Burnaby residents rejected a proposal to change how B.C. elects its provincial legislators.
Voters in all four local ridings voted to stay with the first-past-the-post (FPTP) system in the mail-in referendum that asked British Columbians if they wanted to switch to a proportional representation (PR) voting system.
The results from Burnaby were closely aligned with the province at large, which voted 61.3 per cent to retain FPTP. The binding referendum needed 50 per cent plus one to change the system. B.C. voters will be using the familiar FPTP system during the next election.
Burnaby-Deer Lake – FPTP: 62.6 per cent; PR: 37.4
Burnaby-Edmonds – FPTP: 60.4 per cent; PR: 39.7
Burnaby-Lougheed – FPTP: 57.9 per cent; PR: 42.1 per cent
Burnaby North – FPTP: 59.8 per cent; PR: 40.2 per cent
“British Columbians have now spoken and chosen to stick with the current voting system,” Premier John Horgan said. “This referendum was held because we believe that this decision needed to be up to people, not politicians. While many people, myself included, are disappointed in the outcome, we respect people’s decision.”
Horgan’s NDP and the Green Party both campaigned for PR and the B.C. Liberals campaigned for FPTP.
B.C. Liberal Party Opposition Leader Andrew Wilkinson said retaining FPTP was about keeping power in the hands of the electorate.
“This was a flawed process from the beginning as the NDP stacked the deck to satisfy the Green Party and remain in power,” Wilkinson said. This has never been about improving our democracy, it was always about power and control.”
He said British Columbians elected to stick with a voting system seen as fair and not an open door to radicals.
Results from the second question, which asked voters to rank their three variations of PR, were also aligned with the rest of the province. Mixed member proportional would have been B.C.’s new system if PR had won on the first question.
