Wednesday, December 01, 2010

Petition To Recall Ida Chong Approved...But Start Is Delayed

AllTheDatesThatFit
LibConVille

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Update: Cindy Harnett, writing in the VT-Colonist, tell us that The James' Gang version of E-BC has 42 days after the petition is submitted to 'verify' the signatures....So Feb 4th + 42 days does, indeed, take us past the scheduled date of theBC LibCon Leadership Vote (see below)....Interesting, no?...Now, if one had a conspiratorial bent one might think that, perhaps, this just might be a motive for the acronym-assisted delay that came out of nowhere last week...
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So.

Mr. Craig James has finally approved the petition to begin the recall process in Oak Bay Gordon('s) Head.

Stephen Thompson of the GStrait has the story:

Elections B.C. has approved the recall application for Liberal cabinet minister Ida Chong’s Vancouver Island riding.

Acting chief electoral officer Craig James made the decision today (November 30).

“The petition will be issued on Monday, December 6, 2010, and at that time, registered canvassers may begin collecting signatures,” he says in a news release.....


But here's the thing.

If it is being approved today, why the delay in actually 'issuing' until next Monday?

Hmmmmmm.......Let's think about that for a moment shall we.....

I wonder.....

Could it have anything to do with this?

.....The petition (to recall Ida Chong) must (now) be returned to this office no later than Friday, February 4, 2011.”....

Now why does pushing the actual end date back to February matter?

Well....

As we all know, those who live to massage the media (not to mention, monitor it) just might have a reason for not wanting all the media hoopla that would follow a potentially successful (or even unsuccessful) recall campaign swallow up their big soiree designed to anoint a new leader.

Now, that date is two weeks after the BC Liberal Party is scheduled to get together to approve their new rules for electing an entirely Epo-Free Mountain Bike riding Everyman from the 854 Area Code on Feb 12th, 2011.

So....Anybody want to give me odds on post-February 4th delays that are in absolutely now way meant/designed to ensure that any announcements on the results of the Chong recall come after February 26th, 2011?

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7 comments:

Anonymous said...

What would happen if they got more than enough signatures prior to the Feb 4 deadline - like, perhaps the date that the deadline would have been had Craig James not decided to make up his own rules on what constitutes a word?

Can they submit the petition early and if they do, would that mean that Elections BC would have to announce the results early?

Hmmmm

GAB

Gary E said...

GAB

The petition can be submitted the day after they start if they feel that they have enough signatures to fire her.
The thing is James has 42 days to verify it. In the meantime the proponents Financial Officer has 28 days after the end of the campaign to submit the financial report.

I can tell you that there are a great many canvassers in all ridings giving proponents a very good chance of success.

RossK said...

Good question GAB.

And thanks for the answer (and good luck!) Gary.

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North Van's Grumps said...

In 2002 the recall for Val Roddick needed 11,949 signatures, they collected 13,168, but by the time Elections BC was done counting there were only 9,999 valid signatures.

I have the info set up on my blog:

http://blogborgcollective.blogspot.com/2010/11/recall-petition-timeline-oak-bay-gordon.html

But here's a question, there are two versions of the Recall petition timeline that Elections BC has created, the valid one doesn't mention the need to notify the Speaker of the House and the Member, the original one does.

RossK said...

NVG--

Good stuff - will link up.

(only being slightly facetious here, but....can we assume that E-BC didn't threaten the 3,169 folks whose signatures were invalidated in 2002?)

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Gary E said...

Morbidly humorous or not Ross there is only one way that a person can seek to have their name removed from a signature list and that is by contacting the proponent and requesting it be done. The proponent "at their discretion" may have it removed.

NVG Thanks for the link and info.

RossK said...

Thanks Gary.

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