BC Patriot Party and the Advocational International Democratic Party of British Columbia

I looked at these to odd parties back in December, a friend, Keith, did some more digging about the two at the time and I had meant to write something more but life got in the way.  Today I will start on this again.

The background is that these two political parties have no website, no facebook page, no published material, do not respond to emails and generally do nothing to try and have any impact on the politics of BC.   The two parties had assets of $3,972,703.94 as of December 31st 2010.   The parties make their income from stocks and spend nothing on political organizing.   The Advocational International Democratic Party started through a number of large donations to it from the BC Patriot Party.

I read the political party registration policy from elections BC and I think that both the parties are not keeping to the policy.  Here is the relevant part:

The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) is required to review each application for registration to determine whether the political party meets the requirements for registration. [Section 158(1)]. Part of the application includes a solemn declaration that the organization is a political party – that is, an organization that has a primary purpose of fielding candidates.Section 158 provides that the CEO may require an applicant organization to provide any additional information or evidence the CEO considers necessary to determine if the organization has a primary purpose of fielding candidates.

There is nothing that relates to the parties that I can find that indicates their primary purpose is fielding candidates.   If this is not the case, they should not be a registered party.   I have sent an email the Chief Electoral Officer asking him to look into these parties.

More Background:
The people involved all seem to have connections to Fort St James, Vernon and a company called Keegan Resources.


The major people involved with the BC Patriot Party:
Andrew Hokhold, a Vernon dentist  http://www.hokholdinc.com/dental-surgeon-vernon/doctor.asp - leader for of the party and a candidate in 2001 and 2005.   He is now in Vernon but used to be a dentist in Fort St James.

Lillian May Stokes, Leader of the BC Patriots Party
Aside from attending Elections BC informational sessions, where she is recorded varyingly as Lillian Stokes or May Stokes, little sign of who she is or what activities she does for the party seem readily available.  She may be a financial advisor in Langley that used to life in Vanderhoof and is a member of the Tsawwassen First Nation.

The major people involved with the Advocational party
Michael Yawney, Leader of the Advocational Party.
This would appear to be the same Michael Yawney who is a lawyer in Vernon, although aside from Elections BC and lists which are obviously copied from Elections BC, there seems to be little mention of Yawney and the party together. Yawney represented Andrew Hokhold in his 2004-5 lawsuit in which Hokhold was awarded over $200,000.

Beverly Bird - contact person for the Advocational Party
She is a member of the Tl'azt'en Nation and grew up in Fort St James.   She has been a First Nations Science Board member for the Forest Invest Account.   She has been the director of treaty negotiations for the Tl'azt'en Nation.   The 2010 financial statements for the party were faxed from the offices of the Tl'azt'en Nation.
The contact address for the party is an Adult Resort Community called Desert Cove located on the Okanagan Indian Band land near Vernon.
Beverly Bird appears to be an agent or director of a company called One Feather Global Corp.  This company has made loads to the party but where the company got its money or what it does is not clear.  The only interests I can see that it has is in some water rights to Greenbow Creek near Silver Star.

Richard Haslinger, donor to the Advocational party
A Richard Haslinger donated $1150 to the party in 2008 and 2009.   There are two Richard Haslingers



Haslinger the Elder "started his career in the 1950's as a miner at United Keno Hill Mine, in the Yukon, which launched his lifelong interest in geology, minerals and outdoor pursuits. From there he moved on to prospecting in the Fort St. James area where he supplemented his prospecting income with that from commercial hunting, trapping and guiding. Some of the notable discoveries credited to Richard include the MBX Zone of the Mt Milligan copper deposit, the Boot/Steele, Windy and Mitsi Lake copper-gold properties and most recently the Butterfield Lake copper property." - this is from a  Chamber of Mines press release, 2000


Haslinger the Younger is a Professional Engineer and mining company executive trained at UBC (1986).. His most high profile work has been as VP of of Exploration at Keegan Resources, the company whose shares were given back and forth between the two political parties. Business Week says he left Keegan in 2010, but the Keegan webpage still lists him as a VP. In 2004 Richard J. Haslinger P. Eng is listed as the owner/operator of a series of mineral claims names Wildcat north of Fort St. James. By 2008 what appears to be the same property is owned by H.R.S. Resources located at the same street address as a current listing for Richard Haslinger, implying Haslinger either sold to H.R.S. or incorporated H.R.S. In 2010 the property was sold to Vistech Capital Corp, who used it as their "qualifying transaction" and quickly changed their name to Cayden Resources they have since divested themselves of that property. Haslinger is or has been Director for Tulox Resources, Director for Symbrio Capital Corp, and is COO for Stratton Resources. One of Stratton's main projects is in the Fort St. James area.  As of December 2011 Keegan, Cayden, Tulox, Symbrio and Stratton have a number of other interlocking directors or managers including:
Peter Rees -Stratton, Cayden, Keegan
Ivan Bebek - Stratton, Cayden
Shawn Wallace - Stratton, Cayden, Keegan
Daniel McCoy - Cayden, Keegan
Ronald Miles - Symbio, Tulox
Gragory McCunn - Stratton, Keegan

That is enough for now.