If New Westminster had its way, B.C. would have a new proportional voting system.
New Westminster was one of the few ridings that voted in favour of changing B.C.’s electoral system in the mail-in referendum that asked British Columbians if they wanted to switch to a proportional representation (PR) voting system.
In New Westminster, proportional representation won a slim victory with 50.96 per cent of the vote, beating FPTP. Voters in the Royal City favoured a mixed member proportional system, according to Elections BC data.
But provincewide, first-past-the-post system prevailed with 61.3 per cent of voters opting to retain the existing system. The binding referendum needed 50 per cent plus one to change the system.
“British Columbians have now spoken and chosen to stick with the current voting system,” Premier John Horgan said. “This referendum was held because we believe that this decision needed to be up to people, not politicians. While many people, myself included, are disappointed in the outcome, we respect people’s decision.”
Horgan’s NDP and the Green Party both campaigned for PR and the B.C. Liberals campaigned for FPTP.
B.C. Liberal Party Opposition Leader Andrew Wilkinson said retaining FPTP was about keeping power in the hands of the electorate.
“This was a flawed process from the beginning as the NDP stacked the deck to satisfy the Green Party and remain in power,” Wilkinson said. This has never been about improving our democracy, it was always about power and control.”
He said British Columbians elected to stick with a voting system seen as fair and not an open door to radicals.
Results from the second question, which asked voters to rank their three variations of PR, were aligned with the rest of the province. Mixed member proportional would have been B.C.’s new system if PR had won on the first question.
What ridings voted YES to proportional representation?
- Victoria-Beacon Hill
- Victoria-Swan Lake
- Vancouver-West End
- Vancouver-Point Grey
- Vancouver-Mount Pleasant
- Vancouver-Hastings
- Vancouver-False Creek
- Vancouver-Fairview
- Saanich North and the Islands
- Powell River-Sunshine Coast
- Oak Bay-Gordon Head
- New Westminster
- Nelson-Creston
- Langford-Juan de Fuca
- Kootenay West
- Esquimalt-Metchosin
