Lesson Plan

Printable Version (PDF)

Title

A New Voting System for B.C.

Audience

Social Studies 11

Background

In the past two provincial elections the winning party has had a majority of seats despite the fact that it did not enjoy a majority of the popular vote

• (in 1996, the NDP had a majority government with 39.5% of the popular vote, 39 out of 75 seats, or 52% of seats in the House)
• (in 2001, the Liberals formed a majority on 57% of the popular vote, with 77 out of 79, or 97.5% of seats in the House)

With increasing talk in the media and the Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform, it is important to give students an opportunity to understand the current electoral system and some of the proposed alternatives.

Objective

Students will:

• gain an understanding of a variety of electoral systems (current and potential) through the examination of past election results;
• think critically about possible alternatives, and;
• prepare a proposal for the Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform.

Activities and Method

The exercise includes:

• research of different electoral systems (see fact sheets, in Materials & Resources);
• analysis and use of partial statistics from the 2001 election, applied to the different electoral systems;
• pictorial representation of the Legislative Assembly under each electoral system;
• selection of an ideal mixed electoral system, and;
• written explanation of critical thinking behind the decision making process.

1. Students will first examine the current plurality system (first past the post). For the recent 2001 election, they will describe and evaluate the discrepancy between the percentage of popular vote and percentage of seats in the House.
2. Students will now work with a hypothetical province.
3. For simplicity’s sake, 10 electoral districts (all Vancouver ridings) are chosen to form this hypothetical ‘province’ and its election results.
4. Students will examine the statistics of this new province and calculate the percentage of popular vote, versus the percentage of seats in this new House of 100 seats, under a plurality system. A map of the Legislative Assembly floor should be drawn.
5. Next, using the proportional representation method, they are to construct a Legislative Assembly that includes seats based on the party’s proportion of the popular vote. A map of the Legislative Assembly floor should be drawn.
6. These two Legislative Assemblies should be compared with respect to representation for winning and opposition parties, for fairness and how this might affect policy and governing.
7. Students must create an electoral system of mixed representation, (if possible, using the same statistics), and again draw a map of the Legislative Assembly floor.
8. Students must explain and defend their choice in oral and written form.
9. Each district represented has 10 seats for a Legislative Assembly totalling 100 seats.

The other system(s) this can be compared to can be proportional representation. Finally, the students shall decide on, and propose a mixed form of, representation based on their examination and research.

1. Students familiarize themselves with the Citizens' Assembly fact sheets on electoral systems.
2. Students examine election results from 2001 election, by electoral district.

Materials and Resources

Websites:
Elections B.C.:
http://www.elections.bc.ca/elections/sov01/resultsbyed.pdf

Citizens' Assembly of B.C. Fact Sheets. (In particular fact sheets 2, 7 –12):
http://www.citizensassembly.bc.ca/public/extra/factsheet_intro.xml

Legislature of….
Template sketch of a Legislative Assembly with 130 seats similar to the one found on page 3 at http://www.elections.bc.ca/rpt/educationkit.pdf

Note: There are 2 free teaching kits found at the following site and have good explanations of voting procedures: http://www.elections.bc.ca/youth/youthmain.htm

Evaluation

The criteria for evaluating the projects should be arrived at in a collaborative process between the teacher and students when the projects are assigned.

Examples:

Oral: There will be an oral presentation to the class of students' findings and work (preferably also to the Citizens' Assembly).

Written: Evaluation of written component based on knowledge of electoral system, explanation for choice of system (critical thinking, logic, feasibility), and accuracy of pictorial representation of House under each system.

Submitted By

James Clelland, Meadowridge School, Maple Ridge
Barbara Odenwald, School District #38 (Richmond)

NOTE: The ideas and opinions expressed in this classroom activity belong to their authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. The Public Education and Outreach office only edits for clarity.