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By Michael Reeve

ELECTORAL REFORM

Electoral reform committee could provide chance for changes ahead of 2026 municipal election: MLA Stamer

Aug 19, 2025 | 4:17 PM

KAMLOOPS — This summer, Kamloops-North Thompson MLA Ward Stamer has been helping lead a special committee on democratic and electoral reform for the B.C. legislature.

The committee is comprised of members from the NDP, Conservatives and Green Party, and is looking into how the previous election was held, if any concerns were raised, It is also examining the possibility of electoral reform through public consultation.

“Most of the people will obviously be proponents of changing our electoral system,” said Stamer, who serves as deputy chair of the committee. “There are a lot of people who are not happy with the first-past-the-post (system). They would look at other jurisdictions where you have a mix of either a single transferable vote or a combination of different ways of electing your official. We went through all the scenarios.”

The committee will make a recommendation to the legislature in early October, with the cross-party membership needing to find common ground to proceed. One idea put forth was to use the upcoming municipal election as a test run for alternatives to first-past-the-post, including a single transferable vote or ranked ballot.

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“I think what we will probably be recommending, for sure, is an opportunity for the municipalities to see if there is something they would like to try in their regions to see if that’s an option or not,” added Stamer. “And again, it’s totally up to the municipalities whether they want to do it or not, but I think it would give us a trial run on how it could actually be replicated through the province.”