BY BRYSON GUPTILL
GUEST OPINION
The Green Party of P.E.I. made a strong, principled stand for a mixed member proportional representation system to be adopted after the next election. Green leader Peter Bevan-Baker held Premier Wade MacLauchlan’s feet to the fire, proposing several amendments to the Liberal’s referendum bill to make the legislation more in keeping with provisions under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Greens even suggested the proposed bill threatens freedom of the press.
Jordan Brown, minister of justice and public safety and attorney general, reluctantly tabled several amendments, but these didn’t satisfy Bevan-Baker and fellow-Green member Hannah Bell, who called for more changes. The bill finally passed Tuesday with various amendments.
RELATED: Federal Green support increases in P.E.I. as Liberal numbers slip: CRA poll
It will be interesting to see if this pressure from the Greens will dissipate now that the latest CRA polls have been released. The polls show popular support for the Liberals declining to 34 per cent of decided voters with the Greens just behind at 33 per cent. Bevan-Baker continues to be the most popular leader at 39 per cent compared to Wade MacLauchlan at 24 per cent.
Up to now, the Green’s support for PR has been largely self-serving. Under a PR system, the Greens would have won more seats in the last provincial election. Had a Mixed Member Proportional system been in place, the Greens would have won three seats instead of one.
Now the Greens are getting close to be the most popular party in P.E.I., will they change their tune on PR?
The existing first-past-the-post system tends to reward parties with the most momentum going into an election. In P.E.I., this has often resulted in the most popular party winning most of not all the seats in the legislature. The Green party has opposed this winner-take-all system, largely because the party has suffered under the system nationally, electing only Elizabeth May in the last two federal elections despite winning a growing share of the popular vote.
The down-side of a PR system is that it can make life more difficult for the party who wins the most seats in the legislature. Majority governments are difficult to achieve under a PR system, and coalition governments are often the result.
How would Bevan-Baker and his Green supporters feel about having to persuade members of the Liberals and PC’s to join them to form a coalition government should they continue to gain public support? Will they continue to stand by their principles when it could jeopardize their ambitions legislative goals?
The next six months should be very interesting.
- Bryson Guptill worked for many years as a senior policy advisor for the federal government and provincial governments in N.B. and P.E.I. He has lived and worked in P.E.I. since 1995.