Surrey residents do not have a lot of time to invest in public hearings, community meetings and public consultation processes. But many of us find ourselves sucked into these kinds of time-wasters because the city council we “elect” bears little resemblance to how we have voted and even less to how we would like to have voted. We do not need more surveys, meetings, forums and hearings. What we need is a council that truly represents us. Surrey’s main public consultation process should be Surrey municipal elections.

Last election, Surrey First won 100% of the council seats, the mayor’s chair and 100% of the school board seats with under 50% of the popular vote. We have an embarrassingly flawed voting system that has given us an embarrassing government, time and time again. We do not need to do anything fancy like what our federal and provincial governments think about with ranked ballots and party lists. We propose to adopt reforms that have worked in cities all over the US to make local governments more representative without making big changes to voting procedures or laws, reforms for which we do not need the provincial government’s permission

We will institute the Cumulative Vote system, just the same as the current system, where voters cast eight votes for council and six for schools, except that voters, if they wish, can put more than one “x” next to their favourite candidates (Cumulative Vote is what is called a “semi-proportional system” that lets smaller communities of voters, like green-minded folks or residents of Surrey’s farmland, pool their votes together to get a representative who reflects their wishes. CV Votes are counted just the same as we count votes now.)

We will bring in a parliamentary mayor system so that council, like school board, parliament and our legislature, is led by the member who is chosen by their colleagues and who serves only as long as they enjoy their colleagues’ confidence

We will reduce the number and power of public consultation processes that over-represent wealthier residents with more leisure time and ensuring that public consultation that does take place samples communities in a representative way, rather than over-representing, lobbyists, rate-payers and families that can afford a stay-at-home member

We will print half of our municipal ballots in reverse-alphabetical order (Z to A), to remove the bias in favour of names close to the start of the alphabet in our elections

Call our office
(604) 543-4032