A nearly decade-old video of Christy Clark has surfaced of her eloquently arguing that B.C. should ditch its current first-past-the post voting system. It comes ahead of this fall's referendum on voting reform, asking if British Columbians favour a move to proportional representation.

Her 2009 broadcast remarks appear to contradict the BC Liberals’ stance against proportional representation.  However, this weekend Clark denied this interpretation of her on-air comments.

In the Youtube video shared with CTV News, Clark is speaking on CKNW 980 radio in April 2009, five years after she quit as an MLA, and three years before she returned to politics to eventually become premier.

“Our current system served my personal political interests as a politician very well, thank you very much,” Clark says in the monologue. “But since I’ve been out of politics, my views have changed.”

At the time, B.C. was about to vote on a referendum on Single Transferable Vote (STV), a form of proportional representation according to several sources and the citizens group that initiated the vote.

“I see many people whose interests, and in many cases whose income, is dependent on keeping our system the way it is,” Clark said.

“They are scared because [Single Transferable Vote] will change things. It will force politicians to compete for all of your votes.”

The governing NDP is now holding a similar mail-in referendum, between Oct. 30 and Nov.30, asking voters to consider three new options for proportional representation to determine the make-up of the legislature. One of the options, rural-urban proportional representation, is a hybrid single transferable vote system.

Clark argued in 2009 that the existing first-past-the-post method benefits the “entrenched interests” of politicians and the “backroom boys” of the big parties.

It’s a system, she said, that rewards mudslinging and polarizing politics. She then urged her listeners to support single transferable vote to improve civility. “The toxic insults and the nasty rhetoric will be turned down to a lower ebb,” Clark advised her listeners.

On Saturday, Clark denied that her support for single transferable vote showed support for proportional representation.

“I have never supported [proportional representation] and, in the absence of a proposal on the ballot that improves political accountability rather than diminishes it, I will be voting to support our current system,” the former premier stated in an email to CTV News.

Dave Meslin, an electoral reform activist with Unlock Democracy, shot the radio-studio video of Clark and made it public. “The system that Christy Clark endorsed in 2009 is absolutely a proportional representation system. I’m happy to correct her on that.”

“And if you listen to all the reasons that she explained her support, they apply to all three voting models on the ballot on 2018.”

“She talked about increased civility, about voters not having to choose strategically, voting with your heart. She talked about legislators being more collaborative, rather than polarized,” said Meslin.

BC Liberal leader Andrew Wilkinson now opposes proportional representation, stating it would cause voters to lose the ability to directly elect their MLAs. 

His spokesperson, Meghan Pritchard, also said in a statement Sunday that, “proportional representation would lead to more power for radical fringe parties, less accountable politicians, and greater influence for party insiders.”

Meslin says the contrast between Wilkinson and Clark is telling. “They both fit the mold of what we tend to see from politicians. When politicians are not in office, they support change, and when they are in office, they like the system that got them there,” he said.

Next month’s referendum will ask B.C. voters if they would they rather maintain the current first-past-the-post method or switch to one of three proportional system options: dual member proportional, mixed member proportional or rural proportional representation. A CTV explainer of each option is found here.

Maria Dobrinskaya, a spokesperson for Vote PR BC, says, “I think the core question for voters is, ‘do you prefer a majority government that’s quite centralized where most of the power resides in the executive office that may not be representative of the majority of the voters, versus what will likely be a coalition government that requires more collaboration?”

Former premier Gordon Campbell initiated the 2009 referendum in part because of concern in the 1996 election that saw Glen Clark’s NDP form a majority government, even though Liberals earned more votes.

Deputy BC Green Party leader Sonia Furstenau says how voters determined the make-up of their legislature deeply affects the province’s politics.

“It impacts election campaigns and it impacts decision making since parties tend to focus on short term decisions and wedge issues in order to gain those few percentages [of voters] in swing ridings…. to get those majorities,” she said Saturday.

An unedited version of 2009 videotaped comments is here.