obscurantist
Jan 9, 2009, 10:18 PM
If complaints about breaches of the Local Government Act are valid, several West Vancouver politicians, including the mayor, could be disqualified from holding office. (http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/westcoastnews/story.html?id=ec7e6b71-9d85-4a64-9e64-532dc6b75f07) West Vancouver police are investigating complaints that two organizations that endorsed candidates in the November municipal election breached the Local Government Act.
Both groups -- West Vancouver Citizens for Good Government and Low Tax, Low Growth -- failed to register as either campaign organizers or elector organizations. West Vancouver Citizens for Good Government is a long-established association that has a stated mission of "actively participating in the selection and support of qualified candidates for civic offices." It vets candidates at closed meetings, requires that the selected candidates pay for its endorsement, and then advertises on their behalf.
If the complaints are found to be valid, Mayor Pamela Goldsmith-Jones, five of the district's six councillors and all five school trustees endorsed by Citizens for Good Government could be disqualified from holding office until after the next election. The sixth councillor, Michael Lewis, based his campaign on refusing endorsements. It was Lewis and his campaign manager, David Marley, who filed the police complaint. ...
West Vancouver is not the only municipality where quasi-political parties ignored the act's requirement that campaign organizers and elector organizations register before they endorse candidates, raise money and advertise. But it is the only one where an investigation is underway. ...
The reason that there are so few investigations is that there is no agency responsible for ensuring that the election rules in the act are enforced. The Community Development Ministry, which is responsible for the Local Government Act, does not enforce them. Ministry officials say it's the responsibility of citizens to lay complaints with local police.
West Vancouver's other group -- Low Tax, Low Growth -- is a shadowy one, which mailed at least three glossy pamphlets to residents including one that endorsed candidates, Lewis among them, without their knowledge or consent. This was particularly galling to Lewis. ...
Without enforcement provisions that designate who is responsible, we're left with the ridiculous situation where it falls to citizens to police the act. We don't ask citizens to enforce other laws or even election regulations at other levels of government, and it makes no sense here. ... This also relates to the question of whether formal slates at the local level are on balance positive or negative. I've heard the argument that slates bring a level of partisanship and polarization that isn't appropriate for what tends to be more of a consensus-based process, particularly in smaller communities like West Vancouver (which raises the side issue of the ridiculously small jurisdictions that we have in urban BC). On the other hand, slates provide a way of getting people's allegiances out in the open, and where you don't have slates you see unaccountable and sometimes nebulous groups controlling the process like in the present example.
Both groups -- West Vancouver Citizens for Good Government and Low Tax, Low Growth -- failed to register as either campaign organizers or elector organizations. West Vancouver Citizens for Good Government is a long-established association that has a stated mission of "actively participating in the selection and support of qualified candidates for civic offices." It vets candidates at closed meetings, requires that the selected candidates pay for its endorsement, and then advertises on their behalf.
If the complaints are found to be valid, Mayor Pamela Goldsmith-Jones, five of the district's six councillors and all five school trustees endorsed by Citizens for Good Government could be disqualified from holding office until after the next election. The sixth councillor, Michael Lewis, based his campaign on refusing endorsements. It was Lewis and his campaign manager, David Marley, who filed the police complaint. ...
West Vancouver is not the only municipality where quasi-political parties ignored the act's requirement that campaign organizers and elector organizations register before they endorse candidates, raise money and advertise. But it is the only one where an investigation is underway. ...
The reason that there are so few investigations is that there is no agency responsible for ensuring that the election rules in the act are enforced. The Community Development Ministry, which is responsible for the Local Government Act, does not enforce them. Ministry officials say it's the responsibility of citizens to lay complaints with local police.
West Vancouver's other group -- Low Tax, Low Growth -- is a shadowy one, which mailed at least three glossy pamphlets to residents including one that endorsed candidates, Lewis among them, without their knowledge or consent. This was particularly galling to Lewis. ...
Without enforcement provisions that designate who is responsible, we're left with the ridiculous situation where it falls to citizens to police the act. We don't ask citizens to enforce other laws or even election regulations at other levels of government, and it makes no sense here. ... This also relates to the question of whether formal slates at the local level are on balance positive or negative. I've heard the argument that slates bring a level of partisanship and polarization that isn't appropriate for what tends to be more of a consensus-based process, particularly in smaller communities like West Vancouver (which raises the side issue of the ridiculously small jurisdictions that we have in urban BC). On the other hand, slates provide a way of getting people's allegiances out in the open, and where you don't have slates you see unaccountable and sometimes nebulous groups controlling the process like in the present example.