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Wednesday, April 22, 2015 Nelson Star
Editorial NDP best chance at changing electoral system
The Harper government introduced Bill C-23 in February 2014. The more we know, the more we see how this bill is an attack on Canadian democracy. • It proposed sweeping changes to election rules and was criticized widely by some political parties, election law experts and the public. • Not allowing the use of a voter information card to prove residency will disenfranchise post-secondary students by interfering with their right to vote, according to the Canadian Federation of Students. • The chief electoral officer will no longer be able to run public education programs to inform people about the voting process and their rights. There are two main types of voting systems: proportional representation and winner take all, commonly known as first-past-the-post. In Canada we’ve always had the latter, which is designed to produce single party majority governments. The central flaw with this type of system is the high percentage of wasted votes (2011 election, seven million votes wasted). The Harper Conservatives won their majority government in 2011 with just 39 per cent of the vote. In August 2014 Conservative party staffer Michael Sona was found guilty of trying to prevent voters from casting their ballots during the 2011 federal election through the use of misleading phone calls. “It’s a very serious crime for people to interfere with the democratic rights of citizens in this country,” said the prosecutor. If that was true we would need dozens of prisons to house government officials and politicians who trample our democratic rights. The NDP is on record as being committed to electoral reforms that would allow all voters some proportional representation in parliament, whatever the riding in which they live and vote. In this election, we’re not only dealing with a wildly anti-democratic government, we’re also dealing with an unfair electoral system that wastes the votes of millions of people. I am a Green supporter but the only hope of defeating the Harper government appears to require
Funding by speed dating
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peed dating: An organized social event in which participants have one-to-one conversations typically limited to less than ten minutes for the purpose of meeting people. It’s been around since 1998, but the premise is now used in other settings besides finding your next life mate — think Dragon’s Den: inventors do a quick pitch to find a willing investor. So you might be asking what does speed dating or Dragon’s Den have to do with city council? Well, this past week council held a special meeting to review the applications for the Columbia Basin Trust 2015 Community Initiatives Program funding. Council’s role is to hear all the community group presentations, adjudicate the proposals and make final recommendations. This year 47 projects where submitted. So how do we ensure the playing field is level for all the applicants? Speed dating. Each applicant was given five minutes, two to three to explain who they are and what the intended use of the money would be, and how the use aligns with the City of Nelson Path to 2040 Sustainability strategy. The last two minutes allowed council to ask questions. Councillors then had two days to consider all the applications and fill in a matrix indicating if they could support the project and the level of funding they wanted to award. The City of Nelson was that all voters in our riding join to maximize the vote for the NDP. If enough others do the same, we will have a chance for a real change — beginning with a democratic voting system. Everyone deserves the right to fair representation. Everyone needs to vote this time! Karin Leja Winlaw
Bill C-51 paves way for abuse of power I am hugely worried about Bill C-51 and the railroading/non-democratic process our current government is using to finalize this bill. The
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Council has also debated the first readings of Nelson Landing’s requests for amendments to the official community plan and zoning bylaw. This is a residential development that will be situated at the waterfront on the old Kootenay Forest Products site. It will be exciting to see these lands finally developed after laying fallow for more than 30 years. Work has started on phase one of this development.
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MORRISON
Council Comment allocated $126,447 in Community Initiatives Program funds. The total amount of requests was $247,545.23. All applicants had worthy projects, but there will be some who unfortunately will be disappointed. The final recommendations were to be announced at Monday’s council meeting and will be known by the time this column is published.
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part from speed dating, local developments have also been at the forefront of city council’s awareness. We have had requests for some additional variances for the Nelson Commons development that is already underway in the heart of our vibrant downtown. more I learn about this bill, the less I like it, the less I trust our government and enforcement agencies. And I’m learning that my experience agrees hugely with the rising tide of public opinion against C-51. Our current government and enforcement agencies have demonstrated to me, again and again, that when they get power of any kind they have and will abuse it — for their own political benefit and against the people they are supposedly serving. Thanks to a CBC commenter, a sampling of our current government’s recent misuses of power includes: • Barred government privacy
ncron Medical Centre was also at city hall last week allowing those of us who are newly elected to review this application with the proponent in advance of the May 11 public hearing.
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ext week council is off to Nakusp to participate in the Association of Kootenay Boundary Local Government meeting. This year’s theme is Change>Challenge>Collaborate. It will be a great three days of networking, idea exchange, debate and strengthening our resolve to make not only Nelson, but the region, a better place to live. As always, I am interested in hearing from you — your thoughts, ideas and concerns The best way to contact me is jmorrison@nelson.ca. Nelson city councillor Janice Morrison shares this space weekly with her council colleagues. watchdog from testifying in C-51 committee; • Put ruling party in charge of elections; • Muzzled and de-funded Elections Canada; • Added 30 ridings in Conservative areas; • Limited debate of bills and sent them to Conservatives-only committees; • Repeatedly crafted massive omnibus bills and did not give MPs time to review them; • Muzzled and de-funded scientists; • Restricted public access to information;
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• Made the RCMP answer to government; • Stopped NAFTA scrutiny of environmental effects of the tar sands; • Demonized environmentalists, Muslims, aboriginals, democracy activists; • Told Parliament that Canadian troops would not do combat in Iraq, then sent them into combat; • First government in over 100 years in the 54-member Commonwealth of Nations to be in contempt of Parliament — effectively, in contempt multiple times; • Used the Canadian spy agency to monitor targets for special corporate interests. Adding Bill C-51 to the above without adequate parliamentary review and oversight leaves me more worried and fearful of our own government and protection agencies. We need to stop C-51 now, before it’s too late! Larry Bridle Nelson Do you want the federal government to have the power to share your financial status, your medical history, or your sexual orientation, etc. with 17 government agencies or possibly foreign governments? If your answer is no, then I urge you to contact your MP to express your opposition to Bill C-51. Even in its amended form, it remains a dangerous bill that could result in violations to our fundamental Charter rights, particularly the rights to freedom of expression online and to privacy. The bill would also turn CSIS into a “secret police” force with little oversight or accountability. Even though 50 per cent of Canadians reportedly oppose Bill C-51, the Conservatives seek to ram it through parliament. Please speak out before it is too late, before our democracy can not longer be resuscitated. Louise Taylor Kaslo This bill is a crime against our rights and freedoms. We oppose being spied on by our government and third party agencies! I encourage Canadians to learn more about how we can work together to stop Secret Police Bill C-51 at stopc51.ca. James Paget Nelson
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