British Columbia: Proportional Representation

Proportional representation (PR) is a type of voting system used in a state’s elections regarding its government. PR is characterized by giving proportional representation to each political party’s popular vote. This means that the political parties number of seats is equivalent to the number of votes they win.

In the most recent Canadian federal election using first-past-the-post (FPTP), the Liberal Party gained 55% of the seats but had only won 39% of the votes. With PR, if a party had won 39% of the votes, they would have 39% of the seats.

NDP Premier, John Horgan, scrutinized British Columbia’s FPTP for unfairly restricting the representation of voters political views. Horgan began BC’s third referendum on electoral reform since 2015 with the hopes of giving eligible voters the chance to express their view on the matter. The ballots prompted the selection of either keeping FPTP or switching to PR. Under the PR option were three forms of the voting system that voters could rank. The PR options were: mixed-member proportional representation (MMP), rural-urban proportional representation (RUP), and dual-member proportional representation (DMP).

In December of 2018, the ballots concluded that the majority of the province prefers our present FPTP.

Proportional Representation Forms

Mixed-Member Proportional Representation (MMP)

Simply put, mixed-member proportional representation is a combination of proportional representation and first-past-the-post. Essentially, citizens vote for their preferred member of legislative assembly (MLA) in their electoral district as well as their ideal political party. A party’s riding ballots and party ballots are combined and that percentage will correspond to their seats. This is further refined by parties choosing between a closed list or an open list. A closed list entails the party choosing their MLAs for additional seats. Alternatively, the additional seats can be given to MLAs by voters ranking them in an open list.

Rural-Urban Proportional Representation (RUP)

Rural-urban proportional representation, allocates rural and urban electoral districts into separate forms of proportional representation. Citizens living in rural areas of BC would use MMP. While a single-transferable vote would be used by cities and suburbs. An urban voter can rank several candidates in their riding. A seat will be given to a candidate if they reach the minimum percentage of votes.

Dual-Member Proportional Representation (DMP)

Dual-member proportional representation allows parties to include a primary and secondary candidate in each riding. Once again, the percentage of votes a party receives will reflect on the percentage of seats allotted for them.

The Effect on the Under-Represented

For years now, British Columbians have debated between keeping FPTP or giving PR a try. Being a part of a democratic country means allowing citizens to have a say in who they want representing them in parliament. These citizens with that democratic right should include all people who are eligible to vote. This means we need a voting system that will equally benefit populations of all incomes, ethnicities, genders, religions, etc. Arguably, FPTP is known to benefit the well-off, while further marginalizing certain populations. For example, the Green Party has never been close to having a chance in federal elections under FPTP. With PR however, smaller parties are given the exact percentage of seats as they had votes. The number of seats they would get with PR is typically much more than they would have had under FPTP. Political parties have been under scrutiny for their shortcomings of inclusive campaigns. More often than not, political parties tend to gravitate towards the wealthy male population’s ideologies. This leaves other populations, especially women and low-income earners, disadvantaged.

A recent study in the United States was conducted to determine whether parties are bias to attracting the male and rich citizens [1]. Further, they wanted to know if under-representation of women and low-income earners could be lessened through a proportional electoral system. In seventeen out of the twenty-four studied countries, women tend to be more ideologically left-leaning than their male counterparts. The gravitation to left-wing views is even more noticeable for low-income earners compared to those of high-income. Out of all the study’s closely monitored countries, they all revealed better representation for the high-income citizens. The article concludes with the message that, “PR creates party systems in which the preferences of poor citizens are mirrored more equally” (92). Political parties under this electoral system eliminate the competitiveness of a sole “winner”. PR widens the playing field so that parties can both have room to accommodate all populations and still have a chance at representing their citizens. Therefore, the “parties in more proportional electoral systems will have greater incentives to take these subgroups of voters into account” (92).

References

[1] Bernauer, J., Giger, N., & Rosset, J. (2015). Mind the gap: Do proportional electoral systems foster a more equal representation of women and men, poor and rich? International Political Science Review / Revue Internationale De Science Politique, 36(1), 78-98. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/stable/24573479

[2] Broadbent, E., & Segal, H. (2018, ). The evidence is clear. canada urgently needs proportional representation. Globe & Mail (Toronto, Canada) Retrieved from http://ubc.summon.serialssolutions.com/2.0.0/link/0/eLvHCXMwrV1LT8MwDI5gXDgxxGsMpvyBjjRtmvaA0DQx7YoEErcqr6JJqOu6cYBfj901wAaCC5deUlWt7dqf49gfIREfsmDLJ4jCyKIAfcfSZWmRFBKUjyW2CAK6dHLrqM6db41p1e29ZOO67dzgrvkVR9IUEQEGv6kWAfJIYb3Vk2qolmzBXoc4EmyX7AGSFpieycfRR53heyvPz465iTaTA_LmX8wfM9nqAtwc5fivX9AlXfR7lapcTUdrszokO648IlMwKepaFlI6W1KDlBND2gw4UBT7q8vV8ystISAuaYX0C_V6p5E2ozN9m1N5TB4mt_fjadASMQRPgA5EkGjNbcit4ZapKNJhqGOZiMymzsSC2yzVMjQuNGkcAULhLFWcKQWpXqETK1h0QjrlvHRnhAIgEHGBoAaTcpZkQjMlLIAOlzoXJj1yigrI8fda1crkQkgszkreI_2NFVPNFl9XB17EeenFtMw_JfzrDRCxxflfT-iTfUBL62G42QXprOoXd9kMaxg0RgXXyWj8Dn3M4nc

[3] Miljan, L. (2018). Impact of proportional representation on British Columbia’s legislature and voters Fraser Institute.