Todd Stone says, “One and Done” -- No need to fill in Question 2”. Respectfully, he and his fellow BC Liberal MLAs are wrong
From Todd Stone, to Tracy Redies, to John Yapp, to
Jane Thornthwaite, to Doug Clovechok, to Mike Bernier, to Lorne Letnick … the
list of BC Liberal MLA’s all singing from the same song book goes on and on as
their united voices all say, “Vote One and Done".
Let me say this … they, along with supporters of the
BC Liberal Party are WRONG!
Even IF you do support retaining our current system of and have no wish to change to some form of
Proportional Representation, it IS vitally important for you to vote on Question #2!
Despite the Liberals trying to persuade us differently, there is indeed plenty of information on the vote, and it is from an independent source – Elections BC. There you’ll find pretty much everything you
need to make an informed choice about the different voting systems, and the
different rules for each … including how voters cast their ballot, how
votes are counted, and how votes translate into seats in the legislature.
You’ll also find these important words (italics and
Bold added by me for emphasis):
- Whether you prefer First Past the Post, or a proportional system, depends on what’s important to you. No voting system is perfect – otherwise everyone would use the same system!
- Every voting system requires trade-offs between competing priorities.
- Neutral information from Elections BC will help you understand the characteristics of First Past the Post and the proposed proportional systems, but the decision about which system is best, is up to you
- get information from all sides in the debate to help make your decision.
The key information I got from that is that no voting system is perfect …
and even more importantly… the decision about which system is best for you, is
UP TO YOU.
Whether or not I support First Past the Post, what will
happen IF a majority of those casting a ballot support changing to one of the
three systems of Proportional Representation?
Voting One and Done,
as the BC Liberals are recommending, means the possibly of us not having a say
on how we vote in the next provincial election.
Instead it becomes a distinct possibility that ONLY those who answer
Question #2 will get to make that decision. Which must mean they are hoping a majority of
people vote to retain First Past the Post.
Let me ask you this, do you want to put all of your eggs in one basket in the hopes that is
what happens? Is that a risk you want to
take? That’s not a chance I am
willing to take, and that being the case, I do want to have a say if there is a
possibility we may indeed end up with one of the three option of proportional
representation.
Up until recently I had been considering support for
the Mixed Member option, although Rural Urban had an appeal to me as well – I may
have to reconsider that though.
What choice may fit best with your values? Try the survey yourself by CLICKING HERE. When you do, here’s what you will find
before you even begin:
Reasonable efforts have been made to make the questions and results as free from bias as possible, although inevitably some informed judgements had to be made in their preparation.
Elections BC has reviewed related materials, and
exempted their presentation and distribution from requirements to report as
referendum advertising.
They also give some good advice right up front:
- There are no wrong or right answers, just your own personal opinions!
- Try not to jump to conclusions about where the survey is headed.
- Below each question is an importance scale. Be honest with yourself as to how much you really care about the question you just answered. This helps improve the accuracy of your results, so don't be afraid to say you don't care about some things!
So how did I score after doing the quiz?
I ended up with Rural / Urban, as my first choice, with a
score of 48 out of a possible 90 -- Dual Member was second with a score of 43 -- while Mixed Member was a very
distant 18 out of a possible 90. It
seems that my search for information is leading me to perhaps make a better informed
choice – and that’s a good thing.
Recently, BC Liberal leader Andrew Wilkinson stated, “How we elect MLAs is fundamental to our democracy”.
While
he is absolutely right in what he said, there is something missing from that statement
-- thinking for ourselves. In doing
that, I feel fairly certain those reading this will realize why it is important
we answer question #2, despite what the BC Liberals are telling is to do.
Here are a few other things important to keep in mind,
and these are not my words, they are the words of Election BC:
- the total number of MLAs in the legislature will be between 87 and 95 (currently there are 87)
- no region in the province will have fewer MLAs than it does now
- another referendum will be held after two general elections to see if B.C. wants to keep the new voting system or go back to using First Past the Post
In my own area of the province, Kamloops North
Thompson MLA Peter Milobar says … “I
fully respect people’s right to vote how they want to and keep that private. However,
after having so many people asking me how I’m voting in this confusing
referendum, I thought I’d share this with you. I’ll be voting one and done.”
Next door in my own riding of Kamloops South Thompson, MLA Todd Stone says … “One and done! No need to fill in Question 2”
Next door in my own riding of Kamloops South Thompson, MLA Todd Stone says … “One and done! No need to fill in Question 2”
Respectfully, both they and their fellow BC Liberal
MLA’s are wrong – seriously wrong!
All of this leads me to one final question for you to
consider … “Why are the BC Liberals
telling us to only answer question #1, and thereby leave the choice of how we vote
in the future up to those who answer question 2?”
In Kamloops, I’m Alan Forseth, and I hope
you’ll join the discussion on this, or any other topic presented here. Do
you agree … disagree? Post your thoughts in the Comment Section directly below.
I see two major issues with the referendum
ReplyDelete1) MLAs are in a conflict of interest and should have been bared from talking about the referendum. This is about how we choose them not what system they want us to choose.
2) The three alternatives are all bad with one being OK for most of BC but bad for rural BC. I have no idea how they came up with the three on offer but it is like they were looking for bad options.
I have just spent two days working to understand Dual Member Proportional. My simulations gave me results that are not intuitive and I think would not be acceptable to people in BC.
For me the core importance of the electoral system is that it takes public will and does a good job of translating that into representation. What I think is of most importance to accomplish this an end to strategic voting and rewarding candidates and parties that do not negatively campaign.
By the way, the quiz you mention has some errors in it. As an example campaign behavior it lists MMP has being less negative than First Past the Post and this is patently untrue. It does the same for DMP but there is no evidence that this is the case.
ReplyDeleteIt also lists MMP and DMP as being ones in which you would not strategically vote. I do not think DMP would be better than FPTP but I do know that MMP is all about strategic voting, it is core value of the system.
There are piles of errors in the quiz to favour MMP and go specifically go against FPTP. Whoever designed it is either incompetent or wants to skew people towards MMP. I tried to answer for FPTP and specifically not MMP and the two tied with DMP beating both of them.
Total MLA’s will be between 87 and 95. Now isn’t that special we could end up with a system that has 8 more MLA’s, their salaries, their staff salaries, office space etc. Just what we need bigger government!
ReplyDeleteIt depends on which system wins - DMP would retain current number of MLAs, while MMP need the most of up to 8 more... so would it not make sense for you to determine which of these would in fact create no growth in gov't and rank it first choice on your second question? Having said that - maybe a handful of extra representatives is a fair trade off for actually reducing wasted votes, fully representing all regions in our government and making sure all voters felt they can make a difference in an election?
DeleteI agree Alan. The Liberal party is being disingenuous about pro rep. They are using the future lower mainland vs rural bc hype, while currently, there is not a sitting government member in the vast majority of rural bc, under the current system. They also Don't elect their own leader under fptp. Go figure.
ReplyDeleteStupid idea to leave the second question blank, but selfishly, I like it because that makes my vote more powerful. Instead of my voting counting as 1 in 1 million, if half decide not to answer, my vote is now worth 1 in 500,000. Cool beans.
ReplyDeleteOh, and I'm of the opinion that the 3rd option is the best of the lot (not that I like any of them in particular) because it does have some STV in it, albeit just for more urban areas.