Minortiy Governs 2

In the last post I talked about the BC-STV Electoral Reform referendum that took place in 2005. In the last post I mentioned INCORRECTLY that there had never been any further referendum on this in the last 6 years. On further research I have found that this same Electoral Reform was again put before the voters in a 2009 referendum. The result of this referendum was only 39.9% in SUPPORT of the BC-STV.

I was very surprised to discover this 2009 referendum on BC-STV. I have no memory of  the BC-STV being apart of the last election. I do not know why I have no memory of this. I was very much aware of the 2005 referendum and remembering when it just failed to pass and wanting it to return in a future referendum. How I could have missed the 2009 referendum when I was looking forward to it surprises me. If I missed it how many others missed it too? From the results of the 2009 referendum 39.9% vs 57.69% would indicated a few others may have missed the 2009 referendum.

Why did I miss it?

In the 2005 referendum there was a lot of buzz about it and a level of excitement in possibly making some serious changes to our Governing System. I admit that I do not see the BC-STV as the savior or a perfect system or it may not be all that good of a system. However, to make such fundamental change to our system needs to begin somewhere and the BC-STV would have been a perfect beginning. The Citizen Assembly that was setup to make such a change is something that is also important in bring TRUE DEMOCRACY to our system. Where a Assembly of CITIZENS, not politicians or bureaucrats but a wide range of CITIZENS are EMPOWERED to make recommendations to the CITIZENSHIP. It was the PROCESS that is important here, almost more important than the BC-STV itself.

In 2009 the BC-STV was buried, very little or no publicity on it, other political issues were hyped up and it became the old 'shell-game'. The POWERS THAT BE moved the focus away from the BC-STV and quietly put the issue on the ballot without much ado. The fact that in 2005 the BC-STV almost passed scared the hell out of the POWERS THAT BE.

Why did the BC-STV fail?

There are 3 main reasons that I see why the BC-STV failed in 2005 and in 2009:

1. Our political climate is very much in a polarized state. The mere fact that Gordon Campbell had organized the CITIZEN ASSEMBLY and the focus on Electoral Reform would have turn a percentage of the citizenship against the whole process. It did not matter what the issue is, just that Campbell was responsible for it would be enough to turn some away.
2. Fear of Change. The old saying - 'Better the devil you know than the one you don't' - is always a issue when making such fundamental changes.The 4 years that separated the two referendums (2005 - 2009) caused some to concede to their FEAR.
3. Down playing and burying the BC-STV on the 2009 referendum and the distraction of the voters onto other issues allowed the referendum to slip through with a minimum of exposure.
    

These are the reasons that I see why the Electoral Reform failed and it was a missed opportunity. We often lose sight of the issue when we are too focused on the MESSENGER. Until we start to make some major changes we will have a unreasonable FEAR to such changes. We need to face our FEARS and make the changes, to discover the FEARS were unreasonable. We need to pay better attention, ME INCLUDED.