Citizens' Assembly:

British Columbians complete

vote on electoral reform

The votes are being tallied and things are looking up for those involved in the British Columbia Citizens' Assembly. Offical results will not be announced until May 30, but early results indicate citizens in British Columbia want a new way of electing government officials.

In January 2005, the 1.5 million citizens of British Columbia received a copy of the Citizens' Assembly's final report. Inside, they found a recommendation for an entirely new way of choosing elected officials in the province.

Over the past ten months, the Assembly has met numerous times, had scores of public hearings, and sifted through over 1,500 written submissions from the public. All of this was done in an effort to determine the best way to elect their government representatives.

In the end, the randomly selected (two citizens from each elected district) Citizens' Assembly, sponsored by the Parliament of British Columbia, settled on a new type of proportional electoral system called British Columbia Single Transferable Vote, or BC-STV. Under this system, voters rank candidates by number on their ballots. The system is meant to ensure that every vote counts as well as to reflect the public's support for a candidate as closely as possible.

Now, the future of the electoral system of British Columbia is up to its citizens. During the next provincial election in May, voters will decide whether or not to adopt this new voting system. Should voters adopt BC-STV, the government says it will introduce legislation so the new system can go into effect for the 2009 election cycle.

You can learn more about the BC-STV system and the Citizens' Assembly by going to their website at http://www.citizensassembly.bc.ca .