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First, one of the strongest predictors of support in B.C. was trust in an innovative process called a Citizens’ Assembly, a randomly selected group of citizens from across the province who were tasked with recommending a new system. In the 2005 vote, the researchers found “voters said yes if they knew the Citizens’ Assembly was made up of ordinary folks and not stacked with government-appointed elites.”

If B.C.’s new government wants to see an electoral reform vote succeed, it should keep the design of the proposed new voting system out of politicians’ hands.

One worthwhile option is to entrust the design of a system to a new B.C. Citizens’ Assembly or another process that is similarly credible and independent of political elites. Another option is to again vote on B.C.-STV on a 50-per-cent-plus-one basis.

Second, a key finding from these previous referenda is that the more voters knew about electoral reform, the more likely they were to support it. However, levels of knowledge about the proposed systems, as well as about the Citizens’ Assembly process, were quite low in all three referenda.

There is obviously room for improvement, and the new government can assist by ensuring more resources for public education, discussion and debate on electoral reform this time around.

Third, a very likely consequence of moving to proportional representation in B.C. will be more frequent minority and coalition governments. In the previous referenda, political scientists found that the more favourably voters viewed coalition governments, the more they came to support electoral reform.