Some commentators have said that the era of "electoral reform" has past. That's a real shame... our voting rates are generally dropping, perhaps in part because younger voters don't feel their choices are represented. Something like BC-STV will put more power in the hands of voters... and perhaps help kick-start a broader democratic debate. That's a good thing.

In 1996, the NDP won the provincial election with fewer votes than the Liberals. In 2001, the NDP had barely two and a half per cent of the seats in the legislature although they had about a quarter of the popular vote. The Green Party has had about ten per cent of the vote in the past two elections, but hasn't won a single seat. BC-STV helps make sure that more voices get representation in the legislature, and that each party's share of the seats is fairly close to their share of the vote.

If you've had to "hold your nose" to vote for someone even though you've liked another candidate better, BC-STV will benefit you. Instead of putting a single X by a candidate, you can rank your preferences for candidates: 1, 2, 3 etc. Ridings will be bigger, but they'll have more than one MLA. So there's a better chance of having a community-minded independent MLA along with MLAs from the bigger parties.

The Citizens Assembly looked at voting systems all over the world, and selected this one as the best for BC's needs.

BC-STV won't lead to the lop-sided majority governments of years past. But odds are, we'll probably have a few more minority governments. Looking at the federal situation, minority governments aren't a bad thing. Parties have to work together more closely. Governments are less likely to move too abruptly on issues