May 18th, 2005

By Darren Barefoot

Filed under:
Politics
7 Comments »

BC Election: Good News, Bad News

Good news: The Liberals were re-elected, but with a strong opposition in the NDP.

Bad news: No Green Party candidates were elected. This is not a surprise, but we can always hope.

Good news: There are no numbers yet, but advance signs show voter turnout to be very strong. This is a little inexplicable, in light of the low-key, scandal-free campaign.

Bad news: For NDP candidate Tim Stevenson and Liberal candidate Walter Lloyd Cobb, who are behind in their results by 1 and 13 votes respectively (thanks to Donna for this). Final counts will adjust these numbers, obviously.

Good news: A small consolation for the Greens, in that they held onto the majority of the support they won in 2001. That year, they went from 2% to 12.4%, and in this election have fallen back to 9.1%.

Worst news: Looks like the STV vote won’t make it through, as it’s currently at 57% Yes. I’m not sure what the longterm effect of this will be. Will there be another referendum in 4 years? Will the legislature consider other reforms? Does this type of electoral reform require a referendum?

Ultimately, I’d say the STV got screwed by the current federal government fiasco. The gridlock in the House of Commons probably put the fear of minority governments into a lot of undecided voters.

Comments: 7 Responses so far

Tod
May 18th, 2005
2:38 pm

Totally agree with your assessment of STV “failing” because of fears of a minority government.

What bugs me, though, is this seemingly arbitrary 60% number.

In traditional Roberts Rules of Order (or Canada Code, which B.C. has adopted as its rules of order) there are only three outcomes for a vote:

– 50 Plus One: Most votes are conducted this way — a simple majority; 50% plus one vote is required to pass. The Chair can cast a vote if it changes the result of a vote (i.e. A tie vote, or one vote short of a tie vote — in the latter case, if Chair votes for the side that’s down, it will cause a tie which defeats the motion).

– Two-Thirds Majority: Used for adoption of, or amendments to, a constitutions or an organization’s bylaws.

– Unanimous: Used rarely; largely ceremonial.

So I’m totally baffled as to who came up with the 60% rule. In Canada Code, this would probably require two-thirds as it would amend the bylaws.

I’m sad it didn’t pass, though. I’m always disturbed when a majority of people vote for something (think Al Gore) and it still doesn’t pass.

donna
May 18th, 2005
2:57 pm

psst — other way around. Vancouver Burrard is 13 apart, Cariboo South is 1 apart. :)

donna
May 18th, 2005
2:58 pm

hmm… although they’ve evidently updated Cariboo South, and the NDP is now 27 votes ahead.

Imo
May 18th, 2005
3:16 pm

oh yay this is the best news I’ve heard all day -I thought the NDP had won vanc.burrard. I was so mad I was going to move. Now maybe won’t have to move. :)

Chris
May 18th, 2005
3:27 pm

Don’t rule out STV quite yet:

http://vancouver.cbc.ca/regional/servlet/View?filename=bc_stv-campbell20050518

Andy
May 18th, 2005
9:51 pm

Well if Vancouver-Burrard re-elected Mayenclown then I’ll thank my lucky stars I live in Vancouver-Fairview. Oh well at least St. Paul’s is going to move so Mayenclown will have to resign sooner or later. As for the Greens, all they do is elect right-wingers so the less said about them, the better.

Chris
May 19th, 2005
11:11 am

Personally, I voted Green instead of Liberal (those are the choices it came down to for me), so it’s not like I “took a vote away from the NDP”.

This is why STV is so important – it makes vote splitting a thing of the past.