The issue:
Provincial politics
WE SAY:
STV referendum might help us break our 'vote them out' cycle
Imagine if elections were about who actually had the best vision, not who needed to be punished for the past and who would be rewarded by default.
Sadly, imagining it is about as close as you're going to get to that in B.C. these days.
The provincial election campaign officially gets under way this coming week - although it's really been going for more than a month, judging from the flood of government spending announcements - and the B.C. Liberals are going to be punished in many quarters for their policies and their style of government, make no mistake.
But it cuts both ways: punishment of their NDP predecessors and the quirks of the first-past-the-post electoral system is what got the Liberals 77 out of 79 seats in 2001.
"Throw the bums out" is the attitude we see so often in all levels of government in B.C., perpetuated by frustrated voters, hungry opposition parties and yes, the media. If the bums weren't quite bad enough to get thrown out - or if the alternative is seen to be worse - then they get re-elected. Otherwise, it's time to make way for a whole new bunch of bums-to-be.
That makes this provincial election all the more interesting. B.C. voters have the chance to choose not only a new government, but a new way of choosing the next one.
The referendum on adopting the Single Transferable Vote (STV) system of election to replace our current first-past-the-post system, if adopted, could have some major effects on that throw-the-bums-out tendency in B.C. politics.
With multi-member constituencies and the ability for voters to indicate not just a first choice, but a second, third or more, we could see a much different makeup to our legislatures - and even the possibility of government by consensus and compromise.
That comes with a price - the certainty and stability of majority governments that first-past-the-post elections consistently provide. But when those majorities are merely the result of the vote-'em-out mentality swinging back and forth, we have to ask if that's true stability.
In the next few weeks leading up to the May 17 vote we'll be looking at the pros and cons of the STV system - and also trying to look at the people vying for your vote in West Vancouver-Garibaldi on who they are and the issues they stand for, not just who they aren't.
Let the debate begin.
