Two contestant meetings have been organized by the Electoral District Association for the Conservative party; all candidate events for the upcoming Conservative Party nomination on July 25th.
The first event will be held between 6:30PM-8:30PM at the Justice Institute Theater, 715 McBride Boulevard, New Westminster. The second event will be Wednesday, July 15th between 6:30PM and 8:30PM in the MacDonald-Cartier Room of the Dogwood Pavilion, 624 Poirier Street, Coquitlam. As previously reported, four candidates are up for the nomination: Diana Dilworth of Port Moody, Mark Lea-McKeown of Coquitlam, Andy …

Image by hessiebell via Flickr

As of 10:15 pm:
With 10 of 148 ballot boxed reporting, BC-STV has earned only 44% of the vote so far. 60% of the provincial popular vote is required for the electoral reform referendum to be passed.
Currently, provincial popular support for BC-STV is about 39%, a blow for BC-STV supporters. Major news outlets have called the defeat of the initiative.

I returned home recently from casting my ballots for the Referendum on Electoral Reform and for the provincial election. Passing a ‘save our schools’ sign near the parking lot of Connaught Heights Elementary School, we were greeted warmly by our fellow citizens and after a short paperwork check, we voted. I am one of those kooks that really like voting and now as I write, my wife and I are glued to our radios and computers, absorbing the returns (none yet) as they come in.

One point that struck me was …

Video is up for last Wednesday’s all-candidates’ meeting, courtesy of David Maidman of Pumpkinhead Productions.
Part one:

Introductions
Regional transportation & the North Fraser Perimeter Road (5:00))
Food security, lower carbon footprint & healthier population (10:02)

New Westminster All-Candidates Meeting, May 6th, 2009 7-9pm from David Maidman on Vimeo.
Part two:

Provincial support for New West waterfront park
Improvements to Royal Columbian hospital (4:06)
Provincial funding for New West schools (8:49)

New Westminster All-Candidates Meeting, May 6th, 2009 7-9pm from David Maidman on Vimeo.

I need to be clear that I am speaking on behalf of Jen Arbo, here, and not Tenth to the Fraser. Tenth to the Fraser does not endorse any particular candidate.
Most Tenth to the Fraser readers will recognize that I generally write about things like gardening, lifestyles, spa treatments, local businesses, and people who don’t shovel their sidewalk. I usually leave the politic-y stuff to Will and Briana because, well, I am definitely no expert. But with election fever at an all time high and me having cast my …

Although last night’s all-candidates meeting was not billed as a debate, as an undecided voter I came away feeling there was a clear winner for New Westminster.
The Tenth to the Fraser editorial team decided this publication would not endorse a particular candidate this election, however as individuals we all have opinions and we agreed that it is fitting to share them. All are free to comment or submit a guest post sharing their POV.
I am very glad I attended the meeting because the candidates’ performance made it clear …

In Favour Greg Henschel, opposed Anita Hagen.
Henschel was a member of the Citizens Assembly on Election Reform. He was chosen at random to participate. He reminds us that the assembly was brought together by the government to give recommendations on electoral reform after recent elections ( for example in 2001 when the Liberals won all but 2 seats with 53% of the popular vote).  After much discussion and research, the group settled on STV as a way to provide multiple MLAs to represent the population more accurately. With no time …

In the provincial election on May 12, everyone will be asked again to vote on electoral reform. Do we want to stay with the current First Past the Post or choose Single Transferable Vote?
Find out more about the proposed reform from some of the Citizen’s Assembly members who proposed it in 2006.
New Westminster Public Library. May 5, 2009 @ 7:00 p.m.
www.bc-stv.ca/
This issue has received scant attention in this campaign, in my opinion. Use this as an opportunity to bone up on the facts. Find out more on www.bc-stv.ca/ …

This is a guest post by Reena Meijer Drees, who is a New Westminster resident active in the campaign supporting BC-STV. Watch for a follow-up post tomorrow on the potential impact of electoral reform on local politics. You can read more about BC-STV on Reena’s blog and STV.ca (”Yes” side) or nostv.org (”No” side). Opponents of STV are welcome to respond in the comments and/or write a guest post supporting their position.
If BC-STV were to be implemented, there would be some changes to how our elections would run. I’ve discussed these in other postings. But there …

This is a guest post by Reena Meijer Drees, who is a New Westminster resident active in the campaign supporting BC-STV. Watch for a follow-up post tomorrow on the potential impact of electoral reform on local politics. You can read more about BC-STV on Reena’s blog and STV.ca (“Yes” side) or nostv.org (“No” side). Opponents of STV are welcome to respond in the comments and/or write a guest post supporting their position.
Remember the referendum on electoral reform in 2005?
I never paid the slightest attention to electoral reform before we …

The Surrey Leader reports that New Westminster’s Brad Ross has provoked a testy bit of back-and-forth between provincial transportation minister Kevin Falcon and Delta city council. Ross commutes to Delta, facing a regular bottleneck at Highway 91 and 72 Ave.
New Westminster resident Brad Ross, who makes regular trips across the [Alex Fraser] bridge, wrote Falcon to ask if there were plans to build an overpass.
According to the minister’s written reply, the traffic lights are still there because Delta “strongly favoured an alternate and more costly configuration, and we were unable …

Hubris has led to a great fall for Stephen Harper. Having won a mandate for another minority government, Harper acted as though he had won a majority and gave the three opposition parties the common enemy they needed for an attempt to wrest control from the Conservatives and propose an alternative coalition government.
And Canadians said … WTF?!
As news of these developments percolated through the Twittersphere, blogosphere and news media, many of us discovered that we understood less than we realized about how our political system works (myself included). I am …

Twitter tells me today that ‘we will have a new federal government in Canada within days.’ The Liberals, NDP and Bloc have put aside their differences and have formally asked the Governor General to allow them to form the Government of Canada, led by Leader of the Opposition Stephane Dion at the next opportunity.
As an NDP stronghold, this could be New Westminster’s best chance to get on the national political radar. The Georgia Straight has speculated that Burnaby-New West MP Peter Julian (profiled a few days ago on this blog) …

Eagerly awaiting the last official results of the 2008 New Westminster civic elections, we are pleased to relay that the judicial recount for the position of school trustee has been completed. In a message this afternoon from New Westminster Deputy Chief Electoral Officer Doris Fassbender, the results were announced:

Following a two day judicial recount at the BC Provincial Court, New Westminster Registry, Judge Her Honour Alexander declared the results for the office of School Trustee for the 2008 General Local Election for the City of New …

I just came back from my weekly lunchtime yoga at work, and as I sat down for a dose of 102tF, it got me thinking about the role that the spiritual life, and churches in particular, have played in our Royal City. Without any real historical training or knowledge (Will and Peter Julian will have to help you with that), I figure that when New West was settled and in the decades after, churches likely played an important role in developing a sense of community in our city.
The first …

New Westminster packs 60,000 people into just 15 square kilometres. Despite the skyscrapers and traffic jams, this city of ours still behaves like a small town. The annual Remembrance Day ceremony at the armory is a hugely popular civic event. We have just one high school.  Our mayor is a jolly guy who drives an old Ford truck. And our MP, Peter Julian, is a friendly Salmonbellies fan who, like many of us, still carries a bit of a chip on his shoulder from 1868 when Victoria stole the title …

Who really won the recent New Westminster 2008 municipal election? Not us, because we are a bunch of chumps that can’t make it to out to stuff a slip of paper into a box. Do we harbour some long hidden fears of elementary school gymnasiums? Terror at the nasty chance of an electoral paper cut?
Our manifest idiocy has not gone unnoticed by the scribbling classes. Even here, at Tenth to the Fraser, we have noted our past 26.2% participation lameness. Now, with renewed evidence of our callous disregard for our …

Now that the dust has settled and the result is no different than last election (Is it just me or does anyone else have deja vu from October?), perhaps there’s no wonder that a proportion of New Westminster’s citizens voted (in a completely non-binding way) to increase the electoral cycle from 3 years to 4 – perhaps this proportion of the population believes that since nothing will change, why go to the expense to have elections so frequently?
I’m sure that in the coming weeks, editors, electors and candidates will toss …

Despite a well-organized campaign by the Voice party to convince voters New Westminster needs profound change, the resounding public response has been a polite, “No thank you.” Unofficial election results show only one new face on council: 12th Street booster, longtime Douglas College Student Union leader, Save St. Mary’s Hospital organizer and antipoverty activist Jaimie McEvoy, who appears to have stolen the seat of our longest-serving councillor, Calvin Donnelly . Donnelly has been a city councillor for 18 years, since first elected in 1981 (according to the city website’s official bio …

All polls reporting: so far, results show Wayne Wright still has the ‘Wright’ stuff (har de har har). Blair Armitage appears to be out of luck.
Council results so far:

Jonathan Cote
Lorrie Williams
Betty McIntosh
Bill Harper
Bob Osterman
Jaimie McEvoy

School Board:

Casey Cook
Lorrie Watt
Lisa Graham
Jim Goring
Michael Ewen
James Janzen
Brent Atkinson

If you’re looking for information on civic election results as they roll in, here are a few sites to check (I am watching and will post New West information as I see it as well):

City of New West official results on the website.
Lots of chatter on Twitter. Do some keyword searches (“civic” seems to work well, and you can also try “new westminster”), or follow me @10thtothefraser (I will retweet any New West-related info as I see it). 
The New Westminster Record is posting updates online . As of 8:20pm, Wayne Wright had …

As previously announced, we, as the authors of this blog, have decided to endorse a slate of candidates for Mayor, Council and School Trustee. We have tried to pay close attention to the political events and articles in the local paper but, we are ordinary citizens and we have no insider’s knowledge of the various alliances that our local candidates may have with each other. This is our endorsement as independent folks and this is our blog so… these are the endorsed candidates for Tenth to the Fraser:
Mayoral Candidate: Wayne …

Taking a (web)page straight from the David Plouffe hand book, this local school trustee candidate has been kicking it Obama style by launching a polite and engaging army of telephone campaign staff on the voters of New Westminster.
Oh yes, after getting a call a week ago, my wife asked some questions about the “School on Grimston Park” controversy (against btw) and as a follow up, she asked further questions that the volunteer simply could not answer on Ms. Kaur’s behalf. “May I take your information and Kirpaul can get back …

Several weeks ago, I contacted both candidates for mayor: Wayne Wright (independent incumbent) and Blair Armitage (Voice New Westminster) and invited them to reply to an email interview to discuss various topics and give voters a view into what they were both like as people. I say I contacted them but really I contacted Wayne Wright and a few gatekeepers for Mr. Armitage. After striving twice and half-heatedly feigning interest for a third time, I gave up on the possibility that Mr. Armitage would lend his ‘voice’ to this …