At the break of day
When they say “Daybreak” at the CBC, they mean it.
I was the guest of Betsy Trumpener on Daybreak yesterday morning at the ungodly hour of 6:45 a.m. I came on right after a piece about Justin Trudeau running for the Liberal leadership, so I’m pretty sure most of my right wing friends had already switched to 94X because they needed something to help them bang their heads.
I was asked to speak about last week’s column “A call for independents,” which was about the need/possibility for more independent MLAs in the Legislature.
As former Fort St. John mayor Bruce Lantz tweeted me yesterday morning after the show; “journalists interviewing journalists, must have been a slow news day.”
I have to agree with him on that one, even though now I’m obviously part of the problem. Journalists interviewing journalists has always been one of my pet peeves.
One of the tricks is when something big happens in a small “close-knit” community (because they’re all close-knit when something tragic happens) is the big city media calls the local reporters and interviews them, rather than interview, say, the people directly involved in the story.
Journalists aren’t experts in anything except journalism so they shouldn’t be used as sources.
And, as testament to that, I’ve strayed way off topic.
It was actually fun going on the radio live. I was on the Meisner show once. He talked for 10 minutes and I think I got an “uh-huh” in before my time was up. Before that, the last time I was on radio was back in the Kootenays when the colour guy for a Western International Hockey League game in Nelson didn’t show up so they asked me to fill in. For some reason, I said “yes.” The regular announcer plopped a six-pack of beer on the floor and we proceeded to call the game … or rather he called the game and I mumbled stuff when he stopped for a drink.
My column about more independents in the Legislature was prompted by a Twitter townhall, hosted by independents Bob Simpson and Vicky Huntington. It was about democratic reform, not specifically having more independent MLAs.
One of the suggestions put forward at the townhall was to restart the Citizen’s Assembly on Electoral Reform … the body that came up with the single transferable vote system. It was narrowly rejected by the electorate in a referendum.
That, however, shouldn’t be interpreted as a reticence for electoral reform. I think the public is still clamouring for it.
And, I predict that the calls start anew after the provincial election next spring. Here’s what I think will happen. Even with the BC Conservatives emerging from obscurity and the Greens still holding some ground, I think we’ll have another majority government.
However, we’ll be back in world where less than 40 per cent of the popular vote can win a majority. That’s one of the things that spurs calls for electoral reform.
The sad part is that our system works well only for those in power.
Many politicians and political parties talk about electoral reform but do little about it because the system worked for them. So why change it?
It’s not working for British Columbians, that’s why.
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