A majority of voters have said no to changing how we vote.
Elections BC spokesperson Anton Boegman officially announcing First Past the Post was the winner in the electoral reform referendum.
“Of the validly cast votes 61.3% supported first past the post and 38.7% supported proportional representation.”
And while it is a moot point now after two rounds of counting voters chose MMP among the three ballot options.
Worth noting the vote was not even close with only 16 ridings out of 87 in the province voting for ProRep.
Those ridings were on Vancouver Island, Vancouver proper, and in Kootenay-West.
Deputy Premier Carole James admitting this isn’t the result they wanted.
“The public has spoken and we will respect the results. We will use the existing First Past the Post for the next election. Are we disappointed? Yes there is no question.”
James also added that in her mind the electoral reform debate is over.
Oddly enough the leader of the official opposition who campaigned against proportional representation disagrees. Andrew Wilkinson would not close the door on another referendum.
“Well if there is a ground swell for change obviously that would have to be respected. But if it is going to happen again it is going to happen through a proper citizens assembly not through this whole process set up in the NDP cabinet room after having dinner with Andrew Weaver the night before. This was fundamentally wrong the way they went about it and the voters have told them that.”
He says the Greens have “a lot of self examination to do” after being the leading proponents of an electoral reform vote that has failed.
As for the Kamloops MLAs, Todd Stone says he was surprised but happy with the result.
Although it leaves him with some questions.
“18 months into the NDP Greens arrangement the Greens have not accomplished much of anything. In fact the compromised virtually every principle they hold near and dear. They said over their dead bodies would LNG would ever happen and LNG is happening. They stood up and said no the speculation tax and that is happening. They said they wouldn’t support Site-C and they are now supporting it. I am not sure exactly what the Greens have accomplished.”
The MLA for Kamloops North says it is clear after a third resounding ‘No’ for electoral change it is time to move on.
Peter Milobar says there is a political price to pay here but he didn’t turn his guns on the Premier.
“And frankly the Attorney General has a lot of questions he needs to answer. He is the one that designed this whole process and designed the three questions to select from. The lack of details was at the feet of him and Mr. Weaver for wanting to rush this through.”
The Premier was not available to respond but John Horgan did sent out a statement.
“British Columbians have now spoken and chosen to stick with the current voting system. This referendum was held because we believe that this decision needed to be up to people, not politicians. While many people, myself included, are disappointed in the outcome, we respect people’s decision.”
“British Columbians are passionate about our democracy. I want to thank everyone who turned out to vote in such strong numbers and express my gratitude to Elections BC for its work running a fair referendum that engaged people throughout B.C.”
“Since forming government, we have been working to make life better for people. We’ve already banned big money and introduced tough new restrictions on lobbyists to put people back at the centre of our politics. There’s a lot more work to do, and our government is going to keep working with our partners in the B.C. Green caucus to make government work for people in B.C.”
