The B.C. government is taking another crack at electoral reform.
The Legislative Assembly of B.C.’s Special Committee on Democratic and Electoral Reform is now accepting “written submissions about democratic engagement, voter participation and models for electing MLAs.”
The committee was appointed in April with a mandate to examine the above points, and to review the administration of the 2024 provincial general election.
With voter turnout between 53 and 59 per cent over the past two B.C. elections, it is not unreasonable to want to look at ways that might boost participation in upcoming elections. However, we’ve been here before. B.C. has had referendums on electoral reform in 2005, 2009 and in 2018. In the last one, 61.3 per cent of voters favoured sticking with the current first-past-the-post voting system. Mind you, this result involved the participation of only 42.2 per cent of B.C. voters.
While not opposed to having an alternative to our first-past-the-post voting system (provincially and federally), I’m not sure it would be enough. It might, if there were more meaningful differences between our official status parties in terms of their economic vision for our future. But parties have been reluctant to stray from a path that fosters economic inequality while diminishing our ability to have a collective voice that might contest the status quo.
Regarding economic inequality, as of 2025 (according to Statistics Canada data) 64.7 per cent of our nation’s net worth is in the hands of about 20 per cent of our population. This is unlikely to change so long as we continue down that path, set by neoliberal idealogues who champion things such as deregulation, privatization and the idea that wealth would “trickle down,” while removing democratic barriers that may hinder the pursuit of profit.
In a recent report, Simon Enoch of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives argues how neoliberalism has increasingly insulated economic policy from “democratic contestation,” leaving political parties “increasingly handcuffed – particularly in regards to economic policy.” In turn, Enoch says the only way political parties are able to differentiate themselves is through social policy. The resulting lack of real choice, says Enoch, is alienating constituents from political participation.
“Further fuelling this disaffection from politics is the experience of growing economic inequality, political power gravitating towards the ultra-wealthy, climate anxiety, the end of generational class mobility, and basic aspirations like home ownership or job security or a guaranteed pension increasingly out of reach for many,” said Enoch.
Clearly we need to do better when it comes to social policy (addressing things such as health, poverty, housing and education); yet here again political parties are handcuffed, this time by economic policy.
Enoch says people recognize, “perhaps even if only at a subconscious level, that we are enmeshed in crisis and politics-as-usual has no effective way to respond.” He says this “sense that something is broken” is being exploited by politicians and others who would have us target the most vulnerable groups in our society instead of “the actual cause of economic inequality, or climate breakdown, or gigified at-will employment or the end of intergenerational class mobility” – things are unlikely to change with a mere shake up of how we cast our ballots.
Those interested in making a submission to the electoral reform have until July 25 to do so at consultation-portal.leg.bc.ca/consultations.
