Reid Applauds Historic B.C. Referendum

Ottawa – MP Scott Reid, the Conservative Party Critic for Democratic Reform,commended the people of British Columbia for voting in favour of electoral reform in yesterday’s referendum. The referendum, initiated by the province’s unique “Citizens’ Assembly”, allowed voters to decide whether or not the province will adopt the voting system known as “Single Transferable Vote” (STV).

A majority of BC voters chose to support the STV model. However, under BC’s referendum rules, the referendum requires a victory of 60 percent for the changes to take effect.

The majority vote proves the merits of the “Citizens’ Assembly” model that developed the STV model. “The citizens of British Columbia have adopted a landmark process that, in itself, demonstrates a will to strengthen democracy in the province,” Reid stated. “This is an essential element of any major electoral reform – putting it in the hands of the people it affects.”

The Citizens’ Assembly consisted of ordinary citizens from all parts of the province. Two delegates (one male, one female) were selected randomly from each provincial riding, using a process similar to jury selection. Professional politicians were excluded from participating in the Assembly.

“The exclusion of active politicians was vital to the success of the Citizens’ Assembly”, Reid noted. “Each of us has an incentive to favour the system that will best assist our party to win a greater number of seats. It’s only because the politicians were kept out of the Assembly that the Assembly’s proposals had such great public credibility.”

Reid added that the Conservative Party strongly supports exploring changes to our electoral system. At the Conservative Party’s first policy convention, held in March, party policy was amended to state that the party will consider alternatives to the current “first-past-the-post” system, as long as certain criteria are met. Specifically, Conservative policy states that the model of electoral reform for Canada should first be approved by Canadian voters in a national referendum, as has been done in British Columbia.

As well, Conservative policy emphasizes that any new electoral system for Canada should

• preserve the link between MPs and their constituents;
• ensure that the population and geographic size of ridings remains manageable; and
• be designed so as not to strengthen the control of party machines over individual MPs.

“As parliamentarians, we should always be looking for innovative ways of improving our democratic system,” Reid concluded.

For more information or to speak with Mr. Reid
Please call (613) 257-8130 or (613) 947-2277.

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