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Island Tides
September 9, 2004
Citizens'
Assembly Faces Decision Time
September 9, 2004
BC’s Citizens Assembly on
Electoral Reform wrapped up its public
consultation at the end of June with
seven meetings (the last of 50) in one packed
week in the Okanagan. A summer break is
giving its 160 members a chance to catch
up on their reading and decision-making meetings
will start September 11 in Vancouver.
There’s a lot of reading to
catch up on. Over 900 written
submissions have been received from the
public, and 387 further presentations were
made at the public meetings. Submissionsreceived before August 13
are archived on the Assembly’s
website and made available to all members
of the Assembly before September 11; submissions
received after that date will still be considered.
Five weekend meetings in
Vancouver are scheduled for the ‘decision-making’
phase, with a sixth possible.
‘If we are going to recommend
a change, we should know that by
weekend four (October 23-24) so that we
can then begin working on the wording
of a referendum question,’ says assembly
chair Jack Blaney.
If they recommend a change, it
will be the subject of a referendum for
all voters in the May 2005 provincial
election. The final report must be
completed by December 15, 2004; Blaney
has confirmed that the office of the Assembly
will disband by December 31.
MMP: For and Against
Hearings throughout the province
heard a preponderance of opinion
favouring a change to Proportional
Representation (PR) from the present
FPTP (‘first past the post’) system of electing
MLAs to the provincial legislature. A New
Zealand style MMP (Mixed Member Proportional)
system has received the greatest support.
Speaker Tom Hoenish in Penticton
thought PR would raise the level of
debate in the Legislature. Kevin Barry
agreed; MMP, he said, is more likely to
produce consensus-based government: ‘the
tyranny of the left and of the right
will be broken’. Cass Robinson and the Penticton
Raging Grannies sang: ‘politics will moderate
here in our own BC.’ Two speakers who
had voted under MMP in Scotland and Northern
Ireland said that partisan debate would
continue; however, they thought that MMP
would work in BC.
At the Kelowna hearing, many
speakers also endorsed MMP. But former
Socred cabinet minister and broadcaster
Jim Nielsen said that PR would be ‘a
monumental error of judgement’. ‘Why
would we wish to empower small segments
of society with influence inconsistent
with their political base? ‘He continued:
‘Would we want power-brokers constantly
putting their votes up for sale among
those larger groups seeking to overthrow
the government of the day, if their own
self-interests were met at the expense of the
well-being of the province?’
Nielsen said: ‘It would divide
the people into small interest groups
promoting religious differences, ethnic
origins, single-issue zealots ….’ But
Devra Rice said in Kelowna: ‘Our government
should not be based on win-orlose. It’s
not a hockey game….’ And Patty Weston:
‘MMP facilitates a move away from a competitive,
adversarial working environment within
government, to a more co-operative, collaborative,
and harmonious work culture.’
In the public meetings, there
has been a clear desire for change, and
PR/MMP appears to have the most
support.
The Citizens Assembly website,
which is very Comprehensive, is atwww.citizensassembly.bc.ca. |
