New electoral system proposed for Yukon

In Yukon, Canada, a citizens' assembly has proposed a change to the local electoral system. The participants recommend the territory moving away from the status quo - the current first-past-the-post electoral system - to a system of preferential voting known as a ranked vote.
38 Yukoners randomly selected for the mini-public from the territory's 19 electoral districts have come to a consensus on this, according to a statement released by the members of the assembly on 12 September 2024.
What is ranked voting?
In ranked choice voting all voters can tick their preferred candidates. They also have the opportunity to rank all candidates in order of preference. A cross on the ballot paper makes it clear which candidate is the first choice of the respective voter. To win an election, a candidate needs 50 per cent plus one of the votes cast in their constituency.
If no one receives 50 per cent plus one vote, the candidates with the lowest number of first votes are eliminated from the race one after the other. The next preference of the voters who ticked the eliminated candidate as their first choice is then distributed among the remaining candidates. The process continues until a candidate receives at least 50 per cent plus one of the votes cast.
Consequences of first-past-the-post voting
In the relative majority voting system used in Canada, the candidate who receives the most votes in a constituency is elected. It does not matter whether these votes make up the majority of all voters. As a rule, parties with regional strongholds and regional parties benefit disproportionately from this. The use of this type of majority voting often results in two-party systems.
The assembly members point out in their statement that political parties often use the system of ranked choice voting in their leadership contests. This voting system is also used in Australia and Ireland, as well as in some states in the US, including Alaska.
‘I think the main reason our assembly went with a ranked vote is that we feel that it would make more votes matter,’ says assembly participant Dana Sundby from Watson Lake.
Other Citizens' Assembly proposals
In addition to recommending changes to the voting system, the Yukon Citizens' Assembly is recommending that the order of candidate names on a ballot be randomized. Elections Yukon should take on an "extensive education program” to help inform all potential voters about the choice they are making in a public vote. Finally, the threshold to win a public vote should be the same as the proposed rank vote system.
Assembly participant Dave Mavi from the Porter Creek Centre ward says that “pretty much everyone” in the mini-public agrees that the current voting system is inadequate. Ranked votes, he says, allow voters to vote for who they truly want. The proposed electoral system would open the door to smaller parties and independent candidates getting voted in.
‘You vote with your heart"
‘You're voting your heart, rather than just voting somebody out ’ says Mavi. ‘We are recommending something that can actually change the political landscape.’
Before deciding on their recommendations, the assembly members spent eight days from May to September 2024 establishing ground rules for the assembly and learning about and discussing the different electoral systems and how they might work in the region. The various systems were discussed and evaluated in light of the Yukon's unique geography and population distribution.
38 participants from all electoral districts
The Citizens' Assembly consisted of two people from each of the 19 electoral districts in Yukon. In a census conducted by the Yukon Bureau of Statistics from 12 January to 5 March 2023, 1,793 respondents expressed an interest in participating. From these expressions of interest, the 38 assembly members were randomly selected. Thanks to stratified sampling, the randomly selected assembly was a reflection of the population of the territory based on age, gender and indigenous descent. All Canadians 16 years of age and older residing in Yukon were eligible to participate. Participants' travel and accommodation costs were covered. The members of the mini-public received 200 Canadian dollars (around 133 euros) per day of the meeting.
In a survey sent to all households by the non-partisan Special Committee for Electoral Reform in Yukon in 2023, 63.2 per cent of respondents were in favour of establishing this citizens' assembly. 28 per cent were not sure and only eight per cent were against. The ‘Fair Vote Yukon’ initiative had previously campaigned in favour of the citizens' assembly.
‘Polarisation easier to overcome than we think"
Dana Sundby sees her participation in the Citizens' Assembly as a 'real privilege'. One of the most difficult tasks was to agree on common values at the beginning of the process. ‘The group worked really well together. We certainly disagreed with each other, and I think every member changed their minds a few times when it came to what system they thought was best,’ says Sundby.
Sundby's main takeaway is that a large, randomly selected group of people who are very different can come together in a friendly and respectful way and come to an agreement in a ‘really positive way’. ‘I think sometimes the polarization that we hear about within society is more easily overcome than we think,’ says Sundby.
Each other's thought processes challenged
Dave Mavi agrees that members changed their minds throughout the process. Mavi said the group challenged each other's thought processes. *I loved the experience,' he said. Mavi is going to pitch to MLAs and MPs more citizens’ assemblies on different topics like health, the budget and development.
The parliamentary opposition had criticised the mini-public. The Yukon Party had stated in November 2023 that the time, staff and financial resources directed to the citizens’ assembly would have been better off addressing the 'many challenges' facing Yukoners.
Dave Mavi and Dana Sundby believe the Citizens' Assembly was a good use of time, staff and money. Both hope that Parliament will take the work of the assembly seriously.
Parliament decides on next steps
Parliament must now decide on the next steps for dealing with the results of the Citizens' Assembly. This includes the question of whether and when a referendum will be held to give the citizens of the territory the opportunity to decide whether the system of ranked choice voting should be introduced or whether the current electoral law should be retained.
The Citizens' Assembly on Voting Rights was the first in Yukon's history and the third mini-public on electoral reform in Canada. The topic was already on the agenda of citizens' assemblies in the province of British Columbia in 2004 and in the province of Ontario in 2006.
Citizens' assemblies in two provinces
In British Columbia, the government set up a randomly selected citizens' assembly in 2004 to discuss changes to the electoral system. The mini-public had proposed replacing the existing first-past-the-post electoral system with the “Single Transferable Vote” system. This was intended to solve the problem of ineffective votes in the pure majority system and achieve better representation of all votes cast. This procedure determines several winners per constituency. It is explicitly used to elect individuals, not party lists.
This recommendation was put to voters in a referendum held at the same time as the 2005 provincial elections. A ‘super-majority’ was required for the result to be binding. This comprised the approval of 60 per cent of all voters and simple majorities in 60 per cent of the 79 districts. In the referendum, the second of these thresholds was achieved with 77 per cent of the 79 voting districts voting in favour. However, at 57.7 per cent, the proportion of votes in favour was below the 60 per cent mark. The recommendation of the Citizens' Assembly was therefore not implemented.
Voting rights proposal rejected in referendum
The Citizens' Assembly in British Columbia was nonetheless a model for a similar assembly in the province of Ontario. In May 2007, the Citizens' Assembly recommended that Ontario should introduce a mixed form of majority and proportional representation with first and second votes, as is also used in Germany. However, the mini-public's recommendation was rejected by voters in a referendum on 10 October 2007. 63 per cent of voters voted against it.
According to participation expert Peter MacLeod, the most important factor for the ‘no’ vote in Ontario was a lack of identification with the Citizens' Assembly. ‘The strongest link to a ‘yes’ vote was not knowledge of the specifics of the electoral system, but familiarity with the Citizens‘ Assembly,’ explains MacLeod. In British Columbia, identification with the Citizens' Assembly was much higher.
About Yukon
Yukon is a territory in the far north-west of Canada with an area of 482,443 square kilometres. Approximately 43,000 people live within the boundaries of the territory. The responsibilities of the elected territorial government are similar to those of the Canadian provinces.