Procedure and House Affairs committee  That was part of the debate as well, that this was a really significant question, that local government election turnouts are less than half of what they normally are provincially, and it was too important a decision to have such low participation levels decide.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  From my recollection, the ridings that did not support BC-STV in majority in 2005 were sort of mixed urban-rural in the central interior, whereas the eight ridings that supported it in majority in the 2009 referendum were primarily dense urban.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It was 51% of eligible voters.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It was interesting. In the 2005 referendum, voters had a choice of declining one ballot or the other, which led to incredible problems in balancing the ballots at the end of the night. The decision taken for 2009 was that everybody was getting both ballots if they showed up to vo

Procedure and House Affairs committee  That's right. No, I'm sorry. I apologize. You are correct. The 51% is, of eligible voters, how many cast votes, not necessarily votes that were counted.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  That's right.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I think every referendum question is going to be different, and it may be appropriate for some. I'm not sure it's something I'd say is a good call across the board.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes, in conjunction with the 2005 election and the 2009 election.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It was the second time with an election.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  No. We did get lots of questions about it, such as, “Didn't we already vote on this?”

Procedure and House Affairs committee  The whole discussion about electoral reform is extremely quiet. I haven't heard this debated in the media or elsewhere.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes. It very much was the major discussion point in the summer of 2005. In the throne speech of September 12, 2005, there was the announcement that there was going to be another referendum on the question. The majority of voters had selected BC-STV as their choice. It hadn't met

Procedure and House Affairs committee  No, there were no limits on the referendum, only on the election spending.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  The limits I spoke of were that the parties could make statements about the referendum, but they had to stay within their election spending limits.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  We don't have that yet. It's being pulled together now. It should be out in a few months. There'll be a report on the referendum coming out of my office.