Plan to change how we vote falls far short of its goal

By JENNIFER LANG A CITIZEN’S initiative aimed at changing B.C.’s yoting system has failed to sign up the number of sig- natures needed to force a referendum on proportional representation.

On Aug. 12, proponent Adriane Carr, best known as the leader of the Green Party, admitted she -and her 4,000 canvassers had lost the battle ~ but she held out hope that they7ll win the war.

In the end, they man- aged to collect enough signatures in nine ridings, including her home riding of Powell River-Sunshine Coast, Nelson-Creston, Kelowna Lake Country and six Vancouver Island ridings.

Carr needed to collect the signatures of 10 per cent of the voters in all 79 provincial ridings — more than 212,000 voters in all.

Instead, she and her canvassers signed up al- most 98,000 voters — about 46 per cent of the required number of registered vo- ters.

Here in Skeena, just 103 registered voters signed the Free Your Vote petition by the Aug. 12 deadline, according to the campaign’s website,

Canvassers needed to Sign up 1,723 registered voters here to meet the 10 per cent threshold.

That’s G per cent of the required number of signa- tures here.

The campaign found greater success in neigh- bouring ridings, signing up 22 per cent of the required signatures in the -North Coast riding, and 352 sig- natures,’ of 21 per cent of the : ‘ requifed” number in Bulkley Valley-Stikine.

Meanwhile, | Canvassers in gine ;

ber of required signatures.

Ing the, Ghart-topping. Nel:. son- Cfeston, riding, for ex- |”

ample, canvassers signed up 175 per cent of the 10 per cent target, with 4,751 voters signing on.

Carr’s proposal would have eliminated the num- ber of ridings to just 34, with the rest of the seats distributed to parties ac- cording to the number of votes they receive during an élection.

She said the system would have eliminated the skewed clection results seen in the past two pro- vincial elections.

Gas deal given OK

THE B.C. Utilities Com- mission has given its blessing. to the long term contract negotiated by Methanex and Pacific Northern Gas: (PNG) in March, *

Thi -eointraet, tolls pre- vious sale idigreements of natural gas* from PNG to Methanex*in' ‘Kitimat into one large one.

“It's a really positive step in terms of the cost structure of the plant,”

said ‘Brad Boyd of Metha-

nex, “It certainly helps a huge amount.”

“It’s a very good thing from our perspective,” added PNG vice president Greg: Weéres.

The new deal also in- cludes a provision under which. PNG has.an oppor- tunity to share in profits generated by the Kitimat plants."

That ‘will happen when |

the methanol/gas price dif- ference remains at more than $80: per: tonne for more than three months.

What percentage PNG will get has not been dis- closed,

/Methanex- had -three contracts with PNG - the lafgest, accounting for thiee quarters of the gas the utility’ «supplies the plant, .w Ort. 31fof.this year:. -

'The ‘new deal takes the

thtee ‘coritraéts arid” tolls ©

them. intoond with an ex- . pity. date.of Oct.:31, 2009. :

jine .ofi tie: top: Or | dings surpassed thé num- |

sdue."to ‘expite.

Carr said she believes the campaign could have succeeded if the 90-day campaign period had been longer.

Carr, who is taking a short break before resum- ing her duties as’ party lea- der next month, is ‘calling

her “Free Your Vote” campaign a success.

She has vowed to conti- nue her campaign to bring a fairer voting system to the province.

““L talked to thousands of voters who simply said. - thank you for -doing ‘this.

BC.

It's about time we made our voling system fairer so my vole counts! I’ve also talked to hundreds of can- vassers who are committed to keep working on this campaign until we gel pro- portional representation in

: | Adriane Carr

The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, August 21, 2002 All

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