![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/IMG_3342.jpg\")
<\/a>Vannan feels that students at Camosun are intelligent enough to make the right choice for themselves.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe have a minority government in BC right now,\u201d she says, \u201cand yet they had a higher percentage of the popular vote than all these other majority governments. So it just shows the irrationality of the first-past-the post counting system. The number of people that support a party really has very little bearing on who actually wins the election, and it has a lot more to do with how ridings are divided.\u201d<\/p>\n CCSS executive director Michel Turcotte says proportional representation will be a positive step for the student demographic voter turnout.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe encourage all citizens of British Columbia to study the three systems that are being proposed and make the best choice,\u201d says Turcotte. \u201cThere will be lots of opportunity for that; even Elections BC, under the referendum rules, has a responsibility to help educate.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n CCSS external executive Fillette Umilisa <\/b>says proportional representation is more inclusive than the current first-past-the-post system for students.<\/p>\n \u201cFor me, as a person who came to Canada in recent years\u2014 and this is going to be my first election\u2014when I look at proportional representation, it\u2019s around inclusiveness and getting more involved,\u201d says Umilisa.<\/p>\n Turcotte says that the student society feels that proportional representation will better represent students, and that the CCSS chose to adopt the proponent position now because of the upcoming referendum.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s timely for us to put our position on the record so that our members feel that it\u2019s something that the student society thinks would better represent them,\u201d says Turcotte.<\/p>\n Turcotte says that proportional representation can give students, and all British Columbians, a greater voice.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s one of those almost once-in-a-lifetime opportunities for our members and for British Columbia,\u201d says Turcotte. \u201cIt is certainly something that is worth taking part in.\u201d<\/p>\n Turcotte says there is often a problem with young voter turnout, but that proportional representation is a positive step in solving that problem.<\/p>\n \u201cWe feel that moving towards proportional representation will help students get more engaged with the election,\u201d he says, \u201cbecause they\u2019ll see that they can actually matter.\u201d<\/p>\n Turcotte says the CCSS will take various steps to make sure students know what is going on\u2014he says CCSS representatives may, for example, speak in classrooms\u2014because students often face hurdles when it comes to voting. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe want to ensure that our members are on the voters list,\u201d says Turcotte, \u201cwhich is also one of the biggest challenges facing the student demographic, because they move and don\u2019t necessarily get registered initially when they turn 18.\u201d<\/p>\n Turcotte says it\u2019s on the student society to explain both the rights and responsibilities of being able to vote to its members.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYou need to make an informed decision,\u201d says Turcotte. \u201cWe want our members to be engaged in what goes on around them.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The British Columbia Federation of Students, which Camosun students are paying members of, also supports proportional representation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Camosun College Student Society (CCSS) has adopted a proponent position on proportional representation. The motion to adopt the position was passed at the CCSS\u2019 June 25 council meeting. A provincial referendum regarding proportional representation\u2014where the number of seats a party gains is proportionate to the number of votes cast for it\u2014will be held this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16190,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,214],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-august-8-2018"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16189"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16191,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16189\/revisions\/16191"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}