Dear Members and Supporters of Fair Voting BC:

Thanks for Your Amazing Efforts

On behalf of the recently-elected Board of Directors of Fair Voting BC,
I am sending this message to you because you were on our supporters
list from last May’s electoral reform referendum.  Thank you so much
for all the effort you put in to make our legislature more
representative and ourpoliticians more accountable to all the voters of
BC.  Over 6000 people like you signed on as supporters, donated money,
volunteered time, put up signs, gathered in public rallies and shared
their hopes and vision of a more democratic BC with their neighbours –
it was wonderful to be part of.  We didn’t win, and that was deeply
discouraging, but the need for reform has not diminished, and we’re
committed to keep working for it.  This letter is an invitation to y ou
to continue working with us on this task.

BC Politics Still Deeply Troubled

The referendum vote was by no means an affirmation by the citizens of
BC that all is well with our politics.  Given the record low turnout of
barely 50%, fewer voters than ever found it worthwhile to cast a vote. 
Once again, our voting system gave one party majority powers when
voters did not give them a majority of their votes – a result that
three quarters of British Columbians continue to believe is
fundamentally unfair and unjustified.  Fully 66% of voters contacted in
a province-wide poll in July
supported "replacing first-past-the-post with a voting system in which
the percentage of seats a party gets in the legislature is more in line
with their percentage of the popular vote", so reform advocates are
clearly in the majority in BC and the government cannot be allowed to
forget it.

What Can We All Do Now?

We have been hugely encouraged by the resolve of our members who, at
our recent Annual General Meeting held in Vancouver, identified and
committed themselves to pursuing three priority areas:  (1) civic
reform, (2) ongoing public engagement & outreach, and (3)
considering a legal challenge to the constitutionality of Single Member
Plurality.  In addition, the members endorsed a shift towards more
devolution of initiative to local action groups.

The Board
has responded to this by establishing several initial working groups to
plan actions in most of these focus areas.  If you would like to work
with fellow reform supporters, please send an email to one of the
following email addresses – civicreform@fairvotingbc.com, localgroups@fairvotingbc.com or web@fairvotingbc.com – and we’ll get you in the loop, or simply visit the FVBC website and join one of our Google groups directly.

We Need to Hear From You

As we plan these and future activities, we can only accomplish our
goals with your help, so we need to know what democratic reform issues
matter most to you and what you’re willing to offer your time, talent
and donations to help us achieve.  Would you therefore please take a
few minutes to take a brief survey to help us understand how you would
like to partner with Fair Voting BC and to let us know how frequently
you’d like to get updates from us?  Click here to take our survey.

Coming Events

In our coming e-newsletters, we’ll let you know more about the projects
FVBC members around the province are working on.  In the meantime,
check out the list of coming events at fairvotingbc.com.  If you’ll be
in Vancouver on December 4th, we encourage you to register for the
Think Democracy Forum, co-sponsored by Fair Voting BC and Think City. 
This will be a great chance to meet with like-minded people and send a
message to city council that Vancouver voters want a fair voting system
now.  The event is free, but seating is limited - please register now
(see the Think Democracy Forum announcement and registration link on our website).

Thanks again for all your efforts at raising public awareness in the
referendum campaign, and we look forward to continuing to work wi th
all of you to bring about more fair, open, accountable, responsive
representation at all levels of government.

Yours,

Antony Hodgson
President, Fair Voting BC

PS:  I'm sure you'll be encouraged to hear that Minneapolis just used
Instant Runoff Voting and STV for the first time last week in their civic elections and that
Minneapolis's sister city, St. Paul, just voted to adopt IRV for their
next civic elections in 2011.  Congratulations to our Fair Vote
Minnesota colleagues for their success there!