bc’s citizens’ assembly on electoral reform prepared by wendy bergerud (updated may 2013)
TRANSCRIPT
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BC’s Citizens’ Assembly on
Electoral Reform
Prepared by Wendy Bergerud(updated May 2013)
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Brief History
• Push for electoral reform– 1996: Liberals lose the election even though
they get more of the popular vote --> promise electoral reform
– 1998: Fair Voting BC was formed and pushes for electoral reform.
– 2001: Liberal party wins 77 out of 79 seats with 57.6% of the popular vote.
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Brief History
• Push for electoral reform (cont.)– 2002: Adriane Carr (Leader of Green Party)
conducts a “Free your Vote” Campaign, pushing for voting reform.
• Liberals follow through on promise:– Gordon Gibson designs citizens’ assembly
process. – 2003: Assembly process set in motion and
members randomly selected.
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BCCAER Mission:
Look at Voting Systems and decide
if a change should be considered.
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Photo by Kent Kallberg
Podium
Main Room for Plenary Sessions
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Mandate of the Assembly
• Examine various models for electing Members of the Legislature
• Consult with British Columbians
• Issue a report recommending whether– The current system should be retained, or– Another model should be adopted
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Assembly Composition
• 160 members + Chair
• Member selection– British Columbians, randomly selected from the
voters list, are invited to volunteer.
– From those who volunteered, a man and a
woman are randomly chosen from each riding.
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How would we measure success?
That our decision, whatever that might be, would be agreed to by
most of us.
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Assembly process• Learning – about electoral systems (Jan–Mar)
• Listening – 50 public hearings (May–June)
• Reading – 1603 written submissions
• Deliberating – coming to decision (Sept–Nov)
• Report and recommendation (Dec 10, 2004)
• Assembly disbands
• Referendum – May 17, 2005 AND May 12, 2009
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Learning Phase
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Photo by Doug Waller
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Photo by Doug Waller
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Small Discussion Groups
an opportunity for the quiet ones to get a word or two in
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Photo by Fred Shum
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Public Hearings
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One member’s attempt to spread the word!
Photo by F. W. Zens
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Cartoon by Chuck Walker
From our resident Cartoonist: Chuck Walker
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Photo by Doug Waller
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Summer Vacation
Reading 1600 submissions!
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Cartoon by Chuck Walker
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Deliberation Phase
How do we make this OUR decision?
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There was broad consensus that just two electoral system families came close to meeting our values.
So we would build a preferred model of each.
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Then choose the one we thought best matched our values.
That alternate would then be compared to our current system
for our final choice and recommendation.
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Photo by Doug Waller
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How did we vote?
• First Vote: STV (123) vs MMP (31)
• Second Vote: Do recommend retaining the
current system? Yes (11) vs No (142)
• Third Vote: Do we recommend BC-STV to
the people of BC? Yes (146) vs No (7)
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Finalizing our Report
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Photo by Doug Waller
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Cartoon by Chuck Walker
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Mission Accomplished!
Photo by Kent Kallbert
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2005 Referendum
• Threshold was 60% popular vote AND a 50% pass in 60% (or 48) ridings.
• Vote obtained was 57.7% popular vote and a 50% pass in 77 of 79 ridings (95%).
• Since neither party in legislature supported voting reform, BC-STV was not implemented although the legislature had the authority to do so.
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Outcome of 1st Referendum
• Government decided that voters needed more information to make a decision.
• There would be a second referendum.
• The Electoral Boundaries Commission, mandated to create new boundaries, would have an additional task: designing BC-STV boundaries as well.
• Final boundaries available at ???
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BC-STV Maps
• Commission grouped the single member ridings into multi-member BC-STV districts.
• Legislature modified the commission’s advice, choosing 85 ridings instead of 83.
• These 85 ridings are grouped into 20 BC-STV districts with between 2 and 7 MLAs. Average District Magnitude was 4.25.
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Referendum Question
• Second referendum: May 12, 2009.• Which electoral system should British Columbia use
to elect members to the provincial Legislative Assembly? – The existing electoral system (First-Past-the-Post) – The single transferable vote electoral system (BC-
STV) proposed by the Citizens’ Assembly on Electoral Reform
.
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Referendum Details
• Threshold remained the same: at least 60% of the popular vote and 60% of the ridings (51 of 85) must pass it at the 50% level.
• Funding of $500,000 was made available to both a neutral information office and both sides of the debate.
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Outcome of 2nd Referendum
• Threshold remained 60% popular vote AND a 50% pass in 60% (or 51) ridings.
• Vote obtained was 39.1% popular vote and a 50% pass in just 8 of 85 ridings (9%).
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Websites
• Official Assembly Web Site (not always up): www.citizensassembly.bc.ca
• Fair Voting BC: http://fairvotingbc.com/
• Fair Vote Canada: http://www.fairvote.ca/
• Interesting STV results for Ireland: election.polarbears.com or election.polarbears.com/online/da2002.htm
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Credits• This slide show wouldn’t have been possible
without Doug Waller’s photographic work.• Pictures taken during our assembly meetings
by Doug Waller, Fred Shum, Kent Kallberg, and Wendy Bergerud.
• Contributions to design and ideas: Wendy Bergerud, Brooke Bannister, Sheila MacDermott, Diana Byford, Ray Jones, . . .
• And BC’s former assembly staff: Marilyn Jacobson, Don MacLachlan, and Leo Perra.