We'll go out on a limb ... and pencil MLA Ellis Ross as a NO for this round of electoral reform voting

Skeena MLA Ellis Ross offered up more thoughts Tuesday on the
process of electoral reform in British Columbia
(From Legislature video feed)

With the Legislature now back in session, MLA's have been taking to the floor in recent weeks to expand on their thoughts on the electoral reform process now underway as we head towards the end of the mail in balloting at the end of November.

We outlined some of North Coast MLA Jennifer Rice's thoughts on the topic earlier this month and Tuesday it was the turn of Skeena MLA Ellis Ross to weigh in once again on the electoral reform debate.

Mr. Ross who has already gone on the record with his concerns related to the Referendum process already underway, was speaking on Bill 40, which is an amendment to the Electoral Reform Referendum which deals with the process following the Vote of this month.

Among his themes for the Legislature of Tuesday the need for an open and transparent approach towards the issue of electoral reform, something that he observes has not been the case as the current campaign has rolled out.

Having a referendum on electoral reform is a good thing, if the conversation is done in an open and transparent manner with complete information. Complete information. A government that sets in motion a referendum on electoral reform that will fundamentally change our democracy is wrong if it is not done in an unbiased setting, ensuring, without a doubt, that they've done everything they could to receive the will of the people. 

 That can only be achieved by giving the people all the information they need. It's a huge, complicated, expensive task to undertake, but for a topic as important as democracy, it's well worth it.

His presentation to the Legislature recounts some of the areas where he believes the government has strayed from original themes of how the process would move forward for the vote now underway.

Even recently it was pointed out that this side of the House has little faith and that we should get some more faith. It's not about faith. That's not the issue here. The issue is a lack of information.
Even before the lack of information topic comes up, how are we supposed to have faith in a government that broke promises in terms of an electoral reform referendum in the first place?

 The Premier, in the campaign stage, promised that there would be a simple yes-or-no question. It was simple. The reporter asked the now Premier: "So you are going to give them one system to vote on?" "Yeah, exactly." That's what the response was on May 1, 2017. Now it's not a simple yes or no. The question that the voters are being asked to choose from is one option of keeping the current system we have and three options of proportional representation, two of which have not been used in any place around the world.

 The second promise that was broken was that this should go to an all-party committee to engage the public on changing the electoral system: "…set up an all-party committee to hear from citizens and formulate a referendum question at the conclusion of that process." It was said by our now Premier to Fair Vote Canada, April 10, 2017 — another promise broken. Instead, the entire process was handled by one person, the Attorney General.

The Skeena MLA's commentary for the Legislature outlined some of the cost that the change towards a proportional representation system may deliver as well as the impact on the province's budget as new representatives are added to the Legislature, all requiring support staff and financial assistance towards their duties.

We already know that the confidence and supply agreement is already costing taxpayers $1 million a year to make sure that three members of the Green Party play nice with the NDP government and vice versa — the secretariat. It's costing $1 million a year.

 Now if you have a coalition of eight parties with all different agendas, how much is that going to cost? With all these parties, they're all going to need House Leaders, they're all going to need a wage, they're all going to need a whip. That's more cost. Then you're going to need staff for every one of these 12 parties. God forbid all 26 parties get in here. We'll spend months, if not years, negotiating confidence and supply agreements.

Mr. Ross also explored notes related to how Proportional government has been put in place in other countries and some of the issues that he believes could be brought to British Columbia using the system currently up for vote.

He also calls attention to the way that the referendum process has been introduced over the summer and how it has been a flawed approach to a change to the electoral system and how there are better options to put in place such change.

What's happening here is wrong. When people are coming to my office in Terrace and trying to ask me how to fill in the ballot for this referendum because they didn't even know the referendum was happening in the first place, there's something wrong. 

I agree with a lot of members in this House that said it would have been simpler if we had it in conjunction with another election and that it should have been sent to a people's assembly, a citizens' assembly. Let them deal with it at arm's length from government, at arm's length from politics. I agree with that.

The MLA from Skeena spent some twenty minutes exploring a number of themes related to the electoral process and the current vote, you can review his speech from the Legislature minutes here, starting at the 15:30 mark.

The video of his statement to the Legislature is also available from the Chamber Video Archive for Tuesday afternoon, again starting at  3:30 PM.

Update:  The Skeena MLA continued with his themes of debate into the Thursday afternoon session rising again to explore more of his concerns over the path the NDP government is taking. You can review the text of his commentary from the legislature minutes at 16:45 of the afternoon session.

The video of his statement to the Legislature is also available from the Chamber Video for Thursday afternoon, starting at the 4:45 PM mark


For more items of interest from the work of Mr. Ross in the Legislature see our archive page here.

A wider overview of the referendum discussion can be found from our ongoing roll call of discussion themes here.

For more background on the political themes of Victoria see our political blog D'Arcy McGee.