By Bob Groeneveld
B.C. voters are not actually being asked this month to choose between our current First Past The Post (FPTP) voting system and something different.
We’re just being asked to vote against FPTP.
None of the three Proportional Representation (PropRep) options – guidelines, actually – are fully defined. All three include provisions to be settled after the referendum ballots have been counted.
If we opt to discard FPTP, we are expected to leave the final details to experts and sitting politicians.
And the whole proposition is so complicated that even they appear unable to explain exactly how any of the three options will work… not even Melanie Mark, BC’s minister in charge of advanced education.
Okay, she admits she’s “not an expert in this field,” despite her degree in political science. But if she (like so many PropRep backers) doesn’t understand it, where does she find the gall to recommend it to the rest of us?
Indeed, the referendum itself is almost as complicated as any of the three PropRep guidelines we are being asked to approve.
Further, no one who is all fired up about PropRep has been able to convince me there’s a lot wrong with FPTP. Nearly always, it boils down to a lack of understanding of how our government is supposed to work for us.
The real problems come after we vote for our representatives. Our MLAs are supposed to go to Victoria (or Ottawa, in the case of MPs) to represent us. Instead, once they sit down in the Legislature, they represent their parties, instead of us.
How will any of the PropRep proposals – which all more or less increase the parties’ power in choosing our representatives – solve that problem?
MLAs need more freedom, through free votes, for instance, to represent their constituents regardless of party lines, without fear of caucus retaliation… or bringing down the government.
Then they can pay attention to how everyone – not just their party faithful – voted in their constituency, and nuance their representation for the whole community. That way, no one’s vote would be “wasted”.
PropRep may be a good option… once someone understands it well enough to give us all the details before asking us to vote yea or nay.
But for the purposes of the current referendum, the only reasonable option for the voters of BC is to stick with FPTP.