Nuraney's office hit with attempted break-ins

Backrooms column by Dan Hilborn
Published Jan. 14, 2006



Burnaby-Willingdon MLA John Nuraney seems to be the political target of choice for some of our local hoodlums, if the late-night activity around his constituency office is any indication.

Nuraney's office in the Burnaby centre plaza has seen two attempted break-ins in the past few weeks, but, luckily, the most expensive thing taken was a computer screen monitor.

Thieves got the goods after smashing open the front door of the office on the night of Dec. 19. In that incident, they were scared off by a very loud alarm.

Another attempted break-in occurred on Dec. 29 when someone tried to smash the security glass on the office, but was thwarted by the laminated covering over the windows.

"We're glad they didn't get in," said constituency assistant Clarke Housley, a former BCTV news reporter and a familiar radio voice. "It looks like they were just after stuff."

The first incident appeared to be the most serious. Housley noted that all the computers in the office are anchored to the floor, making it almost impossible for an opportunistic thief to make a quick getaway with the goods.

STV LOOKS AT OTTAWA

Supporters of the Single Transferable Vote system of election have turned their sights onto federal politics, and have set up a website to show how their unusual style of voting might play out in the upcoming federal election.

A mock STV-style vote for the Jan. 23 federal election is now online and, once again, the preliminary results do nothing more than confuse and confound me.

Under the mock vote, the two Burnaby ridings, which are currently held by NDP members, are lumped together with two ridings that are currently held by Conservatives - New Westminster-Coquitlam and Port Moody-Westwood-Port Coquitlam.

While the preliminary results of this mock poll appear to be reasonably in line with the actual voting patterns in the region, I am still not convinced that STV solves any of the real problems with our electoral system.

Once again, my big complaint with this unnecessarily complicated system of voting is that it simply cannot be counted by ordinary humans. The actual vote on any single ballot depends on the total votes on every other ballot - meaning the system can only be counted by computer, and as such, cannot be hand audited. Simply translated, that means human oversight is not possible in this system.

I believe the STV system is so complicated, many British Columbians simply won't know what to do with their ballot. Heck, just look at what happened in Burnaby during November's civic election when many voters didn't even know how to properly fill out their ballots based on the same first-past-the-post system we've been using for decades.

If the proponents of STV really want the public to vote for a second choice candidate, why not go the Europeans way and have run- off elections, with those candidates who finish at the bottom of the first round being stricken from the ballot on the second round.

For the record, I do not claim to have any better answers than STV, I'm just saying that I do not believe STV is a better answer than the system we use today.

In fact, I still believe that the biggest problem with Canadian governments today are the result of the way political parties govern themselves (and the rest of us) as opposed to the system of voting.

Do yourself a favour and check out the website http:// demochoice.ca and look for the links to the virtual federal STV election.

CANDIDATES GOING GREEN

Who is the real green candidate in Burnaby-Douglas?

If the Dec. 12 posting on Bill Cunningham's election blog is any indication, it appears that our local Liberal standard-bearer is fighting for his share of that colourific title.

On his blog, Cunningham describes his encounter with a self- proclaimed Green voter who happened to be washing a massive SUV in his driveway near Eagle Creek when the candidate came a'calling.

Cunningham noted the voter was not impressed when it was pointed out that all the soapy water running down the driveway would wind its way into the local waterway, possibly having an adverse affect on Burnaby's sometimes precarious fish population.

"An awful lot of people volunteer their time and effort to maintain these creeks throughout Burnaby to restore habitability for fish stocks, and to see that kind of disregard by someone who claimed to be 'green' was disturbing," Cunningham wrote.

A longtime member of the local Streamkeepers, Cunningham has been known to spend rainy weekends pulling shopping carts and other debris out of the city's waterways. You can find his blog at www.billcunningham.ca.

ADDING TO THE FINE PRINT

I failed to mention that I had a bit of help with my Dec. 17 feature article on Epod International, the alternative energy company that recently hired local Conservative George Drazenovic as its chief financial officer.

The financial information in the story was vetted through Burnaby NOW Stock Talk columnist Mani Mohtadi, the creator of the popular Burnaby NOW Index with cowriter Rhonda Sherwood, both of whom are financial planners for ScotiaMcLeod.

Mohtadi spent about half an hour on the phone with me poring over the data provided by the candidate before offering his suggestions on how best to present the information in a news story.