are as British Columbians and Canadians. We are a country that believes in governments that represent and are elected by a majority (50%+) of citizens. I think our government should reflect that.
We deserve a government of B.C. that represents more than 50 per cent of the people of this province. That is not the system we have now. Our current first-past-the-post (FPTP) system regularly gives governments that are voted for by less than 40 per cent of British Columbians 100 per cent of the power. Social Credit governments have been elected this way. NDP governments have been elected this way. Liberal governments have been elected this way. It’s not the right way of electing governments.
We deserve governments that represent the majority of British Columbians. We deserve governments that have the support of a majority of people in B.C. That means politicians are going to have to compromise with each other to get more than 50 per cent.
We should be looking at what lessons are learned from other parts of the world to improve our democracy, instead of relying on a system that was invented in the 1700s that almost nobody in the world uses anymore.
A vote for change, a vote for proportional representation, is absolutely the right thing to do for all of us in British Columbia regardless of political preference. Our current system, quite frankly, perverts the will of British Columbians because people will decide not to vote because they don’t see there’s a point, or they’ll vote for something they don’t want to avoid something they really, really don’t want.
Once people get the opportunity to vote with the new system, they will be much more engaged. When we get proportional representation, people will be able to vote, for the first time in many cases, for what they really want. It will be refreshing for British Columbians and it will increase participation in our electoral process, especially by young people.
Our union has taken the position that we are supporting modernizing our electoral system here in British Columbia. I am asking you to consider voting ‘yes’ and supporting proportional representation to bring the way we elect people in British Columbia into the 21st century.
Learn more at VotePRBC.ca.
