On Oct 24, 2004, the Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform voted 146 to 7 to recommend adopting a new voting system they named BC-STV. On May 17, 2005, BC voters approved their recommendation with almost 58% in favour. However, the government had imposed an unprecedented double 60% requirement for accepting the proposal. Since the proposal received majority support in 77 of 79 ridings, the result was taken as a strong signal of popular support for electoral reform.

Therefore, on September 12 2005, Premier Campbell promised in the Throne Speech to put the question to the public again in November 2008 (later deferred to May 2009). In the meantime, the Electoral Boundaries Commission has been asked to draw up maps for both the current system and BC-STV. The government has also promised both sides funding to run advocacy campaigns. Read the government news release for complete details.

The Citizens' Assembly designed BC-STV to meet three key objectives which they thought were important for British Columbia:

-The new system will be more proportional, and will likely see more parties represented in the legislature

-MLAs will continue to be elected to represent geographic communities

-Voters will be given more choice in selecting their representatives

Here is a comparison of BC-STV with the old winner-take-all system.

Under the old system, communities were broken up into individual ridings. For instance, in the most recent election, Surrey was broken into 7 separate districts, each electing one member. Under BC-STV, all Surrey voters would have voted together to choose their seven MLAs. This type of multi-member district is necessary in any form of proportional representation. In a 7-seat district, any candidate capturing 12.5% of the overall vote would win -- so a party with 25% of the vote could elect two candidates, etc.

For another example, the Fraser-Fort George regional district, including the city of Prince George, is currently broken into three individual ridings. Under the new system, this district could be kept intact to elect its three MLAs.

To cast a ballot, voters would simply rank candidates in order of preference: 1,2,3...

Most voters will see one of their top three choices elected, so it is easy to see where your vote went, and very few votes are wasted. Under the old system, typically half of all votes do not help to elect anyone.