[mobglob-discuss] To BC NDP Table Officers: Let's go for One Member One Vote

[Alan Ward]

To BC NDP Table Officers:

Let's Move Towards Electing
Our Next Leader through OMOV

    Joy MacPhail's decision not to run brings with it 
the certainty that new people will seek the leadership,
and gives the One Member One Vote project new urgency.  
As Joy well concluded, an exciting leadership race 
with new people who need to inspire both 
members and prospective members 
can help to bring victory in the 2005 elections.

    The Vancouver-Kingsway Executive adds its
voice to those NDP Constituency Presidents,
Provincial Council Delegates, NDP activists, unions,
and members of the public, who are calling on you 
to delay the leadership convention and facilitate and 
speed up a process whereby the BC NDP 
may elect its next leader under the 
one-member-one-vote system.  

    One member one vote is only the beginning
but an important beginning in the urgent task to turn
the NDP into the type of accessible, open, and democratic
organization that can quickly win the trust of the 
BC electorate.   It would also be a major source of new 
members, as the federal NDP leadership race showed.

    OMOV is a sign of openness we must give
on the road to remaking ourselves as the real alternative 
that fair-minded people hope for in the struggle to protect 
our province from privatization, deregulation, the debasement 
of our working conditions and the abandonment of our poor.

     A party like the NDP, with roots in BC's rich history 
of struggle for rights and equality, must recognize 
the importance that bold processes, open structures and internal 
democracy have in the development of initiative for a successful 
fight for justice and community.

    A new OMOV tradition would be a welcome addition 
to a party that already grants its constituencies the semi-autonomy 
necessary to address the realities of their local communities and 
potentially fully empower the party's grassroots.

    Let's build on our sense of democracy for we have, as a party, 
an enormous responsibility.  What the NDP does will to a great extent 
decide now and in 2005 the fate of the people of this province.  
Only through an NDP majority government will we stop the BC Liberals,
and only by acquiring the credibility necessary to play a
leadership role now will we achieve that majority.  BC cannot afford 
another five years of BC Liberal pillage. 

    For the Vancouver-Kingsway Executive,

    Alicia Barsallo, 2001 candidate, 604-879-3246
    Arlene Schimmelpfennig, President, 604-219-9243
    Andrew Adler, Vice-President, 604-224-1249
    Sylvia Dodd, Treasurer, 604-255-6776


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