“YES” Campaign Thanks British Columbians For Their Support
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Should A Government With 46% Of The Vote Decide The Future Of Electoral Reform in BC?
It is now evident that a clear majority of British Columbians have endorsed the good work of the Citizens’ Assembly on Electoral Reform and voted yes to BC-STV. “Support for STV is much stronger than support for any one political party, and certainly more than the support for the new government, which was elected with only 46%” say Bruce Hallsor and Julian West, co-chairs of the Yes Campaign.
“A clear majority of British Columbians have voted for change, and we will be calling upon the government to implement that change in time for the 2009 election”, they added. It is particularly significant that although the technical requirement of 60% of votes was missed, the referendum did pass in more than 60% of BC ridings. In fact, at latest count, it looks like STV met the majority requirement in more than 65 ridings, which demonstrated broad support across all regions of British Columbia.
“With the benefit of hindsight, I believe it is time to the government to reconsider the highly unusual requirement of a 60% threshold for electoral reform” Hallsor said. “Prince Edward Island, New Zealand, and Ireland all used 50% as the threshold for their electoral reform referendums. We are not aware of any jurisdiction in the world that has set the bar at 60%” he added. “Unless this is reviewed, we are faced with the prospect of conducting the next election with a system that has been clearly rejected by the voters of British Columbia. This is really an untenable situation, which I expect the government will want to correct.”
“We congratulate this government on implementing the Citizens Assembly process, and having the referendum on the ballot,” said West. “Now that the people have spoken, we urge the new government to implement the people’s wishes and legislate STV in time for the 2009 election. A government elected with less than 46% of the vote has no legitimacy to deny more than 56% of British Columbians the system they want”, he added.
“STV was the overwhelming choice of the Citizens’ Assembly on Electoral Reform. Despite the fact that the government committed virtually no funds to public education about STV, a clear majority of British Columbians made up their own mind, and voted yes” say West and Hallsor. “We will be requesting a meeting with the Premier at the earliest opportunity to ensure that this issue is not dropped, and that the government moves with haste to implement STV for the 2009 election.”
Fair Voting BC, one of the citizens groups supportive of a Yes vote in British Columbia’s referendum on electoral reform, sees the approval of the referendum by 57% of the voters overall and a majority of voters in every riding and region of the province as a very significant step toward democratic renewal not only for British Columbia but for all of Canada.
“Premier Campbell and his government have shown remarkable leadership by initiating a process allowing voters to decide the best way to elect their MLAs. It is the first such initiative anywhere and is watched with great interest all across Canada,” said president John Vegt. “Perhaps with the benefit of hindsight the government may wish to reconsider the unusually high requirement of 60% approval, and bring this process to the successful conclusion it deserves”, added Vegt.
Nick Loenen, a keen observer of the assembly process notes, “The Citizens Assembly was a remarkable achievement. The 161 randomly selected ordinary citizens showed understanding of issues, commitment to their task, and civility in deliberations that is extra- ordinary. It is fitting and rewarding for them that a clear majority of British Columbian voters in all regions of the province affirmed the work they did for all of us.”
@ May 18, 2005