BEST DEFENCE — The Opposition ran some electronic countermeasures on Premier Christy Clark recently, but didn’t turn up much. She was on her feet speaking during question period and holding a sheaf of notes in her hand. The Opposition obtained the video feed of the appearance, got a screen grab of the notes, and enlarged the picture.
Lo and behold, the grainy image of the front page of the document was headed “NDP Counter Attack.” It had some handy references to things like “Horgan’s favourites” (Opposition leader John Horgan’s end-of-year listing of his five best MLAs has been an endless source of amusement for the government), and “NDP on balanced budgets.”
Those topics are familiar themes for all cabinet ministers during question period, which suggests everyone has the same cheat sheet.
VOTER TRACKING — The argument about Election Act changes to make information on who voted available to parties prompted a scramble by government this past week.
Two amendments to Bill 20 were introduced inside of 24 hours in an effort to quell complaints, but they only intensified. One of the objections is that parties shouldn’t be getting the information, and another is that stipulating that it will be available to parties is unfair to independent candidates who don’t belong to parties.
So one amendment on the latter issue makes it available to all candidates, which compounds the first objections about the availability in general. Another change puts restrictions on how the information can be used.
PRIVACY CONCERNS — B.C.’s Information and Privacy Commissioner Elizabeth Denham also weighed in on the bill again last week. Earlier, she had called on government to withdraw certain sections. However, if they persisted, Denham asked for clear limits on the use and disclosure of personal information.
To that end, she welcomed amendments advanced by Justice Minister Suzanne Anton that would bar the use of the information for commercial purposes and require parties to have a privacy policy in place that is acceptable to the Chief Electoral Officer.
“I acknowledge the efforts of the Minister of Justice to make amendments to Bill 20 to address the privacy concerns of citizens and those of my office,” Denham said.
TOUGH PREPOSITION — The NDP’s Nicholas Simons eventually took the Election Amendment Act debate in an entirely new direction — turning it into a grammar lesson.
The Powell River-Sunshine Coast MLA said that letting parties know whether people voted struck him as an invasion.
“I think that goes beyond what most people would feel is appropriate,” he said. “It’s different if you’re sitting in the polling station and you’re participating with the electoral officials and making sure the people you’ve campaigned at … I guess you campaign at people.
“You campaign with and for them,” offered Advanced Education Minister Andrew Wilkinson.
“With and for them,” Simons mused. “Yeah, we all do that, I guess. We campaign with voters, and we campaign for voters — yes. I’m not sure if the member would say that again without wanting to be a little more accurate.
“I’m trying to find the right words, and he hasn’t helped at all. He’s actually made it more complex, but hey, he’s got more degrees than I have. But, you know, that’s fair. The fact that he’s listening just strikes me as kind on his part.”
A BRIDGE TOO FAR OFF? — Talk about getting a jump on planning. The B.C. government issued a release to launch the “public engagement” process for building a bridge over Okanagan Lake. The one catch? It won’t happen for at least 20 years.
“Even though a second crossing is more than two decades away,” the release states, “it’s important to start the planning process now, as the Okanagan region predicts continued population growth.”
