Black Press legislative columnist Tom Fletcher sat down with Premier John Horgan to talk about his plans for 2018. Video of the interview is below, with a transcript of the premier鈥檚 comments on the pending referendum on electoral reform.

TF: You鈥檙e going to have a referendum on our voting system next year. You鈥檝e said there is going to be a , do voters want to change or don鈥檛 they, and the second part is still being worked out. Is that accurate?

JH: That鈥檚 pretty close to what I expect will come back from the consultation. I think it鈥檚 important that we ask the public if they want to change from what we鈥檝e got now, and once that鈥檚 established then what are the alternatives.

This will be the third referendum on these questions in a little under 15 years, so I don鈥檛 think we have too many more opportunities to put this to the public. So we want to make sure we get it right.

TF: This was a hot topic in the legislature, suggestions that it鈥檚 being arranged for your , or the B.C. Green Party鈥檚 political advantage. Can you respond to that?

JH: It certainly is not my intention to stack the deck in any way. This is something I鈥檝e become increasingly passionate about. I voted against electoral reform in 2005 because I was uncomfortable. I understood the first-past-the-post system. It鈥檚 what I grew up with.

But after spending four years as an opposition member, having no influence at all in government, effectively shutting out my constituents from having a say, I changed my view, and felt that we needed to find a better way to reflect the diversity in our communities.

In my mind, it鈥檚 not about the NDP, the Greens, the Liberals, the Conservatives, it鈥檚 about people electing a representative. What we鈥檝e got now is the first minority parliament in 50 years, and we have to work together, and put aside our partisan issues to the greatest extent possible.

I鈥檝e been trying to do that, but you鈥檝e been covering this place for a long time. It鈥檚 a partisan place. And we鈥檙e trying to dial that down, but sometimes it rears its ugly head. And I think that as we go forward with the referendum and the question, I鈥檓 going to be as transparent as possible, making sure this is about how people elect someone, not how we elect more of one or the other.

TF: You鈥檝e said for sparsely populated rural regions. How might that work?

JH: We鈥檙e going to have to come to a conclusion on that. I鈥檝e heard clearly from rural MLAs in both the B.C. Liberal and NDP caucuses that their constituents are concerned they will somehow lose their ability to affect change within a sea of residents in southern Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland.

We have to remember that our current system, if it were challenged in court, might be thrown out anyway. There is supposed to be only a 25-per-cent deviation between the smallest constituency and the largest. We have more than half a dozen that have very few constituents than you would have in Vancouver or Richmond or Surrey. So we have to find a balance regardless of whether it鈥檚 proportional representation or first past the post. But I absolutely hear the voices of people in rural B.C. that they don鈥檛 want to be left out of the political process.

Tom Fletcher is B.C. legislature reporter and columnist for Black Press. Email: tfletcher@blackpress.ca