Not long after municipal elections wrap up, British Columbians will be taking part in another vote – to choose the electoral system that will determine future B.C. governments.

But British Columbians won’t be going to the polls. Rather they’ll be receiving a voting package in the mail between Oct. 22 and Nov. 2 and they’ll be expected to mail in their ballots before the end of November.

The ballot allows voters to choose between the present system, often referred to as “first past the post” or a form of proportional representation (PR).

A second question asks voters to choose between three versions of PR, all convoluted. These are referred to as “dual member,” “mixed member,” and “rural-urban.”

The fact that it’s a mail-in ballot rather than a vote in conjunction with the municipal elections means that many voters won’t bother. And this will skew the result in favour of the more committed advocates of PR, who tend to be Green Party partisans.

PR is based on the overly simplistic idea that a party’s seats in the legislature should reflect their proportion of the vote. There’s a faulty presumption that the proportion of seats is equal to the proportion of power.

In reality though, the many PR systems around the world lead in varying degrees to a fragmentation of parties and minority governments. And this amplifies the power of extreme parties on the fringes.

Even today, with our one-MLA-per constituency model, the Green Party’s power is far greater than its three seats in the 87-seat legislature would suggest. It holds the balance of power, can defeat the government, and thereby can hold the NDP government to ransom if it chooses.

The present system leads to big-tent parties where MLAs of diverse viewpoints compromise in their caucuses. PR leads to multiple narrowly focused fringe parties holding a balance of power.

The Green Party will be the biggest beneficiary from PR in today’s party configuration. But the bigger threat is that PR will boost the rising tide of international populist Fascism.