The Centre for the Study of Democratic Institutions (CSDI) brings together participants from academia, civil society, and government to discuss the issues and challenges around electoral reform. We ask; how can we improve our electoral system? What difference would electoral reform make for our democracy?
How Did We Get Here? by Annalee Kornelsen
Electoral Reform Forum
The Electoral Reform Forum in Canada was held on June 27, 2016 at the Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue in Vancouver. It aimed to address these three questions:
- How did we get to this point?
- What good (or bad) would electoral reform do?
- What is to be done next?
After the closed-door roundtable discussions, a public event took place that allowed citizens to hear from and question the Parliamentary Secretary on Democratic Reform, Mark Holland.
Watch the recap video of the conference here:
Watch the review of the morning session here:
Watch Parliamentary Secretary Mark Holland’s keynote address:
Electoral Reform in Canada: Lessons Learned
On May 17, 2017 CSDI released “Electoral Reform in Canada: Lessons Learned.” The report, which was prepared by UBC Political Science graduate student Megan Dias, finds that a key flaw in the democratic reform effort led by the federal Liberal government was the absence of a well designed process of public dialogue and deliberation.
“There is an important lesson here for BC,” says Max Cameron, the Director of CSDI. “The federal Liberals enjoyed a ‘false majority’—more seats than their share of the popular vote, thanks to the electoral system. As a result, they were not highly motivated to change a system from which they benefited. By contrast, with a minority parliament in BC, there may be greater political will to implement electoral reform. Certainly, it is in the interest of the Greens.”
“Provincial politicians should be under no illusions about the challenges they face in changing the electoral system,” he adds. “The legitimacy of any change will depend on the design of the reform policy process. BC’s political parties should learn from the errors made by the federal Liberal government if they are serious about changing the electoral system in BC.”
Electoral Reform Resources
BC’s options for electoral reform explained (in under 5 minutes). Watch the video produced by The Tyee with Megan Dias (MA UBC Political Science) explaining the different systems proposed for BC: