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Voting for the BC Proportional Representation referendum has come out and gives rise to strong political opinions on both sides of the political spectrum about its potential impact.
Ujjal Dosanjh, former NDP prime minister and former Liberal health minister, is concerned that the PR is a system, a "slippery slope" that leaves room for extremist or marginal parties.
"I think that the far-right parties have a much harder time getting into the first-past-the-post system, but we have had our share of exclusion legislation targeting minorities," he said. said Dosanjh.
"I do not hesitate at all to say that such forces exist in this country and in British Columbia."
The fear of extremists
Proportional representation is a system in which the percentage of votes is roughly equal to the number of seats won by a party in the legislature.
"It would be easy enough for all misogynists, all anti-women, anti-immigrant and anti-minority forces to garner 5% of the vote," Dosanjh told Stephen Quinn, the host of the show. from CBC The first edition.
"Then they get off, a beachhead in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia – this gives them the opportunity to grow."
Supporters of public relations argue that it is a fairer way to elect the candidates, but Dosanjh said that some extremist views from groups or individuals opposed to women, homophobes and racists should not be represented.
"I'm not that kind of democrat," Dosanjh said.
"They can demonstrate, they can talk, I do not want to give them a chance to sit in the legislature."
Marginal celebrations are not popular
Andrew Coyne, a member of the CBC's At Issue newsgroup and columnist for the National Post, described some of the arguments against public relations as an "alarmist story."
He said that he did not agree with the idea that the PR would give a stronger voice to extremist parties.
"The problem of extremists and marginal parties is that they are marginal – they do not have a lot of support."
"If you look at the recent Canadian elections, the vote for all the marginal parties combined, 15 or 20 parties, is less than 1%."
He was in Vancouver earlier this week to give a lecture entitled "Why the professional representative will not turn BC into a dystopian hyster".
"The notion that just because we are changing the electoral system, everyone will start voting Nazi, I think it's weird," he said.
"It's not what Canadians are."
British Columbians have until the end of November to decide if they want to keep the first-past-the-post system or move to proportional representation.
If they want change, they will also be asked to rank three different public relations systems.
With files from the first edition.
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