[fvc-wat-disc] [fvc-wat-announce] Results from the BC referendum on electoral reform

[Anita Nickerson]

Thanks for asking, Matthew.

Yes, we'll do a review. There's nothing to hide.

There are 25 active chapters who formed a wonderful community of leaders
and volunteers knocking themselves out to win this referendum so we're all
intimately familiar with what went on day to day for over a year. We made
decisions together.

We were the only organization with any ground game and we squeezed every
last volunteer and dollar off that list.

My personal take:

As someone who lived and breathed this for the past 18 months, in terms of
things we could have foreseen and done differently, there wasn't much.

I'm not trying to escape accountability - this was a horrible and
discouraging failure and if there were mistakes we as FVC-BC made that I
could point to and say "this was a big mistake that helped cost us the
referendum", I really would. I'd own it.

But as I look at what we did as FVC-BC, all I can see is how we might have
spent a few thousand dollars a bit differently and more efficiently out of
the large sum that was spend on the campaign, and it wouldn't have made
much difference to the outcome.

Please remember that while are the group with people who care the most
about this - people who will start in the summer of 2017, people who will
volunteer 40 hours a week for months and can count things like 40
presentations given in one small town, 40 banner waves, thousands of doors
knocked on, every event attended, local media, 250,000 flyers (no other
group even had flyers) in many places etc etc etc - we were the SMALL group
here. With mailing list and potential to raise money about 1/20th some of
the larger groups who were advertising sponsors. They made their own
decisions if they spent peanuts.

And please remember we were not the official proponent group.

The proponent group, Vote PR BC, got $500,000 from the government and could
raise an additional $200,000.

We raised more money than they did it turned out - because people believed
in what we were doing and could see we were knocking ourselves out as a
citizens org trying to fill in real gaping holes. But we didn't have the
people, the budget or the connections to nearly fill them all. We did what
we could.

And we were not the NDP.

Who ran a campaign that basically amounted to John Horgan saying he liked
PR and making a cute video of himself with sunglasses.

It was a campaign that effectively said "We don't really care if we win
this."

Since this campaign was divided completely along partisan lines - with the
(right wing Con) BC Liberals stating at the outset that they were fighting
for their very survival and would do whatever it took to kill PR - which
amounted to their party making it #1 priority and spending every penny
lying to people non-stop for over a year - there needed to be a HUGE effort
by the BC NDP to pull almost every person who voted for them (the 40%) to
vote for it. A ground game organized six months ahead. TV commercials etc
etc. They chose not to do that.

In some ridings that voted for the NDP about 20 something percent voted for
PR. While the Liberal MLAs held town halls across the province against PR
and got local ethnic leaders on board to mobilize their communities, and
sent emails to their local lists, NDP MLAs sat back.

This is really a horrible and devastating loss for many of us. What was the
hardest thing by far was FIVE POLLS in a row showing it was 50/50 and then
on voting day getting 38%. Many of us were in shock.

I had allowed myself to be deluded that all the things I KNEW were
necessary to win a referendum like this and weren't in place...well, I
thought there was hope we could win it anyway. Those polls gave me hope. It
sure wasn't for lack of passion, intelligence and hard work from all our
leaders.

>From a FVC perspective I can account for every dollar and every activity -
we're all one team - and I honestly don't think there was much else we
could have done. We can write pages of stuff if it makes us look more
"accountable" - one group of talented volunteer leaders to another - but I
don't think anything we could have done differently as FVC-BC would have
shifted the vote more than 1%.

Anita


On Fri, Dec 21, 2018 at 11:24 PM Matthew Piggott <piggott.matthew at gmail.com>
wrote:

>
>
> Hi Sharon et al.,
>
> I share that disappointment.
>
> My honest, but also somewhat disruptive question is: what went wrong? More
> importantly, is FVC and FVBC doing a thorough campaign review? What were
> the gaps? Were we outspent? Not have enough volunteers? I think members
> deserve to know this info (even at a higher level). There are so many
> questions we could ask.
>
> The reason I also ask is that mature/maturing organizations should always
> have the structures in place to do at least a basic review. Certainly,
> organizations I want to be part of, volunteer for, donate money to :) I'm
> personally reminded of how the GPC did a review of the 2015 federal
> campaign when we fell so short of our goals.
>
> Any case I hope the questions are asked and that FVC members will be get
> to know and hear more.
>
> Matthew Piggott
>
>
> Sent from my BlackBerry — the most secure mobile device — via the Rogers
> Network
> *From:* sharonsommerville at gmail.com
> *Sent:* December 20, 2018 7:48 PM
> *To:* fvc-wat-announce at listserv.thinkers.org
> *Reply to:* fvc-wat-disc at listserv.thinkers.org
> *Subject:* [fvc-wat-announce] Results from the BC referendum on electoral
> reform
>
> Hello FairVoting Friends,
>
> The results from BC's referendum were announced this afternoon.  Sadly,
> the outcome is not what we were hoping for; below is a link to a CBC report
> on the results.  Changing our electoral system is long & vital process.
> FVC will continue to work toward instituting a more fair and equitable
> electoral system which ensures that every vote cast influences the election
> results.
>
>
> https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/electoral-reform-referendum-results-1.4954538
>
> Wishing you all the very best of the season,
>
> Sharon Sommerville
> for FVC-WR
>
>
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