[EM] FVC Newsletter Apr 8, 2002 (FWD)

Wed May 8 14:38:27 PDT 2002

D- Note to U.S.A. folks -- FVC is roughly like the Center for Voting and 
Democracy in the U.S.A. --- http://www.fairvote.org/
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Fair Vote Canada
NEWSLETTER
April 8, 2002

SPECIAL ISSUE: ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING, 2002

CONTENTS:

1) National Council Election Results
2) Larry Gordon Appointed Executive Director
3) New Executive Committee
4) AGM Events
5) Report Recommends “Made In PEI” Voting System
6) Chapter Updates
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1) National Council Election Results

The results of the mail-in vote for the new National Council were 
announced at our Annual General Meeting in Ottawa on April 27. The 
15 successful candidates are:  

Larry Gordon 
Doris Anderson 
Doug Bailie 
John Deverell 
Wayne Smith 
Christopher Billows 
Lisa Dale 
Julian West
Nancy Peckford 
Bruce Hallsor  
Nick Van der Graaf
Andre Larocque 
Troy Lanigan
Harvey Voogd  
Blaine Scott

Every year, five seats will be open for election to a three-year term. 
Because this was the first election, the 15 members have been divided 
into three groups of five with either a three-year, two-year or one-year 
term. The members have been assigned to each group according to 
the order that in which they were elected (as listed above) by the single 
transferable vote.  

For a step-by-step description of how the ballots were counted, visit 
the General Meeting/Elections section of our website 
<www.fairvotecanada.org>.  

2) Larry Gordon Appointed Executive Director

The National Council appointed Larry Gordon Executive Director of Fair 
Vote Canada at a meeting in Ottawa on April 28.

Larry, the founding president of Fair Vote Canada, abesented himself 
from the meeting when the Council began discussion of the creation of 
the position of executive director. He resigned his positon on the 
Council and accepted the offer to take the new position, which comes 
with part- time remuneration. (Under the bylaws, members of the 
Council are not allowed to be paid.)  

The Council agreed to create the postion because it felt it is extremely 
important for Fair Vote Canada’s continued growth that we have at 
least a part-time organizer and spokesperson.  

Larry’s resignation has created a vacancy on the Council. The bylaws 
allow the Council to appoint someone to fill a vacancy, but no decision 
has been made about this as yet.

3) New Executive Committee

The National Council meeting on April 28 also elected a new exeuctive 
committee, as follows:

Doris Anderson, president
Troy Lanigan, secretary
John Deverell, treasurer
Lisa Dale, executive committee member 
Julian West, executive committee member 

In addition, Wayne Smith was appointed as the Council’s liason with 
FVC chapters, and Nancy Peckford and Jackie Steele were appointed 
co-liasons with the Quebec citizens’ group, Mouvement pour une 
démocratie nouvelle.

4) AGM Events

The Annual General Meeting was an energizing experience for the 
approximately 75 people in attendance. The quality of the 
presentations was excellent with updates on provincial initiatives, the 
Charter challenge, and chapters and caucuses. The break-out groups 
provided an opportunity for consideration of a wide range of ideas for 
building our campaign, and the post-meeting discussion on launching a 
Fair Vote Ontario campaign was also an exciting development. 

We also sold FVC t-shirts and mugs and a variety of electoral reform 
books at the event. The book sales, in particular, far exceeded 
expectations.  

5) Report Recommends “Made In PEI” Voting System

Last month, Elections PEI submitted its “Report on Proportional 
Representation” to the provincial legislature. The report said, “If Prince 
Edward Island is to adopt PR then let it be a ‘made in Prince Edward 
Island system’ of Proportional Representation, made for Islanders, to 
be used by Islanders.”  

The report studied how proportional representation is being used in 
countries with small populations, and provided three “scenarios” of 
semi- proportional systems that might be used in PEI.  

The report’s only formal recommendation was that the public should 
have the final say on the adoption of a new system through a 
referendum.

Premier Pat Binns was quoted in the Charlottetown Guardian as being 
open to the idea of a referendum. “Given the wild swings we have had 
in the election results, there’s a need to examine this more closely,” 
he said.  

5) Chapter Updates

Following are the updates and contact information for Fair Vote Canada 
local chapters. Further information is available on the Chapters page of 
the FVC website.

-- Toronto -- Wayne Smith, Toronto at FairVoteCanada.org or 416-407-
7009.

Speaker Training
May 14, 2002, 7:00 p.m.
130 Carlton Street

Gregg Hill will be conducting training sessions for those wishing to 
become speaker advocates for Fair Vote Canada. This session will 
focus on technical background on different voting systems. Future 
sessions will deal with aspects of presentation.There are twelve spots 
available for this session.  If you would like to take this training, please 
contact Gregg Hill, greggwh at sprint.ca, 416-690-9597 as soon as 
possible.  

Community Outreach
May 21, 2002, 7:30 p.m.
The Tranzac Club, 292 Brunswick, south of Bloor

This is the second in a series of community outreach meetings.  Bring 
your friends and neighbours to hear Larry Gordon and Dennis Pilon give 
an introduction to the problems with our current voting system, 
possible alternatives, and how to take action through Fair Vote 
Canada. For information, contact John Paul Kleiner, 
jpkleiner at hotmail.com, 416-532-3317.  

Business & Strategy
May 28, 2002, 7:00 p.m.
130 Carlton Street

This is our regular fourth-Tuesday-of-the-month meeting of the Toronto 
Chapter, including meetings of ALL our standing committees and the
executive committee.

All are welcome!  Come out and get involved!

-- National Capital Region -- Contact info at fairvotecanada.org.

Next meeting: May 13 at 7:00 p.m., PSAC building, Carlos room.

-- Peterborough and Area Raphael Thierrin, raphael at infoshaper.com or 
(705) 749-9890. In Port Hope-Cobourg area contact Wilf Day, 
dayphope at on.aibn.com or (905) 885-5456.

Larry Gordon, Executive Director of Fair Vote Canada, will lead a
Discussion on “Make Your Vote Count: Voting System Reform” on 
Tuesday, May 14 at 7:30 p.m. at the Cobourg Public Library meeting 
room. Everyone is welcome. Contact Wilf Day at 
dayphope at on.aibn.com or (905) 885-5456.

-- Greater Vancouver -- Arn Keeling, vancouver at fairvotecanada.org or
(604) 874-9046.

At a chapter planning meeting May 1, a slate of nominations for the 
upcoming founding meeting was chosen. This group will act as an 
interim leadership group to draft the bylaws and prepare for the 
founding meeting.  

The date for the founding meeting will be June 4, 7:30 p.m., and Mount 
Pleasant Neighbourhood House (to be confirmed). On May 3, the 
interim leadership group met to revise the proposed bylaws, discuss 
strategy and planning for the meeting.  

-- Calgary -- Matt Emmett, fvc-calgary at emmett.ca.

For up-to-date information, please visit our website: 
http://fvc.emmett.ca/

-- Edmonton -- Doug Bailie, doug.bailie at fairvotecanada.org.

The chapter has now been formally recognized by the National Council, 
following the founding meeting on April 9. The newly elected executive 
has met to map out its media and political outreach plan. The next 
general meeting will likely be held in the fall.

-- Victoria -- Bruce Hallsor, Hallsor at creaseharman.com.

The chapter held a public meeting in April where about 170 attended to 
hear the leaders of the BC Greens and the BC NDP and Liberal MLA 
Jeff Bray discuss each of their party's positions on electoral reform.  

The next meeting of the Victoria Chapter will be held May 13, 7:30 
p.m. at the Harrow Room, University of Victoria.  

-- Winnipeg -- Chris Billows, cpb at accidentaldesign.com.

--Saskatoon -- Jason Hanson, komrade at shaw.ca.

If you are interested in helping start a local chapter in your area, please 
contact info at fairvotecanada.org or phone 416-410-4034. 
--------------
FVC memberships are payable by cheque, VISA or Mastercard. 
Membership forms are available on the "Join Fair Vote" page of our 
website: http://www.fairvotecanada.org/eng/join/enter.html
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Fair Vote Canada
26 Maryland Blvd. 
Toronto, ON 
M4C 5C9

Phone: 416-410-4034
FAX: 416-686-4929

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