BC Conservative Leader's Debate in Victoria on Wednesday February 19th

Rick Peterson and Dan Brooks
at the 2013 BC Conservative AGM

There has been very little public coverage of the BC Conservative leadership race to date.   Given their performance in the 2013 election this is not really surprising, few people take them seriously as a political threat to anything.   Even though it is low key, at least the race has two candidates, Dan Brooks and Rick Peterson.

This coming Wednesday the two candidates for the leadership will be taking part in a debate here in Victoria.   The event will be at 7 pm at the Salvation Army Citadel 4030 Douglas Street.  I only know this because of information on Dan Brooks' website.   There is nothing on the BC Conservative website about the leader debates.

It is the first of five debates between the two candidates.   Since it is here in Victoria and open to the public and media, I thought I would go and check it out.  I will post some details about it later this week.

Future debates will be held in:
Kelowna March 14th 7 pm - location not known
Salmon Arm March 15th 7 pm - location not known
Dawson Creek March 22nd 7 pm - location known
Langley March 29th 7pm - location not known

BC Excalibur Party - the Newest Political Party in BC

Very recently Michael and Alexandra Halliday of Abbotsford registered the BC Excalibur Party.   I am not sure if this is a joke party or something serious.  

Michael Halliday - Party Leader

Excalibur is specifically meant to refer to the Knights of the Round Table and all that Arthurian stuff.   It is because of this that I wonder of if the party is a practical joke like the Rhino Party federally or the Monster Raving Looning Party in the UK.

The idea of using the Arthurian mythology for a political party does not say serious to me.  Democracy and feudal systems are not compatible in my mind, it sort of messes with the everyone is equal thing.   It does work if you are planning on poking fun of the system.

I personally would like to see a good joke party in this province because it would add interest and levity to the election process.   A good joke party would also point out hypocrisy in politics.  I saw the name of the party, I saw the start of the website and I thought this might be it, but apparently not.

Here are the statements from the slides on the party front page:

The sword, Excalibur, united the People, The Land and The Government as One.   Over one Thousand years later the legends of Excalibur and the Knights of the Round Table still inspire. 

Legend has it, that Excalibur would return, when it was needed most.  As in the legend of the times of Excalibur and King Arthur, we believe, that society is breaking down.  And, like in Excalibur's time, we need to start over with a new party made up of everyday people from every walk of life, who listen to the people and implement just policies. 

We believe, that we must create a society, where people can count on Truth, Honour, Integrity and Justice and feel defended and protected by those, who govern this Province, so they can live their lives in peace and prosperity.

There are not enough clues there to tell me that it is intended to be satire, they could be serious.

I go them to the page of Party Ideals - aka platform - and they sound serious.   There is a mix of policy positions and some very specific promises such as hiring 10 more judges.   The best way I would describe the policies are a mix populist ideas and flavours of the political month.

The very short blog postings sound like someone who is cranky about the whole system.   One is about chlorinated water in Chilliwack, another is rubbishing economists, and an odd posting calling society a modern feudal system.

So why did he start the party?

My reason for starting the BC Excalibur Party was all the people I talked to who told me, that they were not voting in the upcoming May Provincial Elections, because they were fed up with the parties or the politicians or both. Then there were those, who just didn't know, if they were going to vote or couldn't decide. This made up 85% of the people I spoke with. This Blog, as the BC Excalibur Party itself, is dedicated to those BC Residents, who can still hope for better things to come and who want to be part of making this positive change happen for BC.

Copyright infringement or a lack of imagination?

Former BC Conservative leader Wilf Hanni is now the leader of the Christian Heritage Party of BC.   The current policy positions of CHP-BC seem to be taken in large part word for word from the BC Conservatives in about 2006.  The current BC Conservative policy document is quite different.

It is one thing to emulate  policy positions of another party but that does not mean copying the policy positions virtually word for word.   The two documents are structured exactly the same and large portions of the two documents have the exact same words.  It seems clear to me that that the CHP-BC policy document is simply a reuse of policy written for the BC Conservatives when Wilf Hanni was the leader of that party in 2006 to 2008

Here are a series of comparisons:

This is the current section from the CHP-BC policy document

Topic III: Education
1.0 A Christian Heritage Party of BC Government will give parents the freedom to choose to send one or more of their children to any public or independent school(s) as described below:
a) Public Schools: Those schools financed through government revenues.
b) Traditional Schools: Those public schools that emphasize traditional teaching methods.
c) Charter Schools: Those public schools which receive full funding from government revenues but have no school district boundaries in BC.
d) Independent Schools: These are private schools supported in part by student fees.These include schools which have a religious

From the 2006 BC Conservative policy document

Topic IV:  Education

Resolution 1
A BC Conservative Government will give parents the freedom to choose to send one or more of their children to any public or independent school(s) as described below:
a) Public Schools: Those schools financed through government revenues.  This is the largest category of schools in BC.
b) Traditional Schools:  Those public schools that emphasize traditional pedagogy.
c) Charter Schools:  Those public schools which receive full funding from government revenues but have no school district boundaries in BC.
d) Independent Schools:  These are private schools supported in part by student fees.  These include schools which have a religious emphasis.

Other than the party name, the words are almost identical, but this is only one example of many.

Current CHP-BC policy

Topic IV: Employment and Job Creation
1.0 A Christian Heritage Party of BC Government will encourage and support our residents who wish to complete their education up to and including grade twelve.

2006 BC Conservative Policy

Topic V:  Employment and Job Creation
 Resolution 1
A BC Conservative Government will encourage and recommend support for our residents to complete their education up to and including grade twelve.

Only minor wording issues.

From the current CHP-BC policy

5.0 A Christian Heritage Party of BC Government will establish an “Essential Services Dispute Mechanism” as a fair and impartial way of resolving issues between the Provincial Government and its employees.

2006 BC Conservatives


Resolution 7
A BC Conservative Government will establish an “Essential Services Dispute Mechanism” as a fair and impartial way of resolving issues between the Provincial Government and its employees.

Current CHP-BC policy 

6.0 A Christian Heritage Party of BC Government will open up the offshore to drilling and encourage Oil & Gas Companies to explore, develop and produce crude oil, natural gas and coal bed methane gas from off the Northwest Coast and on land across British Columbia in an environmentally safe way. A portion of the royalties received will be put towards the development of sustainable renewable resources for the people of B.C.

From 2006 BC Conservatives

Resolution 9
A BC Conservative Government will open up the offshore to drilling and encourage Oil & Gas Companies to explore, develop and produce oil & gas from off the Northwest Coast and on land across British Columbia in an environmentally safe way. A portion of the royalties received will be put towards the development of sustainable renewable resources for the people of B.C.

From the current CHP-BC policy

7.0 The Christian Heritage Party of BC believes that urbanization of the Lower Mainland has already gone too far; has created virtually insoluble traffic problems and dangerous levels of pollution, and that further expansion of this process should be discouraged.

A Christian Heritage Party of BC Government will encourage the location of industry and the development of public infrastructure facilities and services, including necessary road, rail, and air links, in the North and Interior by making Crown land readily available for such use, thereby creating opportunities for employment in rural areas suffering economically as a result of mining, forestry, government, and other cutbacks.

From the 2006 BC Conservative document

Resolution 12
The BC Conservative Party believes that urbanization of the Lower Mainland has already gone too far; has created virtually insoluble traffic problems and dangerous levels of pollution, and that further expansion of this process should be discouraged.

A BC Conservative Government will encourage the location of industry and the development of public infrastructure facilities and service, and needed road, rail, and air links, in the Heartland by making Crown land readily available for such use, thereby creating opportunities for employment in rural areas suffering economically as a result of mining, forestry, government, and other cutbacks.

From the current Christian Heritage Party policy

2.0 A Christian Heritage Party of BC Government will put in place a procedure for the resolution of outstanding Aboriginal issues to avoid the fragmented, debilitating, wasteful and socially inefficient process of litigation.


3.0 A Christian Heritage Party of BC Government will insist that all outstanding native land claims be settled with the payment of cash by the Federal Government. If any crown land is included in the resolution of a land claim, the Federal Government must compensate the provincial government for the value of the land, including all the natural resources it contains.

From the 2006 BC Conservative policy

Resolution 2
A BC Conservative government will put in place procedures for the resolution of outstanding Aboriginal issues to avoid the fragmented, debilitating, wasteful and socially inefficient process of litigation.


Resolution 5
A BC Conservative Government will insist that all outstanding native land claims be settled with the payment of cash by the Federal Government. If any crown land is included in the resolution of a land claim, the Federal Government must compensate the provincial government for the value of the land, including all the natural resources it contains.

I think the BC Conservative party has a good case to make that the CHP-BC is infringing on BC Conservative intellectual property, though I suspect the only reason anyone would ever notice is because I posted this here today.

The "other" debate

It sounds like there will be a second debate tentatively on April 23rd in Toronto for all the minor parties.   According to CAP leader Christopher Porter, there are 10 parties are interested.  I will post more details as I hear more.  I suspect this minor party debate will be much more entertaining than the big debate.

So, will the Greens show up to this debate?

The Green Party

The Greens are making much of the fact they are planning on running 308 candidates, but how many of them are actually running full on the ground campaigns?

It only takes a couple of hundred volunteers and a $50k to run a full fledged local campaign.   Very much something that is within the reach of anyone that works hard and is well organized.   Beyond Elizabeth May and Adrianne Carr, I am hard pressed to see where else there are Greens working hard in this election to get elected.

I suspect the major reason there is no national Green leader tour is that there are virtually no places where there is a real campaign on the ground.   I look at the website and it is all about the leader and very little about anyone else.  There is no sense of a team.   Very few candidates seem to have websites, the party seems to be very weak in social media etc......

The more I look at the Green Party of Canada, the more it looks like a large house of paper candidates that exist to give status to the leader and to make sure the party continues to live off government funding.

I would love to know about Green candidates that have full campaign teams and will spend some decent money, like Andrew Lewis did in Saanich Gulf Islands in the past.

I suspect this election is the last hurrah for the federal Green party.  After the obvious happens and no one gets elected, the party will fall apart and May will accept an offer to join the Liberals.

Coffee with Christopher Porter, leader of the Canadian Action Party

Beyond the five big parties in Canada, there are 15 or so more federal political parties in Canada. They get little or no coverage during the election, but I find them fascinating. Recently I had a chance to have a coffee with Christopher Porter of the Canadian Action Party.

Christopher Porter is the latest leader of the Canadian Action Party, the fourth since Connie Fogal stepped down in November of 2008. It seems CAP has gone through an era of major infighting which left the party at less than 250 members and close to deregistration when he took over as leader in September. He has since managed to return a stability to the party and seen the membership rise to 700 in the last six months.

The Canadian Action Party was founded by former Trudeau era cabinet minister Paul Hellyer as a centrist sovereigntist political party concerned about banking and globalization in 1997. The party peaked in the 2000 election with 70 candidates and 27,103 votes. The party was then lead by Connie Fogal for three elections and consistently declining.

In 2008 the party seemed to be the home to a lot of way out there fringy people, the sort that see conspiracies behind everything. In my view, the party was the second most crazy party in the 2008 election, only the CPC-ML was crazier.  A lot of 9/11 truthers were involved

Through three leaders and infighting, the remains of the party ended up under the leadership of Christopher Porter. He has used the last six months to bring order to their chaos and get the party members to focus on building riding associations.

He will be running in Esquimalt Juan de Fuca, though lives in Saanich Gulf Islands. There is no real hope that he will come better than fifth in the election, but he has some interesting ideas on how to campaign. He is looking at having Citizen Insight Councils – the idea being derived from the idea of Wisdom councils. The idea is to randomly select 12 people from the riding and use them to get a sense of the people. It sounds like he has my friend George Sranko on board to help with the Citizen Insight Council.

Christopher Porter is a very passionate and energetic person. He feels that there is a huge problem with the disenfranchisement of the public from the political process. He does not see the major political parties being willing to address the idea of how to engage the public and how to express the public will. In this he has more in common with most Canadians than the leaders and organizers of the major parties do.

He does strongly believe in the five pillars of CAP and sees them as issues that should be debated nationally. I happened to disagree with the core message of CAP so I will not go into dissecting their policies, go to their website and read for yourself.

The party looks like it will run between 21 and 100 candidates, which would be an increase on the Fogal era and could possibly lead to their best election to date. He has a vision that the party will have 308 candidates in the next election and will be prepared to run strong campaigns in by-elections before then.

One interesting thing he is doing is trying to organize a debate of the leaders of the small parties to be held in person or virtually at the same time as the national leaders debate. If he pulls it off, I am going to tune into that instead of the big five debate because I suspect the minor party leader debate will be much more entertaining.

Christopher Porter is worth meeting if you get the chance, though voting for, that is a completely different question.   I personally think he would be an interesting person to get elected to a local council.

From the Pirate Party

I signed up for the newsletter and got one today.    I would have considered giving them some money to get the flag on offer, but their flag is rather lame.   I was hoping for one with skull and cross bones or something similar, but this is really lame so they are not going to get any money from me.

I will continue to update with interesting tidbits for the minor parties, frankly I think it will be more interesting than the rest of the election.

Below is the email newsletter they sent out



PPCA Newsletter. March, 2011.

An Election Is Coming. Stand With the Pirate Party of Canada.
The fall of the government has now become imminent, and so we must gear up for our first ever general election campaign. With momentum building, the Pirate Party is looking for you to fight the good fight and bring the much needed voice of information leadership to the town halls and front doors of Canada.

So what do we need from you?

We're looking for two things.

Candidates and Campaign Volunteers
By personally volunteering your time and effort, you give us the best contribution a member can give. We are looking for candidates and volunteers to help candidates, all across Canada. Most ridings are available for you to step forward as a candidate. In order to run for Member of Parliament with us, you must be a Canadian citizen and a member of the Pirate Party to be endorsed. You can find how to become a candidate at:
https://www.pirateparty.ca/forum/index.php?board=2.0

Meetings are being setup throughout Canada to organize, you can find more by going to:
https://www.pirateparty.ca/forum/index.php?board=8.0

Contributions
As with any endeavour, money will play a major part of this battle. All permanent residents and citizens can contribute up to $1100 a year. As an incentive, there is a tax credit that is applied directly to the amount of federal taxes you have to pay. It breaks down as follows:

$0.01 to $400.00 : 75 percent
$400.01 to $750.00: $300 plus 50 percent for contributions in excess of $400.
$750.01 to $1275: $475 plus 33 percent for contributions in excess of $750.
The maximum tax credit that you may recieve is $650.

Once our Pirate candidates are nominated at the beginning of the election, you will also be able to donate up to $1100 in total directly to their campaigns if you so choose.

Until the 15 April, we will give out flags to anyone that contribute $150 or more. Each flag is 3' x 6' (90cm x 180cm). You can get it by writing to agent@pirateparty.ca and specify which language you want it in. You can see a preview of it at:
http://www.pirateparty.ca/flag.gif

We now accept Visa and Mastercard online, and continue to accept PayPal. We also accept cheques, money orders and cashier's cheques by mail.
https://crm.pirateparty.ca/contribute.php

The interesting part of a Canadian politics

I find the passion and blind doggedness of the fringe parties fascinating.   I suspect this is because they are all so far away from rational ideas or are so extreme in their ideas that I can not understand what makes their mind tick.  Some of them are not that extreme, they are just people trying to raise a minority view.  Anyway, here are the list of the more out there parties that would seem to be running in this election:

• Communist Party of Canada - Marxist Leninist - the more delusional of the two communist parties in Canada - see their page about the sainted founder Hardial Bains.
• Communist Party of Canada - the more traditional communist party, the former organ of the Soviet Union in Canada.   Their court case after the 2000 election challenging the 50 candidate rule opened the door for very small political parties
• National Socialist Party of Canada - What can I say, they exist though I doubt they will run anyone
• Canadian Action Party - I will actually be having a coffee with their leader Christopher Porter
• Western Block Party - Doug Christie's western independence vehicle, apparently it is influx at the moment
• People's Political Power Party - Not sure what they want, I will look into though I wonder if they are done as a party
• Pirate Party - this is an interesting anarchist political movement in Europe focused on online privacy and copyright
• Newfoundland and Labrador First Party - a separatist group from the province that is seeking a return to Independence, I think.  They were deregistered by elections Canada
• Progressive Canadian Party - at some point someone should point out that they lost the battle.  They have been inactive for more than year
• United Party of Canada - not sure what they are about
• Christian Heritage Party - a Christian social conservative party, they have run between 45 and 63 candidates in past elections and have had no traction
• Online Party of Canada - new and I looked at them the other day
• Libertarian Party - flying the Libertarian flag and not much more
• Marijuana Party - The epitome of a one issue party
• First People's National Party - an aboriginal party
• Animal Alliance Environment Voters Party of Canada -
• Parti Rhinocéros - The only party with their website in English (sort of) French and Spanish
• Truth Party Project - I am not sure if this will be a party or not, though the YouTube rants are entertaining
• Freedom Party of Canada - seeking to be a party - a bit like CAP, a bit like the Libertarian Party
• Work Less Party - they seem to exist, but not sure if they will run as they are no longer registered

I know I am opening myself up to the crazies flipping out by paying attention to them and commenting on how off the wall or delusional they are.

I am going to try rate them on several scales

• Serious - Joke
• Left - Right
• Authoritarian - Freedom
• Crazy - Sane