How it Works

Instead of electing one MP in each single member riding (first-past-the-post), voters elect a small team of MPs in a multi-member local district.

For example, five single member riding could become one multi-member district electing five MPs. The five MPs would reflect the diversity of how people voted.

The BC Citizens Assembly recommended districts elect between two and seven members, depending on the geography of the area.

STV is a candidate-centered system which allows voters to rank candidates based on what characteristics are most important to them. STV is the system that gives voters the most nuanced say over who fills the seats. It produces proportional results in Parliament and also offers popular independents a chance to be elected.

Voting is simple. Rank candidates as few or as many candidates as you want in any order you like. You can rank across party lines.

Counting the ballots is more complex than first-past-the-post, because voters preferences are taken into account to ensure that the team of MPs elected to represent the local area reflects the preferences voters marked on their ballots.

There are many excellent videos on STV counting on our youtube channel in the systems playlist. To get the basic idea of how the ballots are counted, we recommend this video:

Local PR

Local PR is STV with an adaptation: Ridings are grouped together into a local district to elect multiple members just like STV.

Local PR changes the candidate nomination and counting process to guarantee that each current single-member riding continues to elect one locally-nominated representative.

Each representative has two roles: as a local representative nominated in that riding.and as part of a multi-member team at the district level. 

Voting is just as simple as with STV.  Rank as few or as many candidates as you want in any order you like. You can rank across party lines.

Candidates are listed on the ballot according to the existing ridings in which they are nominated, but voters can rank any of the candidates running in the multi-member district.