🚀 go-pugleaf

Mike Fox <mikefox@ibm.net> wrote:

>Tom Ruta wrote:
>> But  how then do you explain the fact that a person from
>> say, Vancouver (my neighbour  at the lake) can vote while I
>> can't?

...
>I don't think this distinction was clear earlier in the thread.  I know
>I didn't realize it, and I suspect many other responders didn't either.
>

Okay.  Sorry if I wasn't clear.

>I agree, that system is strange at best and unfair at worst.  I think it
>is fair to prevent non-residents from voting, on the grounds that they
>can vote at their primary residence.  

I would accept that in things like provincial issues.  But
in a clearly local issue, it seems to me that  there needs
to be a more fair way to incorporate non-full time resident
rate payers.

>But I agree with you that it's
>patently unfair to allow *SOME* non-residents to vote and not others.  I
>wonder how they justify that -- there must have been some public policy
>justification, no matter how flimsy, for it.  

The only possible thing I can think of is that in a lot of
cases money from the provincial coffers (added to by BC
residents income tax - of which I pay none; I pay income tax
- lower ones, mind you - in Alberta) might conceivably be
used to support local initiatives.  However, in this case it
was clear:  this was a local appropriation (loan) of funds
to extend natural gas service to a group of properties.  I
wanted to vote to pay the parcel tax so that in a few more
years I can live there year round.  The BC Municipal Act
prevents me, an Alberta resident from voting and as is now
clear, allows non-local BC-ers to vote, though.

Incidentally I have sent a letter to the area MLA (elected
rep) to get his input.  It'll be interesting to see if I get
a response.

>Why do people who support
>it think it's right?  

The only argument (and I'm not making it!) is that where
this has arisen before (like in the Gulf Islands off
Vancouver) is that it is a bunch of ( and I quote an earlier
poster) "rich kids" who want to take over the country.  I
actually have some sympathy for local folks who grew up and
are full time residents in areas that have been "yuppified".
My problem is how to answer the question of what constitutes
fair participation in the democratic process.

Any other arguments?

Tom