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.
“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.”
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.
I think there’s a high chance we get the single transferable vote system since BC is much closer to the final stages of passing electoral reform. As 52% of the legislature are women and the archaic first-past-the-post has historically always put women at a disadvantage at representation.