MILOBAR – Don’t be fooled by PR’s claims about sunshine and roses

By PETER MILOBAR
MLA, Kamloops-North Thompson

THE PRO-PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION (PR) campaigners in this province will have you believe that changing B.C.’s electoral system from first-past-the-post to a form of PR will result in nothing less than sunshine and roses in B.C. politics.

Gone will be the ‘divisive’ nature of Legislative debate. Instead, we’ll see a harmonious exchange of good ideas and a willingness on the part of government to pass all of these good ideas, no matter which party brought them forward.

At the heart of the pro-PR sales pitch is the idea that if a party gets 40 per cent of the vote, it will get 40 per cent of the power. It’s a great little tagline, but here’s the reality: there’s no guarantee under PR that if your party gets 40 per cent of the vote, you get to introduce 40 per cent of the legislation in the House.

That promise does not appear in any of the literature I’ve seen on this issue — which isn’t much, for the record, because we know British Columbians are being denied dozens of details on how PR might actually work.

But here’s another reality check: we don’t need to change our electoral system to see more contributions from other parties in the Chamber. There are currently 21 private members’ bills from both the BC Liberals and BC Greens that are not being brought forward for debate.

The current government could call these bills for debate, and work with us to pass them for the benefit of British Columbians. These bills represent about 50 per cent of the seats in the Legislature and 60 per cent of the vote in the last election.

Some examples of bills that will never see the light of day due to the NDP government refusing to allow for debate include the Safe Care Act, which would give parents of young teens the legal right to step in and force them to undergo treatment, and the High Dose Influenza Vaccine Act which would ensure every senior in our province has access to the high-dose influenza vaccine at no cost.

That type of move on the part of the NDP government wouldn’t require a change to the rules of the House, or to our democratic process. It wouldn’t require the rushed and confusing referendum process we’re experiencing right now. All it would take is a little bit of leadership.

The government could make good on all of its talk about fairness and doing things differently, and through its actions, actually change how the Chamber operates.

But that’s not what the NDP is doing. We continue to wait for those private members’ bills to be debated, but with the Legislative session set to end on Nov. 27, I’m guessing it’s not going to happen.

No, instead of working together with all parties in the House, the NDP and Greens are ramming through a fundamental change to our democracy with little debate and few details, to keep themselves in power as long as they can. And a number of the facts that they and the pro-PR campaign are sharing sound good, but are quite misleading.

The idea that whoever holds 40 per cent of the votes holds 40 per cent of the power is impossible, because under PR the reality is that whoever holds the balance of power is in control— i.e. those with five or 10 per cent of the vote, propping up the coalition.

Make no mistake, that’s what’s happening with this PR referendum. The Green Party, comprised of just three representatives, is being rewarded for propping up this precarious NDP government at any cost. Never mind that the Greens are opposed to LNG and the Site C project— they have failed to bring down the government over these issues and have chosen to walk in lockstep with them instead.

So, in return, the NDP are skewing the referendum process as much as they can to give their Green partners the gift of PR, which will guarantee the Greens many more seats in future elections.

To make matters worse, now the premier is trying to change information after many people have voted. If PR passes, John Horgan now says that when the all-party committee of the Legislature meets to decide the details after the referendum, he will instruct his NDP MLAs on the committee to oppose a closed-list system. What else will he instruct the committee to do, that he hasn’t disclosed yet?

Since we know the Greens don’t like the closed-list approach, and the NDP-Greens have a majority on the committee, that means that type of system is off the table. He is effectively taking one of the options off the ballot, right in the middle of the referendum.

If that’s not political interference, I don’t know what is. Horgan’s comments show that it will be him, and not an all-party committee, that will decide how things will work after the vote.

It’s not fair, it’s not right, and it’s certainly not sunshine and roses. So don’t be fooled, folks. Demand better from your government and from the three Green MLAs holding them up.

Peter Milobar is the MLA for Kamloops-North Thompson.