Today's(Tuesday May 12th) election is one of the most important elections BC has ever seen. If the BC Liberals get back in the damage to BC will be
impossible to undo. They are crooks who take part in under the table deals.(just look into the sale of BC rail for proof of this) They want to sell off
everything that BC has to offer, all of our resources to private companies, so that their big business buddies can make a quick buck off the backs of
everyday British Columbians, nothing is left for future generations. They pretend to have an environmental plan by putting a green sounding name on
everything, but really anyone who does any digging will find out it is more of a plan for destroying the environment, not protecting it. Campbell's
energy policy will ruin an ever increasing number of rivers, not to look after BC's energy needs, but mostly, American requirements. Once American
companies have tenure, on our rivers, it cannot be broken. These companies will end up making billions of dollars in profit at our expence, while the public
is forced to pay much higher rates for our hydro to these private corperations. (Some good videos which goes into more detail about the repricussions another
Campbell government would have on the environment & our rights: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwcoIQPyrN8) Meanwhile education and healthcare continue to
suffer from Campbell's cuts and the number of homeless people continues to grow(it's increased by 400% since the liberals have come in)
The NDP aren't perfect and the Greens are a long shot, but given the alternative the choice is easy. Under the NDP the environment will be much more protected, Healthcare and education will be a higher priority, and the rampant privatization and selling off of BC's resources would be largely halted. I would love to see the greens get a say as well, as their policy ideas are a lot more progressive in a lot of areas than the more mainstream NDP, but unfortunately under our current First Past The Post voting system it will be very hard for them to break through and get seats.(though not impossible, we should not give up hope) This brings me to the other reason why this election is so important, we have a chance to change the whole electoral system for the better by bringing in the new Single Transferable Vote system or STV for short. If STV passes we will have a fairer more democratic electoral system.
Ask yourself this question: Is it fair for a party like the Green Party who get around 10% of the vote to get no seats? Is it fair for a party who gets just over half the votes(like the liberals in 2001) to 97% of the seats? These are the results that our current first past the post system gives. If STV had been in place during the 96 election it would have even benifited the liberals, as they received a higher vote percentage then the NDP but still lost the election. Under STV the results would more closely reflect the popular vote and People would have a much better chance of electing a representative to their district who shares their values.
It should be in place now as it received 58% support last time, but for some reason they decided put an unnecessarily high requirement of 60% voter support for it to pass. This election lets push it over that 60% mark!
Some good sources for info on STV:
http://www.youtube.com/user/diannesearle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-4_yuK-K-k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhccpzI4lbQ
So please vote today. Even if you don't like any of the parties, it's always better to vote for the lesser of 2(or 3) evils than not vote at all and there is clearly a party here who is a much greater evil than the other two. So with that in mind please vote for either the Greens or NDP today and please vote yes to STV.
PS If you still don't know where to vote yet check http://142.36.238.17/voter/edfinder.htm & http://www.elections.bc.ca/docs/map/redis08/Provincial_ED_Map_28x36(web).pdf
The NDP aren't perfect and the Greens are a long shot, but given the alternative the choice is easy. Under the NDP the environment will be much more protected, Healthcare and education will be a higher priority, and the rampant privatization and selling off of BC's resources would be largely halted. I would love to see the greens get a say as well, as their policy ideas are a lot more progressive in a lot of areas than the more mainstream NDP, but unfortunately under our current First Past The Post voting system it will be very hard for them to break through and get seats.(though not impossible, we should not give up hope) This brings me to the other reason why this election is so important, we have a chance to change the whole electoral system for the better by bringing in the new Single Transferable Vote system or STV for short. If STV passes we will have a fairer more democratic electoral system.
Ask yourself this question: Is it fair for a party like the Green Party who get around 10% of the vote to get no seats? Is it fair for a party who gets just over half the votes(like the liberals in 2001) to 97% of the seats? These are the results that our current first past the post system gives. If STV had been in place during the 96 election it would have even benifited the liberals, as they received a higher vote percentage then the NDP but still lost the election. Under STV the results would more closely reflect the popular vote and People would have a much better chance of electing a representative to their district who shares their values.
It should be in place now as it received 58% support last time, but for some reason they decided put an unnecessarily high requirement of 60% voter support for it to pass. This election lets push it over that 60% mark!
Some good sources for info on STV:
http://www.youtube.com/use
http://www.youtube.com/wat
http://www.youtube.com/wat
So please vote today. Even if you don't like any of the parties, it's always better to vote for the lesser of 2(or 3) evils than not vote at all and there is clearly a party here who is a much greater evil than the other two. So with that in mind please vote for either the Greens or NDP today and please vote yes to STV.
PS If you still don't know where to vote yet check http://142.36.238.17/voter
