(This letter was sent to the Times Colonist on September 14, 2026)
Dear Editor,
This summer of discontent in BC politics has made one thing clear to me. We the citizens of British Columbia were robbed twenty one years ago when we voted overwhelmingly, 57.7%, in favour of switching to the citizen assembly-recommended BC-STV proportional representation system.
That vote came about because of a completely undemocratic election result a few years earlier leaving a huge majority with no effective opposition. It could be said that today’s situation is effectively the same with the opposition benches in complete disarray and confusion, unable to function to hold the government to account.
The government of the day refused to be bound by that referendum and instead both BC Liberal and BC NDP governments held referendums where the initial enthusiasm was diminished, ridiculed, and ultimately defeated by powerful entrenched interests more concerned about retaining their own paths to power than improving our democracy.
Then one party imploded. It has been chaos ever since.
Proportional Representation, and the BC STV system the Citizen’s Assembly recommended all those years ago, may have helped voters and politicians find their voices and avoided this.
This fall when the Legislature resumes, all members should stand to make one decision immediately, to make BC-STV and Proportional Representation the format of the next BC Election. No more referendums, we need our democracy to function.
Sincerely
Chris Alemany