More for April 6th

Multiple votes for multiple voices
Prince George Citizen
Mon 06 Apr 2009
Section: Opinion
Byline: Jennifer Greenwood
http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/20090405185359/opinion/letters/multiple-votes-for-multiple-voices.html

Group starts campaign for electoral reform
Nanaimo Daily News
Mon 06 Apr 2009
http://www2.canada.com/nanaimodailynews/news/story.html?id=2a4f06db-f1c0-4f53-ba50-bfc4e9631a4e

STV and the provincial election
Cranbrook Daily Townsman
Mon 06 Apr 2009
Page: 6
Section: Opinion
Byline: Mike Redfern

In a matter of weeks now we will be voting in the provincial election. The actual 28-day electoral period hasn't quite started yet but the political rhetoric certainly has. Ads, interviews, and submitted articles have been appearing in the local press over the past few weeks as Liberal and NDP candidates jockey for position in each electoral district while candidates from other parties speak brave words in a fruitless attempt to persuade us that voting for anyone other than Liberal or NDP can put our candidate of choice in the legislature.

And there's the rub. Many of us have not been entirely happy about the past eight years of monolithic right wing government in this province and are not anxious to continue it in its present form. At the same time, we were even less thrilled with the performance of the previous NDP government, a performance that led to the massive support for Mr. Campbell's Liberals in 2001, and the pronouncements of the present opposition in the legislature have not yet restored our faith in the NDP's ability to govern more wisely in the future. Is it any wonder that so many of us are cynical about the present political process in B.C. that is guaranteed to return to power one or the other of these two parties with a majority?

Although we have heard little or nothing about it in the mainstream media, B.C. voters will again have an opportunity this May to vote in a second referendum to change the electoral system from "first past the post" to the single transferable vote (STV) system. A majority of B.C. electors voted in favour of the STV system in the 2005 referendum, but the number in favour fell just short of the required percentage to make it law. If a few more frustrated electors vote in favour of STV this time around we could reach the magic number required and move away from the present outdated and unrepresentative "first past the post" system. This would mean that in 2013 voters could return to the legislature candidates representing a range of political parties, not just the Liberals and NDP. We could actually have MLAs in the legislature who represent the range of electors' political beliefs and who could speak to alternative positions on policy.

And if voting by the STV system in 2013 led to a minority government which had either to form a coalition with another party or to take into consideration the policies of the other parties in order to pass legislation, then surely that would be a good thing.

Because the STV system requires larger electoral districts returning more than one representative to the legislature, electors would be able to consider the merits of all the candidates on the ballot and place them in their preferred order, pretty much guaranteeing that at least one of their favoured candidates will be elected to represent them.

It seems to me that voting for STV in the referendum this May will actually be more important in the long run than voting for a candidate in the election. If enough of us disenchanted electors think likewise and get out to vote for STV, we could make a little history and help usher in a brighter political future for this beautiful province.

Fearful of the autocracy
Penticton Herald
Mon 06 Apr 2009
Page: A7
Section: Letters
Byline: Roy Roope

Dear Editor:

I am normally not a fearful person, but I must admit I am experiencing chills over recent events in our province in the realization that we are in deep peril.

There is irrefutable proof we are creeping towards an autocracy in our system of government by the clear evidence of recent events.

Autocracy is technically defined as "government in which one person possesses unlimited power" and we are witnessing the existence of this more and more in the standard operating procedures in Victoria.

A conscious strategy that employs suppression of information, secrecy, intentionally short notice and the intent to rubber stamp vote it into law in the legislature would not have been out of place in Soviet-era Kremlin politics, yet this recently happened here.

We came within a whisker of having the government employ these tactics to pass the Recognition and Reconciliation Act in the legislative session just ended.

This act would have altered British Columbia in a "seismic shift" way to use the government's own words, but they never released the wording of the act and provided only a sketchy outline to selected groups and individuals; kept their own party members in the dark, but announced they intended to slam-vote it into law with short notice.

All this because of the decision of one man, the autocrat Gordon Campbell.

Although this act would have had momentous consequences to the province, it would have undergone no democratic process; it would have become law-by-decree. Their rush to draw up the legislation ran out of time, which is the only thing that saved it from being law today.

But we still have tomorrow to worry about.

Our current system has proven itself downright dangerous by these events and it is up to all of us to stand up and vote for change.

The Single Transferable Vote (STV) provides a more balanced system, a free-vote legislature and true democratic debate on issues before they become law.

You have little time to verify the truth of what I am saying here and make up your mind.

Roy Roope

Summerland