Lik

Not sure how I missed this thread...

In any case, I'm against this version of the STV vote. In principal, it is a better system than our current single member plurality system. In the proposed execution, however, there are a number of flaws that makes the proposed implementation unacceptable.

The #1 biggest flaw is the enlarged / merged constituencies. The very goal STV strives to achieve is equality in representation. However, the larger constituencies will make it extremely difficult for smaller parties to come up with enough funding to campaign in the larger constituencies. Most (all?) of us live in the city, so we aren't really affected by this aspect very much. But BC covers quite a vast geographic region. Those constituencies in the interior and in Northern BC will be most severely hurt by the enlarged constituencies. Parties that are less well-funded will find it difficult to campaign in the significantly larger geographic regions. Additionally, local / regional candidates that enjoy strong support in one region may not be all that well known in a different region, thereby destroying the lack of representation issue that STV is trying to fix in the first place.

The complicated STV system makes it difficult for citizens to strategically delegate their votes, and that has already been talked about here.

-Lik