by Anthony Marr
BC's
Recall and Initiative Act for citizen initiated referendums does not work.
Anthony Marr found that out the hard way, working for six months on a Bear
Referendum that failed. Compared to California and Washington state, our
act is designed to fail and does not serve the public. Here is a proposal
to make the act workable.
In
June 1989, thousands of Chinese students died in Tienanmen Square for
democracy, some shot, others crushed in their tents by tanks. Had my
family never escaped from China, I would likely have been in their midst.
Living instead in Canada, I do not take my freedom for granted. I
safeguard it with my life, and make sure I use it to its fullest extent
towards making the maximum difference for as long as possible.
This
is why, seeing that BC is the only Canadian province with the provision
for citizens to launch referendums through the Recall and Initiative Act,
I expended six full months of my life on Western Canada Wilderness
Committee's (WCWC) Bear Referendum campaign last year. This is why, after
the exercise in futility, I have come to abhor the true lack of full and
real democracy in BC, and therefore in Canada.
What we have here is at best
semi-democracy, if not downright pseudo-democracy. We have the right to
vote for politicians who are usually little more than the least of several
evils, who then behave more like dictators than democrats. Most of all,
the Recall and Initiative Act is all semblance but no substance.
On
July 13, 1996, the Editor-in-Chief of the Kamloops Daily News, Mel Rothenburger, wrote: "Nobody ever promised democracy would be easy.
Anthony Marr, who grew up in Hong Kong, is learning all about that in
Canada. Marr was in town this week as part of a tour of BC cities setting
the stage for what he hopes will be a provincial referendum on bear
hunting. Aside from the cogency of his argument, what struck me most about
his objective is the near-impossibility of success . . ."
Having
traveled 20,000 km from city to city debating trophy hunters by the
hundreds face to face and on various media, generating some 200 newspaper
articles around the province, working hard with some 2,000 volunteers in
the Initiative Petition phase of the Referendum campaign in sleet and
snow, and still ending up short of the impossible goal set by BC's
Attorney General Ujjal Dosanjh, I declare the process
unworkable-by-design, and the government's purported wish to share
legislative power with the people totally insincere.
How
our Act compares to those of California and Washington State
The fact that no other Canadian province has even BC's
pretence of a citizen-launchable initiative makes Canada a
less-than-first-class democracy. First, let me recap the current rules and
regulations in Election BC's Recall and Initiative Act, and compare and
contrast it against other proven, workable systems around the democratic
world whenever possible:
To
force a province-wide referendum, the Proponent must first collect
signatures from at least 10% of the registered voters in each and every
one of the 75 electoral districts in the province, which should total
about 220,000 province-wide. If only one electoral district falls short by
even 1%, all is for nought. In contrast, California and Washington state,
for example, require only 5% of the number of voters who actually voted in
the previous election, which given a 60% turnout is equivalent only to 3%
of the registered voters, and at that from anywhere in the state.
The BC
signatures must be collected by government approved and registered
�volunteer canvassers�, who must themselves be registered voters. To
register a canvasser according to Elections BC protocol requires five
stages of mailing, spanning about three weeks. California and Washington
state, on the other hand, have no such requirement; petition forms can be
displayed, distributed and circulated by anyone.
75 different sets of petition
forms are issued by Elections BC, one for each electoral district. This
means that canvassers have to carry around multi-sets of forms, in case
some of the people they approach in a certain electoral district, or who
approach them, have come from another district. This also means that many
people from other districts would have to be turned away if the canvasser
happens not to have the right petition form.
In
Vancouver and Victoria in particular, canvassers have to carry all 75 sets
of forms, which makes the exercise extremely tedious, awkward, expensive
and time consuming. California and Washington state, on the other hand,
issue only one set of petition forms, applicable to every corner of the
state.
BC's
Proponent has only 90 days to collect the signatures of 10% of all
registered voters, whereas California's and Washington's proponents have
150 days to collect the signatures of 5% of those who voted in the last
election.
In BC,
there can be only one Proponent, and at that it must be an individual
instead of an organization, whereas there can be any number of Opponents,
who can be organizations as well as individuals. In the Bear Referendum's
case, there were 107 registered Opponents, comprising 38 individuals and
69 organizations headed by the 35,000-members-strong BC Wildlife
Federation (a misleading title which should be more truthfully renamed BC
Hunting Association).
This obviously is biased in
favour of the Opponents in terms of fund raising and networking potential.
The
disparity is made even more pronounced by that whereas the Proponent needs
to work on all 75 electoral districts to ensure that they all succeed, the
Opponents need concentrate on only two or three to ensure that at least
one fails (see point #1).
While
debating hunters, one of their arguments is:
"Who
are you, from Vancouver, to tell us up here what to do?"
First, if the referendum
succeeds, it would be the entire BC electorate's decision, not just the
people of Vancouver. I can understand that some measure of regional
representation is fair, but if hypothetically 74 districts get enough
signatures, who is the one dissenting district to derail all the rest?
It
would be fair, in my opinion, that the electoral districts also follow the
democratic principle of a simple majority, namely that 38 out of the 75
should suffice.
In BC,
unlike in California and Washington state, the success of the Initiative
Petition does not automatically guarantee a referendum vote. In fact, the
legislature still has the power to trash the petition as it sees fit.
When
it comes to the referendum vote, California and Washington state requires
the usual simple majority of those who turn out to vote, whereas in BC, a
majority of the registered voters is required. In other words, if 50% of
the registered voters turned out to vote, and 100% of them voted for the
proposal, the Referendum would not pass. It would fail by one vote.
Even
if the referendum vote is won, it still goes back to debate in legislature
which still has the power to trash the vote, whereas in California and
Washington state, legislative change is automatic.
Although there is a provision to prohibit direct interference by the
Opponents in the Initiative Petition process, such as intimidating those
who came to sign, which some Opponents did violate, there is no provision
to prohibit indirect interference, such as the Opponents threatening to
picket and boycott those malls that allow the Proponent to set up booths,
which the Opponents took full advantage of.
Since
the Recall and Initiative Act originated as a provision for citizens to
recall politicians in whom they have lost confidence, the government sees
itself being naturally in the Opponent camp, which in part explains the
above anti-Proponent bias.
When
Mr. Dosanjh was challenged by provincial Liberal leader Gordon Campbell on
the unworkability of the rules, he cited the $18 million cost for a
referendum vote as justification for the difficulties imposed to rule out
wanton launches of referendums on �trivial issues�, which the bear-hunting
issue certainly was not.
Indeed, as a lone-standing event, an Initiative Vote would be exceedingly
expensive -cranking up the entire voting machinery throughout the province
in terms of voter registration, setting up and manning polling stations,
publicizing the event, counting of votes, etc.,
But
this is circular argument in his own favour. It was Mr. Dosanjh himself
who caused the process to be expensive by making the Initiative Vote a
lone-standing event in the first place. In contrast, referendums in
California and Washington state are appended to political elections at
minimal cost, and there is no disadvantage to it.
Coinciding with BC's bear referendum, there was a bear referendum in
Washington state in their last political election on banning the use of
bait and dogs in bear hunting, and their referendum was won.
I
congratulate them, especially considering that they would have lost had
Washington state's rules been the same as BC's.
Conversely, had BC's rules been the same as Washington state's, we would
have succeeded.
If the
comparison is still found unconvincing, I can cite the case of
Switzerland, where for the last 130 years, the signatures of only 1% of
the registered voters are required to force a referendum vote to challenge
any existing policy or law, and only 2% for the proposal of new laws.
Citizen-generated referendums are tools for truly democratic governments
to place the power with the people. It is the way public servants live up
to their true calling in a truly democratic society, however much
remuneration and prestige they deem fit to reward themselves. If this
province's Attorney General is truly sincere in elected government sharing
legislative power with the people, he will change the referendum rules to
be more democratic.
We
need to change the Act. To this effect, WCWC has prepared a petition to
the BC government outlining 12 realistic points to make BC's referendum
act workable. We encourage you to obtain a copy, sign it, gather more
signatures, and take part in the democratic process of changing our
referendum act.
Petition to Change the BC Referendum Act
We, the people of
British Columbia, wish to amend the current Recall and Initiative Act as
follows:
The Initiative Petition to call a referendum shall require
signatures from at least 3% of the registered voters province wide.
The provincial total shall include signatures from at least 3% of
the registered voters in at least 38 of BC's 75 electoral districts.
The time frame provided for the gathering of these signatures shall
be 150 days, which will begin on a date jointly decided upon by the Proponent(s) and Elections BC.
There can be any number of Proponents and Opponents.
Both Proponents and Opponents can be individuals as well as
organizations.
There shall be only one set of Initiative Petition forms instead of
the current 75 different sets.
Signatures can be collected by anyone regardless of his/her being a
registered voter.
Opponents shall not use intimidation tactics to directly or
indirectly interfere with the signature collection process.
A successful Initiative Petition shall automatically bring about an
Initiative Vote.
The Initiative Vote shall be appended to the first provincial
election after the conclusion of the Initiative Petition.
The Initiative Vote shall be won by the Proponent(s) with a simple
50%-plus-one-vote majority of popular votes province-wide, and
simple 50%-plus-one-vote majorities of the popular votes in at least
38 of the 75 electoral districts.
The proposed amendment or removal of an existing law or policy,
and/or introduction of a new law or policy as stated in the
Initiative Petition, shall automatically take effect in legislature
upon the winning of the Initiative Vote by the Proponent(s).
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