Part one

By Carol Gordon

Amber Van Drielen is a lawyer who lives in Golden. She describes herself as an “electoral reform advocate and engaged citizen.”

I was curious to learn what motivated Ms. Van Drielen to become actively involved in the current campaign for Electoral Reform in British Columbia. Here are excerpts from my recent interview with her.

Q: Amber, Were there experiences in your childhood background that may have sowed the seeds to your law career and your commitment to Electoral Reform?

“Hard to say, likely my background played some role in my understanding that voting and how we vote, the mechanism of translating votes to seats, is connected to all the big decisions we see being made around us.

“My childhood was one of extremes. We had a base home in a very rural valley in the Rocky Mountains where I was homeschooled. This contrasted with alternating years spent in the downtown core of larger urban centres such as Phoenix, Arizona and Toronto, Ottawa and Vancouver with all the complexity, diversity, wealth and poverty this offers. I loved the contrasts from remote and rural to high density and diverse.  This experience exposed me to a lot of ideas and issues very early in my life.

“Some childhood memories are (of) attending public hearings on logging and observing the high conflict that sometimes ensued. In the city I made friends from all over the world, some living in considerable poverty and some as the children of diplomats. However, we all played together and seemed to naturally be able to talk through and manage the occasional conflicts or misunderstandings that arose.

“My childhood probably shaped how I see the world and my understanding that a diversity of voices must be part of healthy decision making (i.e. part of our governance). “

Q: What influenced you to go to Law School?

“I saw law as a helping profession and as a way to solve problems. I think as well, I saw it as an opportunity to give a voice to those who might not have a voice.”

Q: What was law school like for you? What were some of your experiences at law school that may have influenced both your current career and your support of electoral reform?

“Law school was a very interesting and somewhat weird experience. It was at law school that for the first time I really questioned whether power had more to do with money and influence ‘who you know’ then it did about whether you actually had something productive and helpful to say or suggest. (We see) Repeatedly (throughout) history when convenient laws have been used to exclude people, exclude voices in decision making. (Such as) Laws or interpretations of laws that said women were not persons and thus excluded (them) from the rights that persons held, is a simple but wide-reaching example.

“Law school taught me that we need to guard against power being concentrated amongst those who have money and influence. Perhaps this is why I was immediately intrigued when I learned about electoral reform and how this would allow more voices at the decision-making table.

“In the early 2000s I ended up at law school in Quebec where I also took a number of political science courses as a visiting student at a neighbouring francophone university.  I recall sitting in a class and feeling a bit shocked to realize that even during and after the French Revolution women did not receive the right to vote or hold public office. The right to vote (for women) took another 150 years in France. It became clear to me that the basic civil and political rights that we take for granted are very recent and very fragile – including right here in Canada where non land owners, women, indigenous persons, ethnic minorities have all been denied the right to vote in our history.

“In Quebec, there was also a healthy conversation about electoral reform and specifically proportional representation. This was my first exposure to the topic after attending a seminar on the subject.”

Q: Any other experiences that influenced you during your university years to choose the work path you did?

“No, Not really. I always knew I would not have a career at a large law firm. My legal work has mostly been as a sole practitioner and contract work.”

Q: What has been your work path?

“Sole practitioner and contract work; mostly family law.”

Q: When did you start getting politically involved?

“I participated in the 2002-03 mass street demonstrations in downtown Montreal against the Iraq war. Hard to say what influence street demonstrations have, but when you are in the middle of them, you can really feel the energy. Certainly feels powerful.”

Q: When did you decide to commit to working for electoral reform? For Proportional Representation? Why did you decide to become actively involved?

“I have been an advocate for and supporter of proportional representation for over a decade. Once I realized that we are electing our governments with a minority of voter support under FPTP (First Past The Post electoral system), I knew right away that this does not make sense. It is just something I felt.

“I campaigned for a YES vote during the 2009 B.C. referendum. I was also active in 2016 during the federal initiative before Justin Trudeau decided he did not want to proceed with his promise to make 2015 the last election under FPTP. I was pretty mad about that broken promise! I believe that our decision-making would be improved by having more voices at the table, and voices that a majority of voters supported.

“FPTP simply does not lead to fair outcomes when we have multiple parties all running against each other in one riding. We are having MPs elected with under 30% of the voter support in some ridings. As mentioned above, street demonstrations are an important component to free speech and democracy… but also too is having a broader representative group of decision makers directly in governance… this is what proportional representation provides.”

Part two will be published soon

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