Democracy and Yes to Single Transferable Vote

An election will soon be held in the Province of British Columbia. If the Liberal government carries through with its promise it will again hold a referendum on the adoption of a single transferable vote instead of the present first past the post.

Here is a good source of information
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BC-STV
"BC-STV is a proposed voting system recommended by the Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform for use in British Columbia. A member of the Single Transferable Vote family of voting systems, BC-STV was supported by 57.69%[1] of the voters in a referendum in 2005 but the government had decided to not be bound by a vote of less than 60% in favour. However, because of the strong majority support for BC-STV, the government has promised to re-run the referendum in 2009"

The rerun is May 12, 2009.

I want to link this to the particularly suitable mechanism of the Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform that was used in BC to produce the recommendation that was submitted to the last referendum. They were randomly selected, they met over an extended period of time, they consulted extensively with experts in the field and they overwhelmingly endorsed their recommendations which formed the basis for the referendum,

The mechanism fits almost precisely, and more thoroughly the new and well researched method of Deliberative Polling.

Here is the source and the reference.
http://cdd.stanford.edu/

Deliberative Polling®: Toward a Better-Informed Democracy
"The Process

"Deliberative Polling® is an attempt to use television and public opinion research in a new and constructive way. A random, representative sample is first polled on the targeted issues. After this baseline poll, members of the sample are invited to gather at a single place for a weekend in order to discuss the issues. Carefully balanced briefing materials are sent to the participants and are also made publicly available. The participants engage in dialogue with competing experts and political leaders based on questions they develop in small group discussions with trained moderators. Parts of the weekend events are broadcast on television, either live or in taped and edited form. After the deliberations, the sample is again asked the original questions. The resulting changes in opinion represent the conclusions the public would reach, if people had opportunity to become more informed and more engaged by the issues. "

For "neutral" information from the Provincial Government:
http://www.gov.bc.ca/referendum_info/first_past_the_post_bc_stv/

For information on the "pro" side see:
http://stv.ca/join

For the "anti" side see:
http://www.nostv.org/

For me the process and the conclusions are compelling and fully warrant support for electoral reform in the May 12, 2009 referendum.

An important aspect for me is that with broader representation in the legislature and yes, the possibility of coalition governments our government will be dragged kicking away from the adversarial "majority" and "opposition" mode of operation. See my earlier post on the role of party #2 [Opposition Or Team 2
January 10 2008]. If proposed legislation is indeed good and worthwhile then reasonable MLA's will vote for it. If a majority cannot be persuaded to pass the legislation, then it will fail. But that failure need not lead to an immediate election. We must move away from the "confidence vote" idea. The governing coalition carries through its term of office, accomplishes what it can and then an election is held. Reasonably simple and reasonably straightforward.