The BC Refederation Party

Fringe parties from all over the political spectrum wish to draw attention to a particular issue by one of the larger political entities. While it is often to no avail due to odd requests (proclaiming Valentine's Day as a holiday or making a laughing army of Swedish clowns to spread laughter globally), at times the issues they bring up are justifiable. The BC Refederation Party has its heart in the right place, but their specific policies appear illegal based on the Constitution of Canada and/or unsupported by evidence.

The BC Refed plan is quite simple really: in fact they put it into a lovely three-step process for us all. The "1,2,3 Plan" as taking from the official BC Refederation Party's official website is as follows:

1. Installing a BC Constitution placing the people as the ultimate authority, rather than the Premier-chosen Lieutenant Governor.

2. In that BC Constitution, giving the people an optional veto over Victoria legislation, and workable recall

3. From that BC Constitutional power, renegotiating with Ottawa our provincial rights unlawfully invaded by the federal charter.

To start, there is a technical error in the first point; the Lieutenant Governor is not chosen by the Premier, rather the Prime Minister. Also, a BC Constitution if enacted would appear to be at most only ceremonial, as the federal constitution if in contrast with it, would supersede it and affix any differences between the two. An "optional veto" over Victoria legislation sounds awfully close to the initiative legislation already in place, granted it does need some refining to truly give people the power to veto. The same law also provides for recall opportunities of elected officials, and while it too needs adjustment, we must avoid keeping the process from being overly simplistic. Finally, seeing as this BC Constitution is only symbolic and contains no political change, just talk, we would be in no further position to negotiate with Ottawa over equalization payments we agreed to support. In essence, we would be no further ahead then, than we are now.

Even if all of this could be achieved, we still fail to get positive results on the important issues we need solved now. That includes action on health care, crown corporations, our tax system, education, the environment and so much more. However, I do understand that democratic reforms must be placed quickly to ensure that the people have the power forever always. Once again though, the problem isn't our system, it's the people within it.