The introduction into the
| “eislature Monday of a bill adding
. ‘ven new seats to the legislature —
| Nearly all of them in assured Socred
| ‘stitory — has been virtually
) we Sally condemned as ‘‘cynical
j) «cttempt for democracy’’ and a
; ed grab for power.”

Loe of the first pieces of legisla-
3 n tabled by the Socred govern-
‘ ent as the session opened Mon-
“4Y Was the bill putting into law the
"commendations of the one-man
ia i commission headed by
Te. Derril Warren. The former
. Ty leader called for the addition
~ Ohe new member each in the
Single-member ridings of Cariboo,
eee Kamloops, North Peace
; ane , Okanagan South and Rich-
Tih nd as well as a third member in
# “le Wo-member Surrey riding.
the ridings are held by
, 3 €ds with the exception of Sur-
» ‘ty where the two seats are shared
: asses Bill Vander Zalm and
é P member Ernie Hall.
* € Warren commission recom-
€ndations follow just four years
| ter an earlier Socred_ ger-

Pmander in 1978 based on the
re of electoral commissioner
pea Lawrence Eckardt. Eckardt,

One-time Socred candidate, re-

Tew electoral boundaries,
; inated the two-member NDP
| ba In Vancouver-Burrard and the
| Single-member NDP seat in
€velstoke-Slocan and added the
) Notorious ‘Gracie’s Finger”’ to the
Tee Socred seat in Vancouver-
| Slttle Mountain. Without the
changes, the Socreds would almost
oy have lost the 1979 elec-

isthe only acceptable recommen-
ae put forward by Warren
d included in the new bill called

Or the elimination of Gracie’s

BOKAABHO-
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Ottawa
Toronto
Windsor
Winnipeg

‘dmonton

‘
Vancouver Sunday, September 26,

LDG2d

1982 CONCERT TOUR

Friday, September 17, 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, September 18, 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, September 19, 2:30 p.m.
Monday, September 20, 8:00 p.m.
Tuesday, September 21, 8:00 p.m.
Wednesday, September 22, 8:00 p.m.

Thursday, September 23, 8:00 p.m.

Friday, September 24, NS p.m.
:30 p.m.

G 2:30 p.m.
wtand Forks Tuesday, September 28, 8:00 p.m.

Finger — which would be returned
to Vancouver-Point Grey — and
the appointment of a permanent
electoral reform commission.

But those points have lost any
significance amidst the Socreds
crude and blatant juggling of the
province’s electoral arithmetic.

“The public had a right to expect
that the new session, meeting in the
midst of the most serious economic
crisis since the hungry Thirties
would get down to business with
measures to deal with the crisis,”’
Communist Party leader Maurice
Rush said in a statement Tuesday.

“But instead the Socreds gave
top priority to pushing through
legislation which they hope will en-
sure their return to power.

“This action will go down in
history as one of the most cynical
examples of gerrymandering. It is
difficult to point to a more glaring
example of abuse of power by any
party in power anywhere,”’ he said.

NDP leader Dave Barrett de-
nounced the changes, charging that
never in his 22 years of politics had
he seen a ‘‘more raw, naked grab
for power.”

Commission critic Eileen Dailly
had earlier blasted the recommen-
dations as ‘‘the ultimate in
hypocrisy and political
immorality’. She noted that War-
ren, in adding the new seats, had
contradicted his own advice that
“‘multi-member electoral districts
must . . . be abolished.”

The report has also been criticiz-
ed. by. radio. and. newspaper com-
mentators, as well as several
academic specialists in electoral
reform.

Both the NDP and the CP had
criticized the commission at the
time of its appointment last June,

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noting the Socred’s sordid history
of one-member electoral commis-
sions. The Communist Party stated
at the time it would not take part in
hearings, claiming that the com-
mission was ‘‘an exercise in ger-
rymandering and preparation for
the provincial election.”’

Rush emphasized that only three
seats currently separate the NDP
and the Socreds in the legislature, a

gap the government “‘considerstoo

close for comfort.

“So the Socreds and their right
wing free enterprise backers under-
took an operation to ensure that
the balance would be swung more
strongly in favor of the Socreds —
and democracy be damned,’’ he
charged.

“Big business is determined to
see the return of the Socred govern-
ment to power and the recommen-
dations of the commission are
designed as extra insurance to

ey | BRITISH COLUMBIA__
Socred electoral changes
‘glaring abuse of power’

©. . I’m planning to do some fishing . . . so what kinds of bait do you really go for? ...”

determine the outcome of the elec-
tion beforehand in favor of the
Socreds.”’

“The B.C. public can show its
contempt for this action when the
next election comes by kicking the
Socreds out of office and electing a
new, progressive majority to Vic-
toria which would include Com-
munist MLAs,”’ he said.

Access to council
demanded in Surrey

The fight is on in Surrey against a
city council that consistently
refuses to hear delegations that ob-
ject to its essentially pro-developer
policies.

At a public meeting and fund-
raiser held by the progressive Sur-
rey Alternative Movement (SAM)
civic organization Sunday, civic
and community leaders called for
an end to the unofficial policy by
which the mayor and his city coun-
cil majority regularly refuse to hear
briefs that conflict with its posi-
tions.

Tax reform activist Jeanne Ed-
dington, independent alderman
Bob Bose, and SAM mayoral can-
didate Steve Gidora said council
should open up its regular Monday
night meetings to delegations and
establish clear policy guidelines
regarding the question of presenta-
tions to council.

Currently, most delegations are
shunted to afternoon ‘‘council in
committee”’ sessions, which are in-
accessible to most working people
and are attended by few citizens,
they charged.

The usual practice of mayor Don
Ross and his Surrey Municipal
Electors (SME) majority on coun-
cil is to hear only delegations the
mayor or aldermen deem “‘excep-

tional” at the regular council
meetings.

Ross, a surprise visitor at Sun-
day’s meeting, said his practice was
intended to weed out delegations
concerned with ‘‘petty’’ matters.

But earlier this year Ross defend-
ed his consistent refusal to hear
Gidora on the question of wards
for Surrey on the grounds that the

SAM leader was being ‘‘political.’’
Eddington, and Fraser Valley
Peace Council leader Bev Gidora,
who has repeatedly tried to petition
council to reinstate the peace
referendum on the civic ballot
originally accepted and later drop-
ped by council, have been similarly
turned down.

Bose tried at Monday’s council
meeting to amend a motion seeking
to put into the guidelines council’s
usual practice, by moving that the
term ‘‘exceptional circumstances”’
be replaced with ‘‘appropriate cir-
cumstances.”’

Bose, the lone opposition to the
SME majority in council, told the
Tribune that to his surprise the
amendment was seconded, ‘‘but
then they voted to table the whole
damn thing.”

“T support the notion of pro-
viding a forum for people express-
ing opinions on items of public in-
terest,’’ said Bose.

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