Wards or At Large, You Decide October 16th

[Senior]

As most of you should know by now there is a city wide plebicite Saturday October 16th on whether or not to change from the at large system to a ward system.

Critics of the current system say that it is an antiquated, unrepresentative and even racist way to elect our city councilors. The current at large system has been in place since Vancouver was a much smaller city and really was never meant to serve such a large and diverse population. This has lead to many aspects of our city not receiving representation. As an example despite the large number of East Indians living in Vancouver we have never had an East Indian city councillor elected under the at large system. Other people cite the fact that under the at large system the west side of the city has essentially elected every city councillor. This is due to the fact the west side has a higher voter turnout and that the vast majority of city councillors have lived on the west side.

In short I would argue that if the at large system is so effective why not use it for the whole Province and all vote for 79 MLA's to represent B.C. For that matter why not all vote for 300 and something MP's to represent all of Canada? Obviously because it is an undemocratic and unfair system. Under such scenarios the less populated parts of Norther B.C. would have little to no representation and under such a scenario B.C. would have no little to no representation with in Canada.

So what do you think, yes or no for wards?

[miss.myra]

At first, I figured I was fine with the at large system because I feel that city hall right now is fairly accessable should I have an issue that I feel needs to be raised.

I thought, it seems really hard to think of the city ever compromising when councillors are elected to look after the best interests of their area and not the city as a whole, not to mention the ward system is costly.

But after some research, it seems that with the way the current system is, that a lot of ethinic/social groups are not fairly represented in the city.

So with a week to go, I am completely undecided.

[Senior]

Originally Posted by miss.myra

At first, I figured I was fine with the at large system because I feel that city hall right now is fairly accessable should I have an issue that I feel needs to be raised.

I thought, it seems really hard to think of the city ever compromising when councillors are elected to look after the best interests of their area and not the city as a whole, not to mention the ward system is costly.

But after some research, it seems that with the way the current system is, that a lot of ethinic/social groups are not fairly represented in the city.

So with a week to go, I am completely undecided.

The ward system would only be more expensive in the sense that we would have 14 instead of 10 city councilors. The city is recomending that even under the at large system we add them anyway. So no the ward system is not more expensive. The actual increase for the added councillors will be $0.30 per year per resident.

As far as councilors not compromissing if they are charged with looking after the best interests of an area not the whole city it's the same thing as having an MLA for a part of the province. Would you really suggest having an at large system is better for the whole city overall? Besides having all the different views expressed would in my opinion lead to more balanced decisions being made.

[miss.myra]

I'm still undecided. I'd love it if there was more information out there released by independent studies, and not people interested in pushing for you to side with them- know of any good sites?

oh and props for posting this up, I'm really quite taken back by the lack of response from this board, I'm sure there are TONS of people who are eligible to vote for this, and should!

[Senior]

Originally Posted by miss.myra

I'm still undecided. I'd love it if there was more information out there released by independent studies, and not people interested in pushing for you to side with them- know of any good sites?

oh and props for posting this up, I'm really quite taken back by the lack of response from this board, I'm sure there are TONS of people who are eligible to vote for this, and should!

The city of Vancouver has TONS of info at http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/erc/ This is information that is prepared by city hall staff and is as unbiased as any information out there. Of particular help would be Thomas Berger's report that was conducted over a 6 month period and included 17 public forums in the proccess as well as looking at how our system works and other major cities in North America.