Citizen's Assembly on Electoral Reform - BC

It started after the 2001 Provincial Election that Gordon Campbell appointed Gordon Gidson to form a Citizen Assembly to look at Electoral Reform for British Columbia.

You can check out the history, selection process and proceedings at Wikipedia.

The Citizen's Assembly is one of the most DEMOCRATIC BODIES that exists. Where average citizens take a major role in developing recommendations to the citizens at large. 160 average citizens took a year to study and discuss available options to our ELECTORAL SYSTEM. This group had 2 members from each of the 79 Electoral Districts, consisting of an equal number of male and female and a variety of ages with 2 aboriginal representatives. It was a good representation of the CITIZENSHIP of BC. The Assembly spent a year studying different Electoral System that is in use and recommended the STV - Single Transferable Vote.

With a large Majority of the CITIZENS voting in support of the Assembly's recommendation in 2005, but short of a super-majority the POWERS THAT BE, unceremoniously dumped it off to 2009. This to me is criminal and should not be allowed to happen.

How can we complain of the average person not voting or participating in our government or our system in general when we act in this way. It is not just the individual's who participated in the Citizen's Assembly and did the work. How do you think it is seen by the general public. Is it surprising that the 2009 voter turnout was the lowest ever in our history - 55.14%.

The Liberal Party, NDP or any other political party wanted nothing to do with ELECTORAL REFORM in any MEANINGFUL shape. If there was any true interest in ELECTORAL REFORM there would have been more of a push from someone. Even if the BC-STV was not exactly what was wanted some other form would have been promoted over the last 8 years. Instead ELECTORAL REFORM is nowhere to be heard and is almost a BAD WORD.

I have more trust in the Citizen's Assembly in this regard than anything a POLITICAL PARTY may want to promote. A POLITICAL PARTY has too much self-interest in maintaining its own POWER STRUCTURE than in DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS.