A special committee of the B.C. legislature will look at electoral reform including proportional representation in B.C., but don't expect another referendum.
"I'm not planning and I don't think we are planning on a referendum," Government House Leader Mike Farnworth said in discussing the special committee mid-Wednesday afternoon.
The Special Committee on Democratic and Electoral Reform was announced Wednesday (April 9). Consisting of seven members, it will make recommendations around increasing democratic engagement and voter participation with a report due back Nov. 26. The committee will also review the last provincial election based on the official report from Elections BC with a final report including recommendations for improvements due May 14, 2026.
Province-wide referendums on electoral reform failed in 2005, 2009 and 2018. The first two came during the government of former B.C. Liberal Premier Gordon Campbell, the third during the minority government of late premier John Horgan, whose party had campaigned on the issue in 2017.
The first two asked British Columbians whether they wanted to replace the current first-past-the-post system with a single-transferable-vote system. The third essentially amounted to a multiple-choice test when voters had to first decide between the current system and proportional representation, then decide between three versions of proportional representation if they wanted a new system.
Farnworth said looking at different electoral systems could be one way to improve democratic engagement, pointing to declining voter turnout. It was around 58 per cent per cent in 2024, up from 2020 (53.8 per cent) but below 2017 (61.18 per cent). In 2001, voter turnout was almost 71 per cent.
"That (proportional representation) is something the Greens in particular are very interested in," Farnworth said. "In case of our party...we know that we had a referendum on that and I think people were pretty decisive on that. But we are certainly open to hear to hearing what people have to say."
When asked whether the referendum was truly decisive given the criticisms about its format, Farnworth said he is "not a really fan of never-endums" but acknowledged that public attitudes can change.
"But I think we have gone down this path a couple of times now, but clearly it is still important to many people and I see nothing wrong with having a discussion around that, examining it, looking at it, seeing what's happening in other jurisdictions."
The second major task of the committee is to review the 2024 election. It saw officials discover a ballot box with 861 uncounted votes, including 14 unreported in the crucial riding of Surrey-Guildford. It gave the B.C. NDP its narrow one-seat majority following a judicial recount. The election was also the first election to use a new system that allowed people to vote from everywhere and promised almost complete results within an hour. However, the closeness of several ridings coupled with the discovery of the uncounted box raised questions.
These questions exist independently of allegations by provincial Conservatives concerning Surrey-Guildford and Farnworth said they did not play in factor in reviewing the provincial election.
"It's not about those allegations, which I think have been rejected," he said. "(I) think are part-and-parcel of what we have seen a little bit, which unfortunate, in this province and indeed a little bit in this country, which is to try and import some of the Trumpian messaging around elections, to sort of sow discord and misinformation and try to undermine the trust in our electoral system."
Conservative candidate Honveer Singh Randhawa 鈥� not the Conservative Party of B.C. itself 鈥� has legally challenged the results of Surrey-Guilford. Elections BC has suspended its own investigation until conclusion of Randhawa's case.
The creation of the committee ticks off another element of the Co-operation and Responsible Government Accord between the governing B.C. NDP and the B.C. Greens.
Speaking before Farnworth, B.C. Green Rob Botterell, MLA for Saanich-North and the Islands, said his party is happy with the committee. He said it creates an opportunity.
"One of the key approaches the Green Party sees in terms of building trust in government is moving proportional representation and so that's part of the mandate of the committee to look at, which is great," he said.
"The Premier (David Eby) has acknowledged that the question in the last referendum was pretty much indecipherable. So the work of the committee will be to have a further look at electoral reform, including proportional representation, but we could look into the way in which to frame a question or path forward."
Overall, the goal of the committee is to contribute to a healthy democracy, Botterell said.
"We don't want the type of democracy we have got south of the border, which is polarized."
He also pointed to one possible way to raise democratic engagement: lower the voting age of 16, a move that has already happened in several jurisdictions.
