B.C.’s electoral reform referendum includes two unprecedented options
Posted October 31, 2018 10:04 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – As referendum ballots hit mailboxes across the province, voters are being asked to consider two possible electoral systems that have never been put into action anywhere in the world.
Dual Member Proportional — developed by University of Alberta student Sean Graham — would create two-member districts where parties can nominate up to two candidates, while Rural-Urban Proportional is a mix of two other proportional voting systems: Single Transferable Vote for urban areas and Mixed Member Proportional for rural areas.
RELATED: Upcoming debate on Proportional Representation might be coming too late
The third option voters will consider, a pure Mixed Member Proportional system, has precedent in other parts of the world which politicians could conceivably study as they develop election strategies, but that is not the case with the other two options.
“It’s not so much that [politicians] are not going to understand how the systems work, they’ll figure that out pretty quickly, but they’re going to want to figure out how to game the system for maximum advantage… it would be a real challenge for them,” says UBC political scientist Max Cameron.
WATCH: Rural-Urban Proportional (RUP) via Elections B.C.
Dual Member Proportional for example would require political parties to make unfamiliar decisions of which several elections may be required to fully understand the mechanics.
“What are the implications of putting somebody on the primary candidate slot, and somebody else on the secondary candidate slot… where do you want to put your secondary candidates? These are the kind of questions that are going to be really new,” Cameron says.
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Graham however disputes the idea that newer proportional voting systems, like the one he created in 2003, will offer a substantially different experience from ones already being used in countries like New Zealand and Germany.
WATCH: Dual Member Proportional (DMP) via Elections BC
He adds that proportional representation is, by design, aimed at eliminating the kind of gamesmanship seen with the current first-past-the-post voting system.
“Whoever the voter chooses, that vote is going to have a positive impact on their preferred choice getting elected, and if it does end up failing to do that, the intent is also to make sure that there isn’t some severe harm that results from the voter voting their conscience,” Graham says.
Cameron adds that jurisdictions which have made the switch to proportional representation typically find the effects are far more mild, and happen over a much longer period of time, than what both proponents and opponents claim.
The deadline to submit your electoral reform ballot to Elections BC is 4:30 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 30.
