First-past-the-post advocate Bill Tieleman and proportional representation (PR) campaigner Bet Cecil defended their positions and fielded questions at a lunch hosted by Sechelt and District Chamber of Commerce on Oct. 29.
Following the event, Tieleman, a political strategist, NDP supporter and president of the No BC Proportional Representation Society, told Coast Reporter he was “particularly happy” to speak at an event hosted by the chamber because the BC Chamber of Commerce has recently urged a No vote on the referendum.
“We’ve said that repeatedly,” said Tieleman, who has also spoken at the Kelowna Chamber of Commerce and BC Chamber of Commerce.
Tieleman is critical of PR because he said redrawn boundaries could minimize local representation since MLAs could represent larger areas, and because redrawn boundaries and other details won’t be decided until after the referendum.
“Parties in power should not be deciding fundamental questions in a democratic system of governance, of our electoral system. That should be decided by the voters,” he told Coast Reporter.
He also said timing for the referendum was poor, given its proximity to cannabis legalization and municipal elections. A lack of public debate has also reduced awareness, said Tieleman. “I’m wearing a No button everywhere I go and people continually come up to me and say, ‘What’s that about?’ They just don’t know,” he said.
For these reasons, Tieleman said he is unapologetic for what he described as a hard-hitting campaign, which has been criticized for using scare tactics.
“What we’ve been forced to do is ring the alarm bell for voters because of the lack of attention this is getting and I believe it’s part of the strategy of the government, the Green Party and supporters to keep the awareness level down low and get their vote out and basically low ball the whole thing,” said Tieleman.
“People don’t have to agree with us but they should know there’s a referendum on how we decide to govern ourselves democratically and it’s extremely important,” he said. “It’s more important than any one election.”
Premier John Horgan and Opposition leader Andrew Wilkinson will take part in a debate on electoral reform referendum that will be carried by CBC British Columbia and Global B.C. on Nov. 8 at 7 p.m.
