BC Liberals set aside democratic principle of one member = one vote

One BC Liberal member equals one vote --- 1 member equals 1/10th of a vote – 1 member equals 1 / 20th of a vote ... or how about 1 member equal 2 votes ... or 5 votes ... or more? 

Any of these mathematical options, and many more, now holds true for the BC Liberals as the head to the finish line in their leadership race.  One option now is certain however --- in the BC Liberal Party leadership race, one member NO LONGER equals one vote.

While trying to make it sound like the most democratic idea ever, the BC Liberal Party on Saturday tossed the one member – one vote system in favour of having an equal weighted vote for every riding in the province.  Under this system, it will not matter how many members the BC Liberals have in a riding, votes from party members in each of the 85 provincial riding's will be weighted to 100 so that each constituency has the same influence.

For example if a riding has 50 Liberal members – each member filling in their ballot for leadership choice actually has a weight of 2.  But ... say a riding has 1,000 Liberal members; in that case the choice of each party member is equal to 1 /10 of a single vote.

BC Conservative's meanwhile will be holding a convention in Surrey on May 28^th, to elect their leader.  According to the constitution of the party, the election of a leader will be by universal ballot, with each member of the party having one vote.  The party will be accepting applications from leadership hopefuls between March 1 and March 29, 2011.

In other political news from the province, the legislature in Victoria will finally sit again after what is apparently 256 days of inactivity.   The lights will be turned back on in the legislature today for what is expected to be a one week sitting.  Under BC law, Finance Minister Colin Hansen must table a provincial budget – and of course there will be the speech from the throne.

Meantime the only real political drama will be the on-going hype of the BC Liberals in there leadership race of former and current Campbell cabinet members – and the waiting game to see which NDP hopefuls will be vetted by the party and authorized to run.

Oh, and speaking of the NDP, they still have a sticky situation of their own making to sort out.  Only men have stepped forward as leadership candidates; which means either the Party President or Treasurer MUST resign so that one of the 3 top positions is filled by a female, as mandated by the party constitution.

I’m Alan Forseth in Kamloops, and we’ll have a lot more to discuss this week on Conservative Thoughts, so be sure to drop back.