Hoffa's Body Found (Its Head): College and Union Reach Tentative Agreement

Brandon Ferguson, News Editor

ao tentative settlement at three of

the six striking facilities, including
Douglas College. Terms of the deal were
not announced, pending a vote by the
union workers. However, as of last Friday,
rotating job action appeared to be at an
end for Douglas College, BCIT, and the
Okanagan University College.

“This is good news for the students at
those three institutions,’ said BCGEU
President, George Heyman, who
added...wait for it...“We’ve said all along
that we’ve wanted to minimize the impact
on students during this dispute.”

he BCGEU announced last
Friday that they had reached a

Oh _ yeah George! For
students...that was pimp.

“No details will be available publicly
until our members at each college have
had an opportunity to review and vote on
the tentative agreement,” said Heyman.

Still stuck in the fluctuating joy of hav-
ing two sides fighting for you, are the
students Northern

the

from Kwantlen,
Lights, and Northwest colleges.

“We're hopeful that a settlement can
be reached at the three other institutions,
and we'll work hard to achieve this,” said
Heyman.

Of course you are, George. Just as
soon as you take care of that ironic little

strike going on inside your own offices. I
kid you not—this strike has been so
ridiculous that even the office workers at
BCGEU headquarters went on strike dur-
ing this whole debacle. I haven’t seen this
many frivolous strikes since Roger
Clemens’ last last-game of his career.

It is believed that the union side—the
BCGEU support workers—was looking
for a four-year agreement with a 7-percent
cost-of-living and
increase, along with increased access to
benefits. It is believed that the BC Liberal
government was looking to breed some

inflationary wage

kind of super-monkey race that would
work for orange peels and end the need

BC Electoral Reform Goes to Referendum in May

Single transferable vote system would empower voters, supporters say

Andi Bergen, The Martlet (University of Victoria)

 

VICTORIA (CUP)—British Columbia’s
Citizens’ Assembly on Electoral Reform
says the new electoral system it is propos-

ing will improve the of
democracy in the province.

“Election results will be fairer, reflect-
ing a balance between votes and seats.
Voters will have more choice and candi-
dates will work harder to earn their
support,” says the final report of the
Citizens’ Assembly, “Making Every Vote
Count: The Case for Electoral Reform in
British Columbia.”

After deliberating for 11 months, the
group—made up of 160 randomly select-
ed BC residents—has recommended a
single transferable vote system. During
the provincial election in May, BC voters

practice

March 2/2005

will decide whether or
not to adopt the new
system.

If implemented,
single transferable
voting will change the
way residents are rep-
resented. There will
be a clear balance
between the popular
vote and the seats a
party gets in govern-
ment. That means if
60 percent of the
population vote for
the Liberal party, then
roughly 60 percent of
the seats will go to the
Liberals, a significant
change from the cur-
rent system where the
Liberals control over
90 percent of the
seats with less than 60 percent of the
total votes.

The disproportionately high number
of white, middle-class men in the legisla-
ture will likely be adjusted as well.

“There will also be more pressure on
parties to have balance in nominations in
terms of gender and in terms of visible
minorities,” said Norman Ruff, an associ-
ate professor of political science at the
University of Victoria.

Smaller parties will also be able to get
seats. “More people will vote for them as
a first preference. You won’t have that
kind of strategic voting pressure that you
have now,” said Ruff.

Another change will be the size of

constituencies. Each constituency will
elect two to seven representatives, but
their size will increase so the current
number of 79 representatives will not
change.

Without having multiple-member rid-
ings, it would not be possible to achieve
proportionality in each riding, said James
Lawson, an assistant professor of politi-
cal science at the university.

But it is not all about the parties and
members of the legislative assembly. The
electoral reform is designed to benefit
voters.

“If you really want to empower indi-
vidual voters, this is the best system,” said
Ruff.

This is especially true for supporters
of relatively small parties who currently
have no representation in government.
Through this, proponents say, govern-
ments will be more accountable and will
be forced to accept compromises, as they
will have to consider the policy positions
of several other patties.

The new system will also change the
way ballots are cast. In a single transfer-
able vote system, voters rank candidates
according to preference.

“STV allows each and every voter the
chance to say not only which candidate is
their favourite, but also to rank a number
of less favourite candidates,’ said
Lawson. “In other words, who you could
live with and not just who you desperate-
ly want to represent you.”

Ruff points out candidates will be “a
lot nicer to each other” because they are
trying to pick up the voters’ second and
third preferences.

for any unions. The agreement should fall
somewhere in the middle, hopefully more
to the side of the union’s wants.

Deputy Minister of Labour, Rick
Connolly, deserves some credit for batting
clean up and knocking two major strikes
right out of the park—he’s been at the
fact-finding helm for both this resolve
and the BC Place strike. Though this set-
tlement is only half done, it’s certainly a
bright spot.

Talks continued through last weekend,
with no job action planned for this week.

As a result, counting the votes will
become more complex. Candidates will
have to obtain a certain number of votes
to get elected. If no candidate reaches
this quota after the first count, then the
candidate with the least votes gets elimi-
nated. People who voted for the
eliminated candidate will then have their
vote transferred to their next preference.
In the case a candidate exceeds the quota,
votes ate then redistributed to the other
candidates according to the next prefer-
ence. By redistributing votes according to
preference, the system strives to ensure
no vote will be “wasted.”

After dropping several candidates and
relocating votes from one candidate to
the other, the victorious candidates are
those most accepted by voters in the con-
stituency.

In countries that use such systems,
“people have a sense that their vote
counts, their choice really counts, that
their vote won’t be wasted, and that
increases the probability of a higher
turnout,” said Ruff.

In order for the new system to be
adopted, at least 60 percent of the voters
in BC need to vote in favour of it, as well
as a simple majority in 60 percent of the
ridings. Any Canadian citizen over the age
of 18 who has been living in BC for at
least six months can vote in both the ref-
erendum and the election.

The Citizens’ Assembly has also rec-
ommended, if electoral reform is
accepted, the effectiveness of the system
be reviewed after three elections with the
involvement of ordinary citizens.

www.theotherpress.ca 5