New party kicks off

By Dan Hilborn
Published Jan. 15, 2005


A new political party will officially enter the fray of B.C. politics this weekend when Matthew Laird bangs the gavel to open the inaugural convention of Democratic Reform B.C.

"It's finally happening," said Laird, the 27-year-old political activist who has spent almost two years working to bring together a variety of B.C.'s smaller political groups.

Laird, who will also run as the party's candidate in New Westminster for the upcoming May 17 provincial election, said more than 100 political activists from across the province are expected to attend the conference, where Langford city councillor Tom Morino is considered the frontrunner to become leader.

Former B.C. Liberal MLA Elayne Brenzinger will give the keynote speech on Saturday, and it is widely expected that she will formally cross the floor of the legislature to become a DRBC MLA on Monday.

The new party will have a membership "in the thousands," and expects to run a full slate of 79 candidates in the upcoming election, said Laird, who has served as founding president for the group.

Among the small political parties joining the coalition are Reform B.C., whose candidate in the Surrey-Panorama Ridge by- election was officially endorsed by the DRBC, the All Nations Party, a coalition of First Nations leaders based in northern B.C., and Laird's own Moderate Democratic Movement, which was one of the main impetuses behind the merger talks.

Delegates to the convention are expected to come from as far away as Prince Rupert and the Queens Charlottes.

Laird said the party is aiming at the middle ground of B.C. politics, and noted that the members coming over from Reform B.C. have embraced a moderate platform, which includes representation from First Nations.

"We may be small compared to the Liberals or NDP, but not in the grand scale of things," Laird said Thursday. "We're offering a centrist alternative to the pendulum swinging of the past few decades. Our tentative slogan is 'swings are for kids, not for governments.'

"We'll appeal to those people who want a moderate government that sits down and thinks issues through rather than knee-jerk reactions or decisions based solely on ideology," he said.

As evidence of the party's centrist platform, Laird pointed to the fact the more right-leaning Unity B.C. and the B.C. Conservative parties will not be joining the fold.

"Why would we want them?" Laird asked. "They are very right wing and we don't want any part of that."

Delegates to the convention are also expected to vote on a formal election platform, including a proposal to endorse the Citizen's Assembly plan to change the voting system in British Columbia from the current first-past-the-post structure to the Single Transferable Vote.

In fact, the DRBC convention will elect its 12-person board of directors on an STV-type ballot, where delegates will rank the candidates in order of preference, instead of having individual run- offs for each of the positions, he said.

"The rational behind that (using the STV system) is if you have two great people run for president, only one can win and you lose the other one who would have been a great asset. That could also cause a potential rift within the party," Laird said. "I wouldn't necessarily call this a trial run of STV, but it is a system we thought would be fairer.

"As for STV itself, it may not be the best overall option as an alternative for B.C., but it certainly is a lot better than the current system, and we are the only party, as far as we know, that is actively campaigning in its favour."

Laird also believes the DRBC will have no trouble getting its message out, because the public is actively seeking out alternatives to the B.C.'s polarized politics of the past.

"The trouble is we don't have the huge war chests of the NDP or Liberals, we don't have corporate or union backing. We're a grassroots party," he said. "But I'm not too concerned about that.

"Two and a half years ago, when I started Recall B.C., we had no budget, yet somehow within a week or two we had a thousand people signed up just from word of mouth. In this day and age with Internet technology, that's not a huge hurdle to pass."

The Democratic Reform B.C. founding convention will take place at the Aston Pacific Inn at 1160 King George Highway, in White Rock. More information, including the party's 16-point statement of principles can be found on their website at www.drbc.ca.