STV

To my great dismay, I have not seen a lot of commentary out there regarding the upcoming election in B.C., and the co-inciding referendum regarding the Single Transferable Vote. My first reaction to the idea of changing our electoral system to STV was, "When did BC voters turn into baseball writers, and when did out Legislative Assembly turn into the Baseball Hall of Fame?" With STV, voters will rank their top three picks in order of preference, with the result being:
The new system will be more proportional, and will likely see more parties represented in the legislature
MLAs will continue to be elected to represent geographic communities
Voters will be given more choice in selecting their representatives

This is not unlike Baseball Hall of Fame voting.

I have been on the "no" side of this issue since I first heard about it. This is mostly because of my rather deep-seated hatred of the proportional representation system that plagues European countries like Italy (governing party: a five-party coalition government... gee, wonder how they all get along?). At the same time; however, I must plead ignorance in some ways. I'm somewhat surprised that there hasn't been more debate in the blogosphere. But maybe there has been and I've been missing out.

The very best article I have seen about the STV referendum is over at Shenanigans. She has very nearly convinced me to vote for it. You would do well to read the whole thing, as well as the comments section where she expounds some more.

Sadly, there is no conservative party in this province. Perhaps the STV system will encourage a conservative party to form. I'm convinced that they could best the two seats won by the NDP in the last B.C. election, and with the STV this would certainly be true.

It pains me to have to pull the lever for any party with the title "Liberal". But since the other option is the NDP, there choice is obvious. And it is sure to be a closer race than 2001.