Thursday, May 15, 2008

Citizen reps eager to work

By Dan Hilborn
Published Jan. 21, 2004


A mood of almost unbridled optimism is coming from the eight Burnaby residents chosen at random to sit on the provincial government's new Citizen's Assembly on Electoral Reform.

While they range in age from a 20-year-old university student to the 72-year-old owner operator of a family day care centre, they all have one thing in common.

They all believe they have a wonderful opportunity to make a real change in the way the electoral system works in British Columbia.

"Man, it was marvelous," said Mo Assim, a 49-year-old courier driver and father of two, after the first full weekend of workshops with the assembly.

"It was a real eye-opener for me," said Assim. "I was utterly amazed at the overview of all the things involved."

Like each of the 160 people from around the province chosen to sit in the assembly, Assim has been handed a daunting stack of reading material to familiarize himself with his duties. And he is jumping into it wholeheartedly.

"I must say I am very honoured to be selected," he said. "There are no words to tell you the pride I have to serve in such a civic commission. I bring a lot of interest, and a lot of listening skills."

Indeed, a keen interest and listening skills are two traits that will serve Assim and the other assembly members well over the coming 12 months. It is their job to come up with a formal recommendation on how to change the electoral system.

And while the vast majority of people in the assembly have no previous political experience, that is not the case for Burnaby resident Nancy McAskill, a volunteer with Girl Guides and member of the former Canadian Alliance federal party.

McAskill admits that she was "appalled" when she received her complimentary copy of The Province newspaper while attending the Jan. 18 assembly meeting, and realized the daily newspaper did not carry a single story about either the assembly or the meeting. "They got a letter from me the next day," she said.

McAskill strongly believes that the Citizen's Assembly is a good idea.

"Surely the collective wisdom of the ordinary and average persons in B.C. can make a difference," she said. "The crunch, of course, will be whether we can keep enough people happy to reach something that is concrete enough to make a difference.

"But even if there's only a whole lot of talk, I think that would be a benefit."

John Mak, a 28-year-old chartered accountant who works for the provincial government as an auditor, was not expecting so much enthusiasm when he arrived at his first assembly meeting.

"Everyone is optimistic," said Mak, a Burnaby North resident. "The one thing that surprised me the most was how excited everyone was and how they genuinely want to work together to come up with the best solution."

Mak admits he doesn't usually follow politics, and at this stage, he simply wants to keep an open mind about what might be problems with our current electoral system.

Mary Drew, a 72-year-old grandmother who operates her own daycare, said her main concerns is trying to find a way to get people interested in voting again.

"We may not change the world, but we're sure going to try," said Drew. "This is very complicated and it will take a bit of work on our part to do a good job, but I do feel it's needed at this time, what with the way things are going and the way politics and politicians are.

"Voting is down so much we need a system that will get people back to the polls. In fact, I have two people living in my house who don't vote, and they're otherwise intelligent people. They say it doesn't matter ... but it does matter," Drew said.

Craig Henschel, a 43-year-old intern architect representing Burnaby Willingdon, said he's ready to jump right into the heart of the issues.

"Even apart from politics it's pretty clear that there is a large percentage of people without representation in the legislature and that causes a bit of a problem," Henschel said. "Whenever you have a party with less votes that forms a majority government, I find that odd and I think it's disquieting to people.

"I think this whole thing started out with the idea that the parties are feeling they're not being treated fairly by the electoral system. But it's not the parties being treated fairly that's important, it's the individual voters and making their votes mean something.

"While the parties complain about losing their share of the seats, more important is the public's ability to have their ideas represented in the legislature. I don't think democracy is about who wins or who loses, but about the discussion around the votes."

Geraldine Hurst, a retired teacher and nonprofit fundraiser, said she wants to leave a better political system behind for her grandchildren.

"My eyes were opened very wide," Hurst said following the first weekend of meetings. "I always thought there was just one way of voting.

Sam Todd, a 44-year-old construction worker, admitted that his friends have already started teasing him about being on the government payroll, but he's looking forward to the task.

"I think the biggest problem right now is that the people up top just won't listen to the folks down below," Todd said. "I believe every politician goes into it with goodness in their heart, but they get caught up in the bureaucracy and for whatever reason things don't happen.

"I think the process needs to be streamlined, and you have to do it in a way that gets more voters out," he said. "I don't know how to do it yet, after all I'm just one little guy, but I am pretty opinionated.

"I like to think of this as evolution in action. Democracy has been stagnant for so long," he said.

Adina Irimescu, a 20-year-old UBC student, is also hopeful the assembly will find ways to make the electoral system more representative of the general public, but she's not so sure that they will find a way to get more young people involved.

"To tell you the truth, I don't think young people care too much about politics," Irimescu said. "I wish they did, but most things don't affect them too much. Maybe they care about education a little, but people my age don't feel that by voting they could ever make a difference. There are so many people voting what does another vote matter?"

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