Our latest Question for Candidates is:
“Are you in favour of electoral reform at the civic level?”
We put this out region-wide, to all candidates for mayor, council and school board (and Vancouver Park Board) in Metro Vancouver for the October 20th election. Here’s the first response – as always, email us your responses to pt.guested *at* gmail *dot* com, or you can also tweet us.
Graham Cook (Independent) — Vancouver Council
“I am incredibly in favour of electoral reform at the municipal level. San Francisco just completed a mayoral election that featured eight candidates, four of whom were considered serious contenders. Rather than a First Past The Post ballot, voters were able to rank their top three choices, which then went through a series of runoffs. This allowed voters to avoid having to consider vote-splitting and other concerns and focus on voting for who they felt would do the best job at city hall. Contrast this situation with Vancouver, where one of our many candidates for mayor could win with less than 20% support and voters are having to weigh their political beliefs against a given candidate’s perceived path to victory. I would be very excited to see Vancouver adopt a ranked ballot system to better engage voters and ensure an outcome that best reflects the preferences of the electorate. This will be a key issue for me should I be elected.”
