By Two & Out

Proposed proportional representation models don’t jive with Westminster system of government

Jun 15, 2018 | 1:48 PM

BEFORE THE PEOPLE OF B.C. consider changing the current electoral system to some form of proportional representation, they should realize how incongruous these proposed systems are with our current Westminster system of government.

So few people seem to understand that, here in B.C. as in other provinces in Canada and for our federal government as whole, we don’t actually elect the government.

We elect individuals, and those individuals are meant to represent the interests of their specific ridings in the B.C. Legislature.

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Theoretically, we could elect an independent candidate, like Delta South did in 2009 with Vicki Huntington.

The head of state — that is, the lieutenant-governor sitting in for the Crown — asks the party with the most representatives to form government.

If that party can’t govern, the lieutenant-governor asks the party with the second-most seats if it can form a government.

Sound familiar?

That’s exactly what happened here in B.C. just last year.

We have an NDP government despite not electing them at all.

The party with the most seats was B.C. Liberals, but they couldn’t govern, so Lieutenant-Governor Judith Guichon asked John Horgan’s NDP if it could.

He said yes, and sure enough, the NDP government hasn’t fallen – yet.

The three proportional representation options proposed by Solicitor General David Eby all pre-suppose we vote for parties, not individuals.

Once all the votes in the province are counted, the representatives are partly-distributed throughout the province based on party lists.

For those not happy that their chosen party didn’t win the riding, they’d be comforted knowing their vote resulted in some representative being chosen somewhere.

Unless they voted for an independent.

But frankly, why would an independent, or any candidate running on a particular issue or principle rather than a party platform, even want to run?

In practice, many of us do vote for parties instead of individuals, but in theory, that doesn’t work in our Westminster system.

If we’re interested in changing our voting system, we have to change our entire system of government first.