20050519

In more political news, the recent B.C. provincial election included a referendum question of whether B.C. should switch to proportional representation using the Single Transferable Vote (BC-STV) system. (The non-proportional representation version of Single Transferable Vote (STV) is also called Instant Runoff Voting (IRV).) Unfortunately, the proposal failed to obtain the 60% supermajority required to pass, even though it got majority support.

While I support proportional representation, STV/IRV is suboptimal compared to something like Condorcet. (WikiPedia) However, Condorcet is more complicated than STV, and one news anchor that I saw said he didn’t understand STV. Also, it’s not completely obvious (to me at least) the correct way to adapt Condorcet to proportional representation. Then again, Condorcet results can usually be summarized in a simple table or graph, while STV cannot. But STV is better than the current first-past-the-post system – at least in the sense that it reflects voter preferences better. (First-past-the-post is the reason the U.S. is still effectively a two-party system.)

B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell has said that based on the results, which still show strong support for BC-STV, he would bring the issue to legislature.

The Martin government’s first budget barely passed by the slimmest of margins. Independent Chuck Cadman voted with the Liberals and the NDP to split the house evenly at 152-152 (with one Conservative MP absent due to health reasons, and one Liberal MP abstaining for pairing). That left the (Liberal) Speaker to cast the deciding vote. And with this, the government survives a confidence vote, and will stand ... for now.

Cadman voted for the budget (and the NDP amendment) based on a poll of 600 of his constituents, which indicated that two-thirds didn’t want another election yet. So there you have it. The fate of the government was decided by 400 people in BC.

Personally, I don’t see a point to having an election now. We would only end up with another minority government, be it Liberal or Conservative, and my guess is that it would probably be a smaller minority.

Stephen Harper has indicated that he won’t try to bring down the government before the summer recess. Hopefully this will end the Liberal spending spree, and the Conservatives and Bloc paralyzing the house. At least until the fall. I expect that after Gomery finishes his inquiry, we’ll have even more fun in parliament.