Dear Editor:
Letter writer Sally Gillies is concerned that electoral reform will reduce the clout of northern voters in the legislature (Burnaby Now, June 13). But electoral reform is not intended to change the balance of seats in different regions of the province.
In fact, the most likely electoral reform proposals will preserve the regional balance we have now, and will also ensure that there is local representation.
Elections B.C. currently places eight ridings in the “north” region. Under a proportional voting system that number would not change.
What would change is that those eight seats would more effectively represent the wishes of the voters across that region.
For example, in the last election, voters in those eight northern ridings elected six Liberals and two NDP members.
The popular vote across the region was 56 per cent Liberal, 33 per cent NDP, and 11 per cent for the Greens and others. Based on those numbers, a proportional voting system would have awarded four or five seats to the Liberals, probably three to the NDP and a possible one to the Greens.
That provides a truer picture of how northern voters actually voted, but it doesn’t change the total number of northern seats in the legislature.
The goal of electoral reform is to represent the views of as many voters as possible in the legislature. The problem with the current system is that it elects MLAs who represent only about half the voters in each riding (on average).
This problem is independent of the number of seats for each region.
Iain Macanulty, Burnaby
