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LETTER: A look back at history of ranked ballots in B.C.

‘The voters found out how to get what they wanted’
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Re: Frank Steele Jr.’s letter, Chilliwack Progress, Oct. 8, 2021, “First past the post is just not working”

I would invite Mr. Steele to examine the British Columbia provincial elections of 1952 and 1953.

In 1952, the Liberal/Conservative Coalition was breaking up and the CCF (now the NDP) was leading in the polls. The government introduced a ranked ballot, as Mr. Steele recommends.

The hope was that Liberal and Conservative voters would give each other their second votes, CCFers would vote Liberal on their second choice, and they would stay in power. They failed to consider the new Social Credit Party, from Alberta, led by W. A. C. Bennett, a former Conservative leadership hopeful. Both Liberals and CCFers voted Social Credit with their second votes.

Although the CCF was winning by one seat after the first ballots were cast, Social Credit formed a minority government, the Liberals formed a rump and the Conservatives were all but eliminated. A party that nobody wanted was elected.

In 1953, voters got smarter, and learned to plumb their ballots. The CCFers voted for the Progressive Labour Party (Communist) as their second choice. None of their votes were transferred to the Social Credit or the Liberals, or else they didn’t exercise their other choices. On the second ballot the Social Credit actually lost seats. It was never used again. The voters found out how to get what they wanted. I’m afraid the same would happen today and the purpose of the ranked ballot is gone.

Clifford Roulston

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