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May 13, 2005
May 17 - time to choose
Editorial
The time remaining in this provincial election campaign is now
measured in days and hours, instead of weeks or months. Though a
significant chunk of voters seems as yet undecided not only
on candidates to support, but on the important referendum question
on how we govern ourselves by late Tuesday night, we should
have the definitive answer to these unknowns.
Jewish candidates are few we've found only two among the
mainstream contending parties who identify themselves as such
though "Jewish issues" are more readily available. Priority
concerns of the organized Jewish community have been raised via
a series of initiatives by Canadian Jewish Congress, including a
survey of the parties and a candidates forum held Monday night at
the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver.
Though this election campaign has so far been dubbed one of this
province's most boring, such adjectives are all relative. B.C. politics
is rarely dull and if it seems so this time, it's because candidates
and campaigners have acted fairly civilly this time, unlike some
occasions in our history. There have been campaigns in this province
during which one might have assumed the fate of our entire civilization
was on the line, based on the seriousness with which British Columbians
and our politicians took our elections.
British Columbia's passionate political environment resembles in
many ways the vibrancy that has always animated Jewish political
life contemporary and historically; in the Diaspora and in
Israel. Passions run high and the stakes are valuable.
The schisms are as clear as ever in British Columbia's notoriously
polarized environment. Despite the name, the B.C. Liberal party
has demonstrated few initiatives that would traditionally fall under
the title liberal. The New Democrats, while trying to depict themselves
as a refreshed and more moderate alternative under former Victoria
school trustee Carole James, nevertheless remains the home of choice
for the traditional melange of radical and leftist activists. The
Green party, while appealing to a segment of voters, will have trouble
electing more than one MLA even if they're lucky.
The choice British Columbians will make on May 17 is startlingly
similar to the choices that have always faced us. Do you believe,
as most B.C. Liberals do, that good government is one that governs
least and that a healthy economy is an economy encouraged by government
policy, but made possible by a relatively laissez-faire approach?
Or do you believe that government has an obligation to intervene
in the economic system to ensure that its profits are distributed
in something verging on equitability?
In the end, how you vote will probably come down, in one way or
another, to which of these economic scenarios you most agree with.
Of course, there are extenuating factors. Personalities, strategic
voting, specific policy concerns beyond these general orientations
all of these and more play some part in determining people's
voting habits. But British Columbia remains, as much as ever, split
on economic issues.
Where British Columbians have found a strange compatibility and
an end to traditional polarization is on the matter of the referendum
on the STV single-transferable voting initiative.
Traditional enemies former premiers Dave Barrett and Bill
Bennett, for example are united against the proposal, while
other strange bedfellows have aligned together on the "yes"
side. The proposal has merits and drawbacks, as does our existing
system. The main attraction of STV is that it is more likely to
reflect the variation in voters' intentions and less likely to result
in massively skewed landslides of the sort we saw in 2001.
On the downside, the system would result in larger constituencies
with multiple MLAs. Some ridings would be as much as seven times
the size of current ridings, which would certainly have a negative
impact on an MLA's effectiveness in representing their constituents
and on the ability of voters to inform themselves on the variety
of candidates on the much-longer, multi-member ballot.
There is plenty of information about the STV proposal on the B.C.
government website (www.electionsbc.ca)
that will help you decide whether the pros outweigh the cons, or
vice versa.
Similarly, the candidates before you in this election each have
their advantages and drawbacks. The B.C. Liberals can claim credit
for the decent shape of the provincial economy and the NDP can claim
the wealth is not being shared as much as it could be. How you vote
depends on how you frame the question of this election. The answer
is up to you.
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