Photo credit: Province of B.C.
An all-party MLA panel has made a pit stop in Key City on Wednesday (July 10) to get some feedback on B.C.’s democratic election process.
The Special Committee on Democratic and Electoral Reform was appointed in April to examine democratic engagement and voter participation, as well as to review the administration of the 2024 provincial election.
“I think the common thread that we have heard is that there is a need for voter engagement, a need for folks to get involved in the system and a way for us to help do that,” said Surrey-Newton MLA Jessie Sunner, who heads the Committee. “I think that’s something that’s a major priority of our entire committee.”
Sunner added that there has been an appetite for change from the current first-past-the-post system, though one side may just be more vocal than the other.
Longtime teacher and Columbia Valley advocate Andrea Dunlop said the current voting system just isn’t working. Dunlop ran NDP for the Columbia River-Revelstoke area during the last provincial election.
“We’re not seeing people who vote and how they vote in our communities reflected in our legislature, and I think that is making people not want to vote,” she said. “If they do vote, they don’t vote for their values, they don’t vote for what they believe in, they vote against something out of fear. We need to change that.”
Also in attendance were Cranbrook councillor Wayne Stetski and Jim Wiedrick, who ran to represent the Columbia-Kootenay-Southern Rockies as an Independent in the April federal election.
The Committee aims to table its first set of recommendations by late Fall or early Winter.
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