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Friday, December 21, 2018 | Your community newspaper since 1916

CITIZEN PHOTO BY JAMES DOYLE

Sidewalk clearing City of Prince George employee Debbie Simpson clears off the sidewalks in front of CN Centre and the Kin Centres on Thursday morning.

Local MLAs pleased B.C. voters reject switch to with referendum results proportional representation Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca

Prince George MLAs Mike Morris and Shirley Bond are celebrating the outcome of the provincial referendum on proportional representation. “I think the British Columbians who participated in this process sent a clear and decisive message to retain the current electoral system,” said Bond, who was MLA during the two previous referendums on this same question over the past 13 years. “We’ve got this behemoth behind us,” said Morris. “Infrastructure, jobs, developing British Columbia, those are the issues people want us all in the legislature to be focused on. This was poorly designed, it was a waste of resources, a waste of time, a waste of our collective attention, and we sure could have put that $15 million (the estimated cost of holding this referendum) to much better use.” Both MLAs noted that the numbers showed a nonpartisan core of support for FPTP, once the extreme victories were subtracted on either side of the argument. The biggest numbers for FPTP were in B.C. Liberal strongholds and the biggest PR numbers were in B.C. NDP strongholds. Apart from those fringes, neither region nor population nor incumbent party deterred the FPTP voter. For example, in the 10 decisively northern ridings of the province, two are held by NDP representatives but all 10 voted down PR. For another example, of the three ridings held by Green MLAs – the Green Party was the staunchest party seeking the PR system – one (Cowichan Valley) voted for FPTP and the other two voted for PR by 51 per cent (Saanich North & The Islands) and 53 per cent (Oak Bay-Gordon Head, held by Green leader Andrew Weaver). Bond said that despite the big win for FPTP, there were enough voters supporting PR even in northern and rural ridings that they had her attention. “For people who did vote for change, those who are speaking for improvements to our system, I hope they are shown that their voices are heard,” said Bond.

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Dirk MEISSNER Citizen news service

BOND

MORRIS “Their concerns do need to be reflected. I don’t think the message of an improved electoral system has been lost. We can look within the system to innovate how we approach governance. We can improve our democratic process, we can modernize the system, but it is clearly the will of British Columbians that it be done within the structure of FPTP.” — see REGIONAL RESULTS, page 3

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VICTORIA — Voters in British Columbia have rejected a proposal to switch to a system of proportional representation to elect members of the legislature for a third time, prompting all three parties to declare electoral reform a dead issue. The current first-past-the-post system received 61.3 per cent of the votes cast in a mail-in referendum, while proportional representation got 38.7 per cent in the results released Thursday by Elections BC. “I think electoral reform is finished,” deputy premier Carole James said. “The public has clearly spoken. As elected officials you always know the public is right.” About 1.4 million voters cast ballots by the Dec. 7 deadline, which represents a turnout of 42.6 per cent of eligible voters. “It’ll be surprising if there’s any interest in this in the foreseeable future,” said Opposition Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson. The Liberals campaigned against electoral reform, arguing the minority government New Democrats and the Greens wanted to implement a system that would have given more power to political parties than voters. “People like to know democracy is in their hands,” he said. “I think people saw through this convoluted referendum, which was set up to be confusing.” Green Leader Andrew Weaver said he was disappointed with the result but accepts it as a clear signal voters support first past the post. Electoral reform has struck out with B.C. voters, he added. “I think we’re not going to be raising that issue any time soon,” said Weaver. The deadline for ballots to be received by Elections BC was extended by one week to Dec. 7 because of the postal strike. In the first referendum in 2005, about

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I think electoral reform is finished. The public has clearly spoken. As elected officials you always know the public is right. — Carole James, deputy premier 57 per cent of ballots were cast in favour of proportional representation, which did not meet the threshold of 60 per cent to make it binding on the government. Four years later, 61 per cent voted in favour of first past the post. The latest referendum was binding and the winner declared by a simple majority of votes cast. Under proportional representation, the number of seats held by a party largely matches the percentage of votes its candidates receive versus the first-past-the-post model in which a candidate with the most votes in a district wins and then represents the riding. In addition to asking voters which system they support, the ballot also included a second question that allowed voters to rank their preference for three types of proportional representation. Other provinces, including Prince Edward Island and Ontario, have also held referendums on their electoral systems but neither made any changes. In Prince Edward Island in 2016, the Liberal government decided not to honour a provincial plebiscite on electoral reform, in which only 36 per cent of eligible voters took part. Premier Wade MacLauchlan said it was debatable whether the result reflected the will of Islanders, and announced another vote will be held during the 2019 provincial election.

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