For more than 30 years, the Christian Heritage Party of Canada has supported the concept of proportional representation. The current system (first past the post) is flawed and — as its critics say — often allows individual candidates to win with less than 50 per cent support. If enough candidates from one party win, they can form a government with 100 per cent of the power, sometimes ruling brutally along narrow partisan lines. Like the one we have now in B.C.
So why will I be voting AGAINST change in the upcoming B.C. referendum?
Because the questions are rigged, the deck is stacked and the writing is on the wall. Since taking power last year with less than half the seats, John Horgan and Andrew Weaver’s NDP/Green government has been planning this referendum process designed not only to change the way we vote but to change the way we live in B.C. — permanently!
The simplest explanation as to why I will vote against the proposed change is this: if we had this system in place in the 2017 election, we would now have 15 Green Party MLAs instead of only three. If you make your living in a resource industry or if you think responsible resource extraction is a legitimate career, your livelihood is on the line. A permanent NDP/Green coalition will create so many obstacles to resource and energy development that investment and jobs will eventually disappear.
The second reason I will vote against the NDP/Green changes is that the same groups who say they are promoting PR so that “all voices will be heard in the Legislature” are not being honest. Take the current government’s gender-identity political approach to public education. They have no interest in diversity of opinion. In fact, they’re trying hard to purge out anybody — trustee, teacher, student or parent — who holds a more traditional view. That’s not diversity and inclusion; that’s arrogance and bullying by the Minister of Education.
The truth is the NDP and the Greens have stacked the electoral deck and all in their favour. They’ve made it harder for the smaller parties to raise funds from their members and they set up a scam to support themselves with your tax dollars … $27 million over four years to start off. Under their system, the BC Liberals, the NDP and the Greens will get money but not the smaller parties. Their threshold of 5 per cent of the votes province-wide will make it even harder for new parties to elect an MLA.
Early in discussions on electoral reform, I proposed a system which would have incorporated a preferential ballot, along with a form of PR. My proposal would have kept MLAs accountable to local voters (not “party lists”) while achieving a high level of proportionality. It would have kept costs down with no increases in the number of MLAs.
Most importantly, a preferential ballot or ranked ballot would have ended the fear of “the wasted vote” and would have encouraged people to vote their true convictions, knowing that their second and third choices would still count. My proposal never received even an acknowledgment from the committee; I then realized that they were not looking for all voices to be heard but only for an electoral environment where socialists and eco-activists would perpetually form government.
The two-question ballots being prepared by the government do not give voters any choice for Preferential Balloting or other systems.
The first loaded question on the ballot will ask whether you want to keep the flawed first past the post (FPTP) system or change it to a new flawed system. The second question asks what “kind” of PR but without any real choice. If the Yes-to-change votes win on Question #1, we will get one of their proposed systems and a lifetime of socialist government. I’m voting against this change in the hopes that British Columbians will one day elect some MLAs with backbone who will defend Life, Family and Freedom. Mob rule by socialists is not a pretty sight. I’m voting against the rigged vote for phoney PR.
Rod Taylor is the Leader of the Christian Heritage Party of BC. chpbc.ca