Just when I thought the situation with BC’s third party advertising rules couldn’t get any more ridiculous, this comes in from the “Are You Kidding Me?!” department: According to The Tyee, a three page advertorial for the Canadian Coal Association “extolling the virtues of BC’s coal industry” in last week’s Globe and Mail has been [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Electoral reform'
Coal association gets free pass on election advertising while public interest groups chilled
May 8th, 2013 · Shannon Daub · 2 Comments · Electoral reform, Media
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State of play – 3rd party advertising rules and the 2013 provincial election
February 5th, 2013 · Shannon Daub · 4 Comments · Electoral reform, Law & legal issues
BC’s third party election advertising law has been highly controversial since its introduction in 2008. I wrote the following briefing note to help organizations understand if/how the law affects them. BC’s 3rd party election advertising law applies to many many kinds of public communication during a provincial election campaign — so even if you don’t [...]
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What would Stanley say about Brigette Marcelle?
June 4th, 2011 · Keith Reynolds · 11 Comments · Electoral reform, Transparency & accountability
For the last 30 years or so when confronted with a thorny issue I have often asked myself this question: what would Stanley say? This is the lens I would like to apply to Brigette Marcelle’s actions in the Senate last week. Marcelle is the young Senate page who during the Speech from the Throne [...]
Lessons for Ottawa from Victoria, Lessons for Victoria from Ottawa
May 5th, 2011 · Keith Reynolds · Comments Off · Electoral reform
Many Canadians have expressed fear about what our new national government, a majority elected by a 39% minority, will do now that it has four years of real power. For those concerned Canadians, British Columbia offers a lesson. BC’s government has discovered from an independent study that their HST is not revenue neutral. It will [...]
Tags: elxn41·Federal Election
There is no Goldilocks in democracy
March 24th, 2011 · Keith Reynolds · 1 Comment · Electoral reform
Oh boy, we’re in for a lot of democracy here in BC this year. Federal election in May and probably an HST referendum in June. My money is on an October provincial election if Christy Clark thinks the numbers are right. Then a vote for councils and school boards in November. And that is just fine [...]
Tags: democracy·Federal Election
Missing the Vote: Democratic Reform in BC
December 16th, 2010 · Marc Lee · 2 Comments · Children & youth, Electoral reform
I’ve long thought that we should lower the voting age to 16, so thanks to Mike deJong for raising it in the BC Liberal leadership campaign. I speak from some experience, as I voted shortly after I turned 17 in the Ontario provincial election. I was a frosh in residence at Western and no one [...]
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Sshh. It’s an election.
October 7th, 2010 · Shannon Daub · Comments Off · Electoral reform, Law & legal issues
This piece, by myself and Heather Whiteside, also appeared in the Vancouver Sun today. It summarizes findings from Election Chill Effect: The Impacts of BC’s New Third Party Advertising Rules on Social Movement Groups, co-published yesterday by the CCPA, BC Civil Liberties Association, and BC’s Freedom of Information and Privacy Association. “For groups to be [...]
Tags: election advertising
Save The Earth – Vote!
September 19th, 2010 · Peter Prontzos · Comments Off · Climate change, Economy, Electoral reform, Environment, resources & sustainability
Global warming is “a socialist plot” to steal from the rich – according to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. However, it’s not just Harper. The federal government, under both Liberals and Conservatives, has not only resisted environmental action in Canada, they have opposed international efforts to protect the Earth. Indeed, George Monbiot wrote that Canada is [...]
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Corporations are people too
January 31st, 2010 · Blair Redlin · 3 Comments · Electoral reform, Municipalities, Taxes
Advocates of democratic electoral reform are really out of step. Ideas like proportional representation and advertising spending limits are so retro, so 2004. The fashionable electoral reform idea this year is to give corporations a real say. It’s time for individual citizens to share their electoral democracy with corporations to give meaning to those old [...]
Tags: accountability·B.C. government·corporations·democracy·Electoral reform·Municipalities·STV & electoral reform
The Case for STV
May 6th, 2009 · Marc Lee · Comments Off · Electoral reform
One final article from our BC Commentary special: The Case for the BC Single Transferable Vote (BC-STV) by David Huntley and Michael Wortis BC-STV has many advantages over the current First-Past-the-Post system (FPTP) used for electing our MLAs. BC-STV will achieve a reasonably proportional representation of parties, with the number of MLAs of each party [...]
Tags: coalition government·David Huntley·FPTP·majoritarian·Michael Wortis·minority government·STV & electoral reform
