BKAD: Vancouver-Kensington Follow-up
5 weeks ago I did a brief and very preliminary overview of this riding and was left leaning towards the Green as the conscience vote and the NDP as the strategic vote. Let’s see how things may have changed…
The Candidates
BC Liberal: Syrus Lee
NDP: Mable Elmore
Green: Doug Warkentin
BC Liberal: Syrus Lee
Five weeks ago all the BC Liberals had on this guy was a picture. He now has a very minimal website that includes pretty much nothing regarding policy. The only bit that even hints at policy is this sentence: “Syrus is confident he can serve the people of Vancouver-Kensington and help improve public safety, enhance liveable communities and build a thriving economy that can create business and employment opportunities in the riding”. He’s confident but seems to have no plan and no specifics – and liveable isn’t even a word but if it were what would it mean exactly? He’s opposed to people dying in his riding? He does have a lot of volunteer experience but that seems to be almost exclusively in the Chinese community – according to the 2006 census the riding is 39.5% Chinese which makes me wonder if he intends to ignore 60.5% of the constituents.
Primary Issues: Public Safety and the Economy
Conclusion: This person has absolutely nothing worthwhile to say.
NDP: Mable Elmore
At first glance Mable Elmore seems primarily concerned with the BC Liberals corruptions, the BC Liberals neglect of at-risk groups, and improved transit.
Primary Issues: Government Accountability, Protection of Neglected Groups, More Buses…
*break*
I really could go on but what’s the point? Polling has the BC Liberals up 2% - 9% over the NDP and the Greens barely worth mentioning. The election’s tomorrow. My family’s already voted advance and if you’re undecided you don’t have long to make up your mind so let me quickly share with you why my family voted the way we did…
We voted NDP because the BC Liberals have to be stopped and the NDP are the only people who can stop them. Regardless of how strong your Green Party candidate is if the last 8 years has shown us anything it’s that we need to stand up, united, against the BC Liberals and right now the NDP are the only people who can make that happen.
STV also needs to be stopped. I completely understand the philosophy behind it but the practical execution is a mess. Election officials don’t even know how they would pull it off; they don’t even completely understand how it’s supposed to work. I’ve looked at the proposed legislation and mathematic formula and I can’t tell you whose vote would be transferred under what circumstances. Yes, once a candidate has met a threshold the remaining votes would be transferred but how do you know if your vote was one of the votes towards the quota or one that got transferred? To calculate the results you’d have to feed everything into a computer and just hope that it does its job properly and hasn’t been tampered with or improperly programmed. Recounts would be logistical nightmares. STV requires huge ridings that would see some regional representation all but disappear.
The current system, First Past the Post, isn’t the best but it’s far better than STV – everyone understands it, you KNOW who you voted for, and recounts are simple and accountable with an easy to understand paper trail.
The philosophy and vote instructions of STV are simple enough; its execution is a quagmire that I frankly don’t trust. Some people seem to think this is a partisan issue but it really isn’t nor should it be. Deciding a system of governance based on what party you want to lead is a mistake, that’s how dictatorships happen. You need to vote on STV on its merits alone, not if you want more representation for, say, the Green Party for example. Politics and parties change, an electoral system very rarely does. You might think so-and-so is so awesome they should be absolute ruler but one day that ruler will be replaced so a system of accountability, a strong system, is better than and will outlast any leader or party. And frankly as much as I like the idea of some other forms of proportional representation, First Past the Post is part of who we are as Canadians – I’m going to need something much better than STV to turn my back on that. STV comes at too high a price for too imperfect an alternative. The sad thing is many people aren’t even aware of the price as its true complexities have been left out of much of the arguments.
So tomorrow as you head to the polls if you want my advice, NDP and First Past the Post is the better way forward – the Canadian way that accepts our values of accountability and compassion.
