David Eby’s last minute plea to BC voters to abandon Emily Lowan’s Greens comes in the face of projections showing that the BC Conservatives are likely to form a false majority government with as little as 42% of the popular vote.

It’s not too late for David Eby and the BC NDP to commit to act on the recommendations of BC’s all-party committee on Democratic and Electoral Reform.

Voting Green, according to Eby, is too big a “risk”. He worries that British Columbians will “wake up on October 25 and wonder how someone who shares bizarre anti-vaccine views” could become the health minister.

The explanation for how any party could get all of the power with 42% of the vote, and why any big tent could be captured by people on the extremes, lies squarely with our winner-take-all voting system.
Keeping first-past-the-post was a risk David Eby was willing to take.

Last November, BC’s all party-committee on Democratic and Electoral Reform - consisting of MLAs from the BC NDP, BC Conservatives, BC Greens and One BC - unanimously recommended a BC Citizens’ Assembly on Electoral Reform, whose first principle to consider would be proportional representation.

Their recommendation followed a province-wide consultation in which 93% of participants, including 46 groups, called for proportional representation.

Only proportional representation would ensure that most British Columbians would see their votes count no matter who they vote for or where they live.
Only proportional representation will do away with the risk of “majority” governments with far less than half the vote.

Eby’s terse and dismissive response to the committee’s recommendation at the time - “I’m not interested in that” - was a short-sighted one, that he should be encouraged to reconsider.

Any leader that truly wants to ward off US-style politics and avoid a divisive two-party system that empowers the extremes should embrace proportional representation.

Winner-take-all voting puts many BC voters in a no-win situation, fuels cynicism, and is responsible for many voters simply not showing up.

Is David Eby prepared to offer undecided voters who want a proportional voting system more than another wallop of fear to entice them to vote for the BC NDP?

Many voters, of all political persuasions, would welcome the announcement that the BC NDP is going to act on the Democratic and Electoral Reform Committee’s recommendations.

Green Party leader Emily Lowan has already committed to proportional representation.

Until politicians in BC have the courage and conviction to follow the evidence and to show leadership on proportional representation, every BC election with first-past-the-post is gambling with our future.