Photo: CBC
Premier John Horgan and Opposition Leader Andrew Wilkinson laid out their visions for the future of democracy in British Columbia Thursday night.
The rival politicians debated one of the more important choices ever put to British Columbians — whether or not to switch from the current first-past-the-post electoral system for provincial elections in favour of one of several proportional representation systems
Horgan supports a switch to proportional representation — mixed-member proportional specifically — and said the switch would reinvigorate democratic participation.
“Everywhere I go people tell me the electoral system isn’t working for them,” Horgan said. “This fall you have an opportunity to modernize the system.”
Wilkinson, on the other hand, favours keeping first-past-the-post. He said the process of switching systems has left too many questions unanswered.
“This is not how we should be running our system,” Wilkinson said. “Voting rights belong to you, the citizens of British Columbia, and it shouldn’t be monkeyed with.
British Columbians are currently voting on the choice in a mail-in referendum.
Source: CBC
Ben O'Hara
