BC’s Citizens’ Assembly on

Electoral Reform

Prepared by Wendy Bergerud(updated May 2013)

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.

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.

BCCAER Mission:

Look at Voting Systems and decide

if a change should be considered.

Photo by Kent Kallberg

Podium

Main Room for Plenary Sessions

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

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.

How would we measure success?

That our decision, whatever that might be, would be agreed to by

most of us.

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

Learning Phase

Photo by Doug Waller

Photo by Doug Waller

Small Discussion Groups

an opportunity for the quiet ones to get a word or two in

Photo by Fred Shum

Public Hearings

One member’s attempt to spread the word!

Photo by F. W. Zens

Cartoon by Chuck Walker

From our resident Cartoonist: Chuck Walker

Photo by Doug Waller

Summer Vacation

Reading 1600 submissions!

Cartoon by Chuck Walker

Deliberation Phase

How do we make this OUR decision?

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.

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.

Photo by Doug Waller

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)

Finalizing our Report

Photo by Doug Waller

Cartoon by Chuck Walker

Mission Accomplished!

Photo by Kent Kallbert

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.

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 ???

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.

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

.

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.

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%).

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

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.