By Robert Hart
The B.C. Conference of the United Church recently endorsed the proportional voting option in this fall’s electoral reform referendum, following their General Council recommendation. More than 400 delegates from rural and urban communities across BC voted nearly unanimously in favour of pro-rep.
Why did the Church take this step?
Advocating for justice has been a long-standing part of the United Church tradition. The denomination is rooted in a concern for those who have been marginalized, and the church has long fought to end poverty, racism and discrimination, to help refugees and prevent war, to preserve the integrity of our ecosystem, and to pursue justice and reconciliation in Canada’s relationship with Indigenous peoples.
The United Church shares these concerns with many other denominations such as the Anglican, Catholic and Presbyterian Churches of Canada.
These injustices arise from a voting system in which those with more voice and more power are able to act in their own interests without being required to properly take into account the interests of others.
It would be hard to imagine a more exclusionary voting system than First Past the Post. In order to win a seat in the legislature, a candidate only has to win more votes than their competitors and in most cases, with a minority of the popular vote. This means that typically half the voters (and in some ridings, over 70 per cent of them) do not support their elected MLA. In B.C., this has some obvious negative effects. Minority perspectives in a region can be completely overridden, so supporters of the B.C. Liberal Party currently have no representation almost anywhere on Vancouver Island or in much of Metro Vancouver, and supporters of the NDP have no representation in most of the Fraser Valley and the Interior. The BC Greens won only three seats in the 2015 election, despite winning over 15 per cent of the popular vote.
Our current system also presents significant obstacles to electing a legislature that reflects the diversity of our province. Women continue to be under-represented in the legislature, and MLAs from various ethnic backgrounds have not typically been elected until their ethnic community comprises at least a plurality.
Young voters are also systematically under-represented in the legislature, and few politicians pay explicit attention to their concerns. And B.C.’s Indigenous peoples have rarely been able to elect MLAs who will represent their perspectives.
The way we vote is truly a civil rights issue, just as it is in the United States. It’s time for British Columbians to get what they voted for.
As political scientist David Plotke once said, “The opposite of representation is exclusion”, and exclusion is simply not compatible with our faith obligation to create a just and equal society.
This fall, we have an amazing opportunity to choose an inclusive way of voting that will move us much closer to the democratic ideal of representation for all British Columbians.
Robert Hart is a member of the Outreach, Peace and Justice Committee of Knox United Church in Terrace and the Contemplative Social Justice Network in B.C.. This piece was originally drafted by Terry Dance Bennick of Esquimalt United Church in Victoria and Antony Hodgson of St. Helen’s Anglican Church in Vancouver.
