Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform
Fair Vote Alberta is calling on Premier Ed Stelmach to convene an Alberta Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform. Such an Assembly would be based on the 2004 BC Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform, a groundbreaking and uniquely Canadian exercise in democracy.
What is a Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform?
In British Columbia and Ontario, the governments chose to create a Citizens' Assembly to examine different voting systems and choose the system the assembly members think is best for the province. The idea is that if the assembly decides that the current electoral system should be replaced with something else, then a referendum is held, and the voters of the province get to say whether they agree or not.
How are Assembly members chosen?
Both BC and Ontario decided that the Assembly would be made up of people from each constituency chosen at random from the voters list. In BC, two people were chosen from each constituency, one man and one woman. In Ontario, one person will be chosen from each constituency, half of the assembly members will be women and at least one will be aboriginal.
What did the BC Assembly decide?
After a year of studying electoral systems and holding public consultations, the BC Assembly decided that the province should replace the current voting system with a proportional system called the Single Transferable Vote (STV). A referendum on STV was held in May 2005 and 57% of voters (and a majority of voters in all but two constituencies) agreed with the Assembly's recommendation. However, the government had said that STV would only be adopted if a super-majority of 60% voted in favour.
What happens next in BC?
The same question will be put to another referendum in May 2009. The only difference is this time voters will know what the electoral constituency map will look like if STV is adopted. If at least 60% of voters and half of the voters in 60% of the ridings support STV, then that system will be used for the 2013 general election.