NEWS: Have Your Say on City Elections

The last time substantial changes were made to how we elect our local governments was in 1993 under then Premier Mike Harcourt. Now another former Vancouver mayor and the current premier, Gordon Campbell, is considering big changes at the local level.

Last fall, Campbell announced a task force to consider sweeping legislative reforms to how municipal elections are conducted in this province. The premier outlined the need for the task force during his speech to the annual Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) convention last October. This came in response to widespread concerns about campaign financing, something critics such as Vancouver Sun columnist Daphne Bramham have described as “our dirty little civic election secret.” 

But Campbell didn’t stop at who is paying for elections. He also suggested that questions such as giving corporations the vote, extending civic terms from three to four years and taking election oversight away from local government officials would be part of the task force’s mandate. 

The task force is also able to consider other items such as UBCM motions on electoral reform, but so far this body has only offered a mostly closed process to the public. When the task force was formed no representatives from the NDP opposition were appointed. As well, there are no public hearings scheduled, leaving the public only one option – sending in written comments by email or regular mail.

Given the many electoral reforms that could be considered, Think City and Fair Voting BC have created the online Civic Electoral Reform Survey as a way to make sure citizens have an opportunity to be part of a broader, grassroots process and to widen the discussion beyond the premier’s four concerns.

Why limit the task force’s scope to whether or not corporations get a vote? Many cities around the world in countries like New Zealand, Chile, Israel, and all member states of the European Union allow non-citizens to vote at the local level and Toronto Mayor David Miller launched a debate last year on bringing this to Canada.

There is also a need to revisit how we elect our city officials. British Columbia is the last holdout in Canada that makes use of the at-large system, a system that Justice Thomas Berger characterized in his 2004 electoral reform commission report as undermining the civic democratic system because it requires voters cast an essentially uninformed ballot.

Recognizing an emerging trend in other English-speaking countries, Berger further argued Vancouver be given greater flexibility in designing a proportional electoral system that best met the changing needs and expectations of its citizens. In 2005, Vancouver’s then Mayor Larry Campbell asked the province to make this change to the city’s charter, yet nothing has been done by Victoria in the past five years. The task force could now consider city council’s 2005 request as part of its review.

Going back 45 years to when renters won the right to vote in civic elections, our own history shows that making democratic change is a slow process. Moreover, it will only happen if citizens get out in front of the issues and demand that our elected officials take action.

Think City and Fair Voting BC will be gathering citizens’ views through the online survey and presenting these to city council and the parks board for inclusion in the City of Vancouver's submission to the provincial task force. Following this, our organization will make a submission to the task force by April 15, using the survey results and drawing on other civic democratic consultations, including the 2004 Berger Report and Think City’s Peoples’ Report.

Please take a few minutes right now and take the survey here before March 19. Make sure you have your say on this opportunity to reform our civic democracy.