The Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform was created by the government of British Columbia, Canada to investigate changes to the provincial electoral system. On October 25, 2004, the citizens' assembly proposed replacing the province's existing first past the post (FPTP) system with BC-STV, a single transferable vote (STV) system. This recommendation was put to the electorate in a referendum in 2005 held during that year's provincial election. The provincial government required the referendum to achieve a super-majority of 60 percent of voters and simple majorities in 60 percent of the 79 districts in order to pass. The second of these thresholds was easily met, with a majority supporting the reform in 77 out of 79 electoral districts, but the overall vote fell short of the 60 percent requirement, with 57.69 percent of the votes in favour. A second referendum in 2009 on adopting the STV system also failed to pass carrying 8 electoral districts and 39.09 percent of the overall vote.

The assembly has been credited with inspiring experiments in Canada (including Ontario), Ireland and Australia among others.

History

During the 2001 provincial election, the Liberal Party promised to create a citizens' assembly to consider changes to the provincial electoral system (as opposed to forming a Royal Commission, as New Zealand did). The recommendation of the assembly would then be put as a referendum. In December 2002, Gordon Gibson submitted his report, recommending an assembly composed of randomly selected citizens, two from each of the province's 79 electoral districts. In April 2003, the Legislature unanimously adopted the concept and most of the details.

Selection process

Counting the chair, the BC Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform was composed of 161 members: one man and one woman randomly selected from each of BC's 79 electoral districts, two Aboriginal members and a chair. Assembly members were selected by a civic lottery that aimed for balance by gender, age group and geographical distribution of the population.

Between September and October 2004, the members deliberated over which electoral system to recommend, emphasizing three values deemed most important: fairness of representation, local representation and voter choice. Among the alternatives considered were a mixed member proportional system (MMP) and a single transferable vote (STV) system.

On December 10, the assembly's final report, titled Making Every Vote Count: The Case for Electoral Reform in British Columbia, was presented to the BC legislature by the assembly. It recommended changing the electoral system to a localized version of STV called BC-STV. A separate final report on the work of the assembly was submitted to the legislature by the Special Committee on the Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform in February 2005.

Outcomes

In May 2005, the recommendations from the assembly were approved by 57.7 percent of voters in a referendum and were supported by a majority of voters in 77 of the province's 79 electoral districts. However, the provincial government at the time required the referendum to attain a super-majority to pass, including:

  1. 60 percent popular support across the province
  2. 50 percent approval in 60 percent of the province's 79 electoral districts or 48 electoral districts

With the first condition unmet, no change ensued. Similar recommendations received support from 39.1 percent of voters in a follow-up referendum in 2009.

The assembly has been credited with inspiring and popularizing the concept of Citizens' Assemblies around the world, including in Canada (including Ontario), Ireland and Australia among others.

James Fishkin argued that because the process was not public, and was not widely understood, that the recommendations did not carry as much weight as they otherwise would.

The resulting assembly had representation biases due to its geographical selection,

According to André Blais, Kenneth Carty and Patrick Fournier, members of the assembly appeared dissatisfied with BC's current electoral system, while surveys of the public indicated it to be relatively satisfied.

Lang noted two similarities across the assembly: an interest in learning, especially about the political process, and a commitment to process once it started. She wrote, "this is likely to have contributed to the excellent working dynamic within the Assembly".

See also

  • Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform (Ontario)
  • Citizens' Reference Panel
  • Deliberative democracy

References

Further reading

  • P. Fournier, H. van der Kolk, R. K. Carty, A. Blais, and J. Rose, When citizens decide. Lessons from Citizen Assemblies on Electoral Reform (Oxford University Press, 2011).
  • R. B. Herath, Real Power to the People: A Novel Approach to Electoral Reform in British Columbia (University Press of America, 2007)
  • M. E. Warren and H. Pearse, eds., Designing Deliberative Democracy: The British Columbia Citizens' Assembly (Cambridge University Press, 2008).
  • Report of the Citizens' Assembly (Archived by UBC)
  • British Columbia Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform Website (2004)
  • The "Know STV" Campaign (urged "no" vote)
  • Simulation of BC elections using STV boundaries
  • Records of Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform are held by Simon Fraser University's Special Collections and Rare Books