Tom Fletcher’s column this week ends with a call to not vote on the three choices for proportional representation.
This is not a good idea.
READ MORE: B.C. VIEWS: The conquest of rural B.C. nears completion
There are reasons to vote to keep the current system: whether it is because you want to keep elections focused on local representation (despite what many say, every vote already counts in a legislature of local MLAs), don’t like the options for proportional representation (why is their no province-wide single transferable vote option?), or agree this referendum is not being run properly (imagine a scenario where yes wins 51-49 per cent and the new system beats the other two 34-33-33 per cent — that would mean this ironically first-past-the-post-times-two referendum could see a new voting system with 17 per cent selecting it as their first choice).
There is no good reason to not give a vote to what you may deem the “least harmful.” The system that appears to give the best voice to local, rural representation (there is a lack of maps and information, as outlined by Tom) would be the rural-urban proportional system.
Elections BC has unbiased information on the systems at elections.bc.ca/referendum.
So even if you vote no, please vote twice.
–Ed.