February 4, 2003

Recall puts heat on AG

Attorney General Geoff Plant has another hot potato to handle. Under watch for how he handles the van Dongen file and under criticism for being soft on the smoking judge, Plant will soon be scrutinized as the Minister responsible for the Recall and Initiative Act. That means he is responsible for seeing that any offences under the Act are prosecuted.

Delta South MLA Val Roddick has claimed that one caller to her office allegedly signed the petition 100 times. That would be a violation (possibly 99 violations) of Section 158 of the Act punishable by a fine of not more than $10,000, or imprisonment for a term of not more than two years, or both. Plant has a responsibility to see that all irregularities are investigated and prosecuted. If he fails in his responsibility he will risk being accused of showing political favoritism for his caucus colleague.

Signing a recall petition is not like signing dozens of other petitions that may be stuck under your nose. Recall petitions can only be completed on forms issued by Elections BC and must be witnessed by registered canvassers. There are rigorous procedures and tough penalties because the consequence of a by-election is serious. Those who are laughing off the apparent success of the South Delta recall campaign by saying anyone could have signed the petition are obviously not familiar with the wording of the Act. The Attorney General should not be laughing.

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January 28, 2003

Congratulations to Delta South

I did not think that it would be possible for the recall campaign in Delta South to succeed. In the 2001 election Val Roddick received 67% of the vote. Collecting almost 13,082 signatures over the difficult Christmas period in one of the strongest Liberal ridings in the province sends a very strong message to the Campbell government. Only 11,949 valid signatures are needed for the petition to succeed and cause a by-election.

Claims that a substantial number of signatures on the Roddick recall petition will be rejected appear to be based on no understanding of the Recall and Initiative Act nor of what happened when signatures were examined for the Treaty Referendum.

Section 158 of the Recall and Initiative Act provides that a person who signs a petition when not entitled to do so commits an offence punishable by a fine up to $10,000, or imprisonment for a term not longer than 2 years, or both. Similar penalties apply to canvassers who violate the Act.

If the proportion of rejected signatures is similar to the referendum, you would expect to see less than 50 thrown out. Less than one third of one percent of the mail in ballots returned for the 2002 Treaty Negotiations Referendum were rejected because the signature did not match (2,282 out of 790,182). Unlike the Delta South recall campaign, signatures for the referendum did not require a witness. With witnessed signatures and canvassers who were aware of the possible penalties for wrong doing, there is no reason to expect that the Delta South recall petition will be rejected because of invalid signatures.

Of course, it is probably easier for some folks to spin a story about the likely rejection of the petition than it is for them to admit that Gordon Campbell's drunk driving may have helped the petitioners in their final push to collect signatures.