VICTORIA — Premier David Eby made an easy judgment call recently when a legislature committee recommended the NDP government “consider” establishing a peoples’ assembly on electoral reform.
Eby did consider it — and rejected it on the spot.
“No, I have no interest in that,” the premier told columnist Rob Shaw in a year-end interview.
The premier’s flat rejection should end the latest debate about electoral reform, a round that started with the almost too-close-to-call provincial election in 2024.
When the Eby-led New Democrats emerged with a one-seat majority, secured by a 22-vote margin, they sought a working arrangement with the two Green MLAs.
In return, the Greens secured an agreement to appoint a legislature committee to look at ways of electing members to the legislature.
The all-party committee met earlier this year and heard close to 1,000 submissions from advocates, experts and members of the public.
Many disparaged the existing first-past-the-post system. Many more advocated proportional representation of one form or another.
There was much talk about why proportional representation was rejected by about 60 per cent in a 2009 referendum and a 2018 ballot-by-mail. (It fared better in 2005, but fell just short of the 60 per cent approval mandated by the then B.C. Liberal government.)
Mindful of those outcomes, some argued that the government should simply legislate a new system in time for the next election. Then, after a term or two under the new system, the government could hold an after-the-fact referendum.
The committee stopped short of any decisive recommendation for change. Rather, MLAs acknowledged that “altering the electoral system, a key component of B.C.’s democracy, requires further conversations with British Columbians to ensure there is support for and public trust in any potential changes.”
The committee recommended that government consider establishing a peoples’ assembly to examine and make recommendations on the model for electing MLAs.
But even a return to that option of setting the stage for another referendum was too much for Eby.
“I’ve still yet to heal from the last referendum,” he told Shaw, recalling his role in presiding over the 2018 referendum, assigned to him as attorney general by then premier John Horgan.
Looking back, Eby cited it as an example of his predecessor’s willingness to delegate.
“He was willing to let you make a mistake and give you all the rope that you wanted,” he told the crowd at Horgan’s memorial service. “Sometimes it worked out, and sometimes you got the second-worst referendum in the history of B.C.”
Horgan, in a posthumous memoir published this fall, delivered a blunter assessment of Eby’s performance.
“He relied mostly on staff,” the former premier told interviewer Rod Mickleburgh. “He (Eby) came back with a question that was very hard to understand and sold it to cabinet. I let it go. I didn’t like the way the question was fashioned. It failed, and that was the end of that.”
“British Columbians are done with that conversation,” Eby told Shaw, noting three previous referendums over the past 20 years.
The premier thereby sent a message to the Greens, currently negotiating renewal of the accord with the NDP.
The NDP’s junior partner straightaway endorsed the legislature committee recommendation: “The B.C. Greens look forward to the timely implementation of a people’s assembly to make recommendations on how British Columbians elect their MLAs, such as by proportional representation.”
Eby’s reply to the Green party: “If you’re interested in that, that’s great for you guys, go out and campaign for a plurality of people in the province that supports proportional representation and we’ll have a conversation then.”
But proportional representation, with or without a citizens’ assembly, is a non-starter, so long as the New Democrats have the majority of seats in the legislature.