This was in my in-box today, from Fair Voting BC. I am encouraged by news of so many groups that have spawned (to use a word from my sons' gaming world) into existence for the sole purpose of re-claiming a democratic society. If change can happen in BC, I believe it can happen across the entire country, but as with all things demanding political will, we have to help make it happen.
Networks and Partnerships for Democratic
Reform
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Dear Democratic Reform Supporters:
As both the western and Chinese New Years get underway, our news is
mainly about networking and partnerships. Fair Voting BC is pleased to announce
the following:
Vancouver City Council To Renew Request for Power to Choose
Best Voting System for City: Fair Voting BC has had numerous discussions
with Vancouver city councillors over the years about addressing some of the
problems with the city’s democratic processes. We were therefore very pleased
that Councillor Andrea Reimer has introduced a motion calling on the province to
change the charter to allow the city freedom to choose its own voting system and
to make detailed ballot data publicly available (our request! See last month's
newsletter). While council generally appears to be favourable, the minister
responsible, Ida Chong, stated that she’ll only implement the requests if the
Local Government Elections Task Force and the Union of BC Municipalities
agrees, so there’s still a lot of work to be done yet before we win our
democratic rights. Fair Voting BC will be speaking in favour of this motion
when council hears speakers (likely next Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday
morning). It would be great to have FVBC supporters join us and speak in favour
of the motion yourselves - there's strength (and fun) in numbers! Check out the
meeting agenda
and, if you can come, please send a note to Jim DeLaHunt ( jdlh@jdlh.com) to
get put on the speaker's list.
Fair Voting BC Partners With Party X on Democratic Dialogue Series:
Party X is a
Vancouver-based non-profit community of tech innovators and social entrepreneurs
who are developed new web-based tools for building public consensus. Fair
Voting BC is delighted to partner with Party X to offer a dialogue series later
this spring on issues of democracy, technology and collective decision-making.
Our first organizing meeting will take place downtown at 6pm on Feb 1 (next Wed)
and we invite anyone who’s interested to join us. Please click here to
register (no charge).
Integrity BC Invites FVBC Supporters to Sign Petition Banning
Union and Corporate Donations: Integrity BC
is a relatively new non-partisan organization championing accountability and
integrity in BC politics and we are pleased that two of Fair Voting BC’s
founding directors sit on their board: Nick Loenen (former Socred MLA) and David
Marley (former assistant to the BC Attorney General). Integrity BC is currently
running a campaign called “Who Really Runs BC?” which calls for a ban on
corporate and union funding of political parties, a cap on personal donations
and a Citizen's Assembly to study and make binding recommendations on a host of
other reforms, including banning contributions from outside B.C. They invite
you to visit their website for more information on this issue, to sign a
petition and to volunteer to help collect
signatures.
Liberal Convention Supports Alternative Vote: At the Liberal
Convention last week, the party adopted a motion
that recognizes the failings of Single Member Plurality voting and endorsing the
Alternative Vote (AV). AV is much like our Single Member Plurality system,
but it substitutes a preferential ballot for the current ‘Mark an X’ ballot.
With a preferential ballot, you rank the candidates (1, 2, 3, etc). If no
candidate wins 50% on the first vote, the candidate with the fewest votes is
eliminated and the ballots supporting them transferred to those voters’ second
choice. This repeats until someone has 50% support. While there are some (arguably
small) benefits of using AV, it is by no means a form of proportional
representation (despite some confusion in news reports). Fair Vote Canada
regards AV as a non-reform, and Fair Voting BC calls on the Liberal Party to
initiate a combined multipartisan and public deliberative dialogue to build
consensus on voting reforms that can be broadly supported.
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