Events


Past events:

A Conversation with Shoni Field

At 7pm on Wednesday, March 19th, former BC Citizens' Assembly member Shoni Field will speak at Edmonton's Strathcona Public Library (8331-104 Street) about her experiences on the Assembly and its applicability to the situation in Alberta.

The BC Citizens' Assembly was a groundbreaking and uniquely Canadian exercise in democracy. It was created by the Government of British Columbia with the unanimous support of the BC Legislature. It was an independent, non-partisan assembly of citizens who examined the province's electoral system--that is, how votes determine who gets elected to sit in the provincial legislature.

Field, together with 159 other British Columbians randomly selected from voters' lists, spent 11 months in 2004 studying electoral systems in use around the world, holding public hearings, accepting public submissions, and finally reaching a decision. Together, the Assembly chose to recommend a fair voting system called BC-STV over the current first-past-the-post system. In May 2009, British Columbians will vote in a referendum to choose between the two systems.

Fair Vote Alberta is calling on Premier Stelmach to convene an Alberta Citizens' Assembly based on the BC model. This Citizens' Assembly would study the voting system and determine whether a better alternative exists for this province. Just under half of Alberta voters voted for opposition parties in the recent 2008 election, but together those parties won only 11 of 83 seats.