Radio Show - November 26 By the People - News

November 26 By the People. Host David Bracewell speaks with Professor Norman Ruff from the University of Victoria about the Single Transferable Vote (STV) system that has been chosen for next May's referendum on electoral reform. Case Grypma, President of the Nelson Pilot's Association, joins David Bracewell to talk about the need to maintain our airport and Nelson City Council's decision to commission a $30,000 report on airport land use, the Airport Land Use committee having been unable to determine what to do.

Later, the Panel, Bill Ramsden, Dave Cherry and Marianne Bond, discuss with David Bracewell council's pressing of the Airport land use issue and pose several questions: who is pushing this issue; why isn't it being done under the umbrella of the OCP revision; and why is the issue being pressed when it is clear that Nelsonites are not pushing for a review at all? Finally, the Panel talks about the Columbia Basin Trust meetings that saw their plans to sell the CBT Hydro assets dropped in the face of Basin-wide-opposition and suggests that Nelson City Council should be getting feedback from the community in the same way regarding the airport before embarking on another airport report.

Nov 26 show

November 19 By the People. Host Rob Switzer speaks with Jim Terall about KCR and its role in presenting alternative views tp our community. David Bracewell offers his opinion on Adrianne Carr’s reaction to single transferable vote, then he, Rob Switzer and Jim Terall have a brief chat about STV. Councilors MacDonald and Dooley will join Host Rob Switzer to update us on recent council happenings finishing as usual with the By the People panel.

Nov 19 show

This column first appeared in the Nelson Daily News on Tuesday, November 9, 2004

You’ll be hearing that a lot during the next six months.
That’s because it’s the new slogan being used to explain the Single Transferable Vote electoral system.
A couple of weeks ago, BC’s Citizens’ Assembly on Electoral Reform recommended that we ought to scrap the voting system we have now.
The reasons for that recommendation are fairly obvious when you look at the results of only the last two provincial elections.
In 1996, the NDP won 52 per cent of the seats in the house with only 40 per cent of the vote.
Last time around, the Liberals won 97.5 per cent of the seats with 58 percent of the vote, the NDP got only 2.5 per cent of the seats with 21 per cent of the vote.
This means that 22 per cent of the electorate have no representation in the legislature.
The biggest losers where the Green Party who got 12 per cent of the vote and zero seats.
There must be a better way to elect our representatives. One that more accurately reflects the wishes of the voters.
That’s where the Citizens’ Assembly comes in.
For the past 10 months they’ve been studying different electoral systems and receiving submissions from the general public.
On October 24, they recommended that we replace our First-Past-The-Post, Winner-Take-All system with STV.
One of the biggest criticisms you’ll hear of STV is that it’s complicated and confusing.
This is only partly true.
The voting part is as easy as, well, as easy as 1, 2, 3.

October 29 By the People. Host David Bracewell has a discussion with Dr. Norman Ruff about the Citizen's Assembly on Electoral Reform recommendation for Single Transferable Vote (STV) as our method of voting in BC. That option will appear as a referendum question in next the Provincial Election in May. Sjeng Derkx interviews DEPAC chair Lenora Trenaman, Andrew Howroyd and Cathy Couch about deficit problems in our school district. The show ends, as usual, with the By the People's prestigious panel. Oct 29 show

This column first appeared in the Nelson Daily News on Wednesday, October 26, 2004

The Columbia Basin Trust is planning to sell off our interest in local hydro electricity production and they want to know what you think about that.
The history of the Columbia Basin Trust goes all the way back to the 1964 and the ratification of the Columbia River Treaty between the United States and Canada.
The treaty led to the construction of four dams in the Columbia Basin; three of them in BC (the Duncan, Keenleyside and Mica Dams) and the Libby Dam in Montana.
The purpose of these dams was flood control and power production in both countries.
Unfortunately, while the citizens on the BC side of the border were the most adversely affected by the building of these dams, we didn’t see any of the benefits.
The people of the Basin are still feeling the affects of the flooding of several communities and farms displacing some 2300 residents.