One of my favourite guilty reading pleasures is alt-histories - you know, stories that describe what might have happened if Napoleon had won at Waterloo, or the U.S. had never entered World War II, or if Monica Lewinsky had missed her interview for a White House internship (sorry, that last one hasn't been written).
When I saw the final results for the referendum on electoral reform we had just this week, it put me in mind to write one of my own
The Vancouver Sun, May 17, 2001
LIBERALS FALL SHORT OF MAJORITY; DOSANJH REMAINS PREMIER
57 per cent of voters not enough to change government
VICTORIA-B.C. Liberal leader Gordon Campbell fell just short of victory in yesterday's provincial election, leaving Premier Ujjal Dosanjh in power despite what seemed to be a crushing defeat at the polls.
Preliminary results indicated that Campbell's Liberals took 57 per cent of the province-wide vote, compared to only 22 per cent for the governing NDP and 12 per cent for the upstart Green Party, with Liberal candidates leading in 77 of 79 constituencies.
Unfortunately for Campbell, electoral rules dictated that the party had to win at least 60 per cent of the popular vote, along with at least 50 per cent of the vote in at least 60 per cent of the 79 ridings across B.C., to take power.
"This is a perfect example of the problem with our electoral system," a visibly upset Campbell said after the votes were tallied. "The will of the people has been clearly expressed, yet an arbitrary and unrealistic standard imposed by the government is keeping it from being carried out."
Campbell said he was planning to go to Maui for a few weeks to reflect on the campaign
Yes, I know it needs a little work. But truth is stranger than fiction.
And the truth is that, irony of ironies, the "yes" vote to STV was almost exactly the same as Campbell's margin of victory in 2001 - 57 per cent in favour, with voters in 77 out of 79 ridings saying yes - again, ironically, just like Campbell's Liberals in 2001.
But, thanks to the Herculean margin of victory set for the referendum, it failed. Never mind that Campbell got a mandate to run the entire province for the next four years with far fewer votes. Never mind the fact that a province can apparently leave Confederation with 50 per cent plus one vote. Nope, if we want to change our voting system so it actually makes sense, we need a much tougher standard.
I understand the need for a higher-than-usual threshold to make a change that could impact politics in B.C. for decades to come. But the hurdles put in front of STV were just plain ridiculous.
The Liberals have to make electoral reform a top priority - it's got more of a mandate than they do.
Maybe STV isn't the final answer. But it's clear first past the post is toast. Campbell and his somewhat-diminished crew have four years to get a new system to the public for approval (and make it 50 per cent of the popular vote and 60 per cent of the ridings this time, please) and get it up and running for 2009.
We'll be watching.
On a somewhat related subject: every now and again, we get accused of misquoting somebody. I can finally honestly say I know how they feel.
This past weekend, the STV for BC campaign rolled out some last-minute ads in the Vancouver Sun and Province asking people to vote yes, featuring some endorsements of STV from newspapers around B.C., including The Chief.
The only problem was that the quote they attributed to our newspaper wasn't ours.
It turns out somebody at the STV website somehow mistakenly grafted a quote from our sister newspaper, the Bridge River-Lillooet News, onto an editorial we ran last month on STV and stuck it on their website. STV for BC co-chair Bruce Hallsor was kind enough to look into the snafu and get back to me with the explanation this week.
Not as huge a deal as it might have been, as we did end up endorsing STV, but it is nice to be quoted accurately.
Consider it a good object lesson for us.
