A referendum on electoral reform took place by mail-in ballot between October 22 and December 7, 2018, in the Canadian province of British Columbia.

[2]: 81–82 [3] FPTP was brought into use across the province in 1991, after the last "at-large" (multi-member) voting districts were abolished[2]: 76 [4] due to a Supreme Court of Canada ruling that found them unconstitutional.

[2]: 90–91  In December 2004, the Assembly released its report recommending that the province adopt BC-STV, a BC-specific variant of the single transferable vote (STV) system.

While 57.7% of the electorate voted in favour of BC-STV, including a majority of voters in 77 of 79 ridings, its support failed to reach the 60% threshold set by the government and it was not adopted.

The party's platform stated that a Liberal government would form an all-party Parliamentary committee, and introduce legislation within 18 months enacting electoral reform.

[14][15][16] On May 29, 2017, approximately three weeks after the election resulted in a BC Liberal minority government, the NDP and Green caucuses signed a supply and confidence agreement.

[18][19] On June 22, 2017, the Liberal government tabled its throne speech, adopting the opposition parties' policy to hold a third referendum on electoral reform.

Lieutenant Governor Judith Guichon then invited the NDP to form a minority government with Green support.

On June 18, Chief Electoral Officer Anton Boegman wrote to the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly advising that in his view both questions were simple and clear enough for voters to understand.

[35] The regulations adopted the changes to the question proposed by the Chief Electoral Officer, and set down other rules governing the campaign.

[42] On July 24, ICBA filed an application seeking an interim injunction to halt campaign financing rules and prevent ballots from being counted.

In her decision handed down several weeks later, she dismissed the application calling ICBA's allegations about the referendum "rhetoric", "conjecture" and "exaggeration".

[43][44][45] In mid-September, the ICBA announced that they would be seeking leave to appeal Justice Gropper's ruling on the interim injunction.

[46] That same month, the British Columbia Government and Service Employees' Union was granted intervenor status by the court, siding against the ICBA.

These features include a one-vote ballot, relatively small districts (compared with STV), and a single tier of local representatives (in contrast to MMP).

[56] Mixed-member proportional is a mixed electoral system in which voters get two votes: one to decide the representative for their single-seat constituency, and one for a political party.

The hybrid approach taken by rural–urban proportional reflects lessons learned from previous attempts to pass electoral reform.

From the 1920s to the 1950s, the provinces of Alberta and Manitoba used a hybrid rural–urban system where STV was used in large cities Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg) and the alternative vote was used in single-member rural districts.

[2]: 81–82 [65][69] However, the rural–urban option put forward in the BC referendum differed significantly from the rural–urban majoritarian system used in Alberta and Manitoba.

Of the three options put forward by the government, this version of rural–urban was the only one allowing voters to rank individual candidates in order of preference using STV in urban and semi-urban areas.

[73][74] Other individuals, groups and political parties were permitted to register as referendum advertisers with Elections BC but were not eligible for public funds.

Sonia Furstenau, a Green MLA, held town halls about electoral reform in cities across the province in July and August.

[75][76][77] BC Premier John Horgan launched the NDP's referendum campaign in early September, saying "Proportional representation means exactly what it says.

"[78] Andrew Wilkinson, BC Liberal leader, opposed the referendum and a change to a proportional representation system.

[79] Elections BC mailed a referendum information card to every household in the province between September 10 and 28, and a voter's guide between October 15 and 26.

[81] In early September, the members of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers voted in favour of job action.

[82] In early November, Horgan announced that he had cast his ballot for proportional representation, and that his first choice was MMP.

[90] If a form of proportional representation had been adopted, the government had also committed to holding a further confirming referendum after two general elections.

[26][29] Voters in that future referendum would have had the option of maintaining the form of proportional representation adopted or switching back to the first-past-the-post electoral system.

[109] Max Cameron argued in the Vancouver Sun that the referendum was "rushed” and missing a process of "broad public consultations".