The Citizens' Assembly

The Citizens’ Assembly was 160 ordinary voters that took on an extraordinary task. Our electoral system was broken, and politicians knew they couldn’t fix it themselves. The legislature voted unanimously to turn the task over to an independent Citizens’ Assembly. Drawn randomly from the voters list, there was a man and a woman from every constituency. These committed citizens spent 11 months learning, researching and listening to the people of BC. People around the world watched this remarkable exercise in democracy with excitement. It succeeded beyond all expectation, with 95% of members reaching the consensus that BC-STV would be best for BC.

Their recommendation went straight to the people of BC in a referendum on May 17th 2005. Dismayed at the lack of public education, 141 members committed themselves to continue working together to raise awareness and answer voter’s questions. The Citizens’ Assembly Alumni gave hundreds of presentations across the province.

BC-STV was supported by 58% of voters in the referendum, falling just short of the unprecedented 60% threshold. Even more remarkably, BC-STV got 50% plus support in 77 out of 79 constituencies. For the Citizens’ Assembly, who had worked hard to find a solution that met the needs of both urban and rural BC, this broad based support was proof that ordinary citizens’ can take on an extraordinary task on behalf of their fellow citizens.

The Citizens’ Assembly worked for 11 months in 2004. They spent an initial six weekends in Vancouver learning about electoral systems, BC’s electoral history and changing demographics.

They then issued a preliminary report and set out to travel the province, asking British Columbians “How would you like to see politics conducted in BC?” There were 50 public hearings across the province, drawing thousands of people. A further 1613 people sent in written submissions, which members spent the spring and summer reading. They met for a weekend in Prince George to share what they learned and identify what concerns British Columbians shared.

Set with a list of three shared values: fairness/proportionality, effective local representation and voter choice, they returned to Vancouver in the fall for six weekends of deliberation. They first assessed all five electoral system families against the shared values and narrowed their choice down to two systems: STV and MMP. They then built working models of both systems so they could compare them in detail. Measuring both systems against British Columbian’s wish list they determined that STV was best suited for BC.

The Citizens’ Assembly listened to British Columbians who told them they wanted a fair and proportional system with improved local representation and greater voter choice.

Based on those three values, they short listed two systems, STV and MMP, and then assessed which best met the criteria. Both were equally proportional. They provided different types of choices to the voters and the Assembly decided that STV, where the voter has the final choice on which candidate is successful, was a better fit with BC’s values. Both provided local representation, however MMP retained the weaknesses of our current first past the post system. STV made local contests more competitive and provided greater incentive for responsive local representation. STV was equal or better on all three of British Columbian’s key values.

In addition, the Citizens’ Assembly did their due diligence checking that STV was consistent with British Columbian’s wishes with regards to accountability, economic performance, stability of government, representation of women and minorities, and addressed the concerns of both urban and rural British Columbians. STV passed with flying colours.

For all of these reasons, the Citizens’ Assembly felt STV was the best electoral system for British Columbia.  We encourage you to read their final report, Making Every Vote Count.