And so, with just over 2weeks left in the campaign, (election & referendum on the 12th people! Do your research!), I've started the process of booking into debates for my riding of North Vancouver-Seymour. If you live in the riding, or just feel like coming out to see me debate the other three candidates, here are the times & locations:

A general debate

Date: Monday May 4, 2009
Time: 7-9pm
Location: Mount Seymour United Church, 1200 Parkgate Avenue, North Vancouver

Hosted by the Teachers Association

Date: Thursday, May 7, 2009
Time: 7-9 pm
Location: Windsor Secondary (Multipurpose Room), 931 Broadview Dr, North Vancouver

To my friends and family in the area, I'd really appreciate the moral support if you can show up to one or either of these. It's my first time with such responsibility, and it's always good to have people you care about around for this kind of thing.

So I've been hearing a lot of comments about how hard-to-understand STV is (cough)Stephen(cough). Specifically, the complaint has been that while the method of voting is easy (just rank your favourites), the counting system is too complicated to be considered democratic. Seriously people, it's really easy to understand. Here it is, in all its cartoony glory:

Stephen, feel free to use this in your class :-). As far as credit goes, I'm afraid I'm not that talented. The animation was produced by the Citizens Assembly on Electoral Reform.

Everyone knows that if you want people to hear about something, the best place to start is Television. The BC-STV campaign has recently produced this ad in the hopes of drawing more attention to the upcoming referrendum and they need your help to get it on the air:

Granted, it's not big on the details, you have to go to the website for that, but that's not what a 30second spot is for. The idea is to get you interested enough to talk about it with your friends and do your own research and I think that this video does it well.

Please visit the donations page and send them $5, $10 or even $100 if you're so inclined to help this thing get on the air.

I received the most wonderful email from a voter in my riding yesterday and I just had to share it so here it is, published with permission:

Hello Mr. Quinn

I basically just wanted to say thanks for running in the provincial election so I can vote for somebody I actually want to vote for, rather than just choosing the lesser of two evils.

Love the CBC T-shirt. Classic, classic, classic.

She is of course, referring to my pic on my bio page on the Green Party website. I responded with a resounding thankyou, a request to re-post her message and a link to CBC Shop where she could buy one of her own :-)

Sometimes, politics can be really quite personal, and fun.

I'm probably going to be blogging about this sort of thing for the duration of the election, but bear with me here.

I got an email today... four of the same email... so far -- from concerned citizens opposed to sport hunting of Grizzly Bears in the Great Bear rain forest. As part of their efforts to ban the practise, their supporters are sending a form letter email to all the candidates in this election looking for their support.

It's ironic really... humbling too. I've been on the other side of campaigns like this one dozens of times and in every case I know what to expect as far as effectiveness goes. Legislation needs the support of powerful people in government and in a majority, it needs support of a ruling party that may or may not be interested in what these people have to say.

Pick any subject: Cancer research, Net Neutrality, Transit, and yes, the Grizzlies of Northern BC and you'll find a battery of financial interests behind each of them pushing the controlling party away from the public good. Our antiquated First Past the Post system concentrates power in the hands of a single party (and realistically, a single party leader) who cannot possibly hold a mandate on all issues for the majority of voters. And as a result, the needs of the majority cannot ever be properly served.

This Grizzly campaign has my full support, but sadly under our current system, that support doesn't mean much in the Legislature unless it comes from one of two people who have already shown themselves to be more interested in obtaining power than doing anything constructive with it. This province needs a new form of representation that more accurately reflects the demographics our Legislature is supposed to represent and forces parties to work together to do the work of the people. What we've got right now isn't even close.

If you've read this far, I encourage you to take a look at STV and learn about how it can help our government better represent the diverse needs of the province. This upcoming election is also a referendum on whether or not we should adopt such a system so it's worth your time to figure this out. STV isn't perfect, but it's way better than what we've got.

The federal Green Party has some fun stuff going on for Earth day today so I thought that I might share it here. I'll be showing up to the party at the Vancouver Rowing Club, but my day job makes the rally at the VAG a non-option:

The Rally

Earth Day Rally at the Vancouver Art Gallery
When: April 22nd (Earth Day), noon to 1pm
Where: Vancouver Art Gallery, Georgia Street side

The Party

Party for the Future At the Vancouver Rowing Club
When: April 22nd (Earth Day), 7:30 to 11pm
Where: 450 Stanley Park Drive

Both events are free and open to everyone. Come out and meet your local candidate or just show up for the food... at least I think that there'll be food, there'll be music anyway.

It's been something of a whirlwind so far. As I mentioned earlier, the usual vetting and "ease-in" for a candidate was more or less fast-tracked for me given my extensive previous experience in the party and the tight deadline for getting candidates on the ballot. Within the first few hours of my acceptance, I received about three phone calls from organisers within the party and by the next day, two of the three other Green candidates on the North shore had contacted me with offers to help me get the signatures I needed to get on the ballot.

For the uninitiated, here's how it works. Anyone can run for political office, but (s)he must first do the following:

1. They must collect 75 valid signatures of nomination from voters in the riding.

   This is usually handled by setting up in a public place with a few volunteers, cheery faces, coffee and some clipboards. Everyone fans out and asks people to sign their name, address and signature to support a candidate's right to be on the ballot. The results are then collected and sent to Elections BC, who checks the addresses to assure that they are in fact in the riding. For this reason, smart candidates collect 100+ signatures, just in case some of the addresses are disqualified.

2. If they intend to run under a party's banner, they must be vetted and approved by that party.

   This is entirely an internal concern for the party and each party handles it differently. Normally though it involves interviews and background checks etc. to make sure that the candidate selected is the best choice to represent the party.

3. Lastly, they need $250 for the administration involved. If you're running with a big party, they usually help you with that, but since the greens can't really afford it, I've paid for this out of my own pocket.

As mentioned above, #2 wasn't an issue, but #1 was going to be a problem. After all, I'm what they call a parachute candidate (a candidate running on a ballot for a riding in which (s)he doesn't actually reside). I didn't have any friends who live in North Vancouver-Seymour, so it wasn't like I could just round up names from my social circle. No, the signatures had to come from complete strangers, people I was hoping to represent after the election in May.

The experience was rather humbling actually. When you start out on something like this, it's both scary and exciting, but when a little old lady shakes your hand with such faith and admiration, you stop for a second and take a mental step back: "I'm so glad you're runing here" she said, "the other parties don't understand, we need to do something about the environment and they just keep bickering".

I smile, thank her for her support and hand her my business card -- I'm sort of in a state of shock really: I knew well that this whole campaign was going to be scary and stressful, but the idea of taking on the responsibility of representing this woman and thousands of others like her in the Legislative Assembly... this is a lot bigger than I thought going in. But it's Good work, important work and no one else was doing it. ...and I really am honoured to be doing it.

As it turns out, the signature acquisition wasn't nearly as difficult as I thought it would be. The Green Party has a lot of support all over the province and having set up outside the local library and mall, we racked up 125 signatures in about three hours. I offer huge thanks to my brother Matthew and my neighbour Cat for coming out to help me at such an ungodly hour, and a special thanks goes to Michelle Corcos, Green candidate for North Vancouver-Lonsdale who showed up with a trunkfull of leaflets and signage as well as her nine-month-old to show us how it's done and help collect as well.

So far though, the whole process has been really, really exciting (though tiring). I've received such amazing support from Michelle Corcos and Ryan Windsor, two candidates on the North Shore in how to do... well everything. and the campaign is likely to get even more crazy now that they're talking about a collective fundraising effort. I'll continue to post here as things develop though :-)

I received this from a friend of mine and couldn't stop laughing. Enjoy!

For those of you who have landed here looking for my official Green Party page, it's now up, complete with a bio and headshot.

I got an email from a friend of mine (who would prefer to remain nameless) today containing a short list of ridings in BC not yet running a Green Party Candidate. She then followed it with a mischevous suggestion: "You should run!".

The idea was crazy really. While I have a lot of experience canvassing for candidates both here and in Toronto, I'd never run as a candidate myself. I don't have any money for a race, or a campaign manager, or any idea how to wage a campaign really. What I do have is some serious skill when it comes to thinking on my feet and talking about things about which I'm passionate... and so the thought occured to me: "Why not?"

I sat down and thought out what I wanted to say and emailed the Green Party's BC office with the following:

I'm unsure as to the proper format of emails like this one, so do forgive me if this appears too informal or unpolished for the occasion, but I'd very much like to run with the provincial Green Party in North Vancouver-Seymour if you're still looking for a candidate there.

I've been a Green Party member since July '07 and have volunteered for door-to-door canvassing with Adrianne Carr's campaign here in Vancouver Centre on multiple occasions. Before I was a Green, I served the NDP in Jack Layton's and Michael Shapcott's ridings, canvassing there as well.

I also have a strong activist background with my work in public space circles both in Toronto and here in Vancouver. I've handled a series of radio and television interviews as well as public speaking engagements with City Council, the Toronto Police and the general public with confidence.

Lastly, I've long taken an active role in the understanding of a variety of environmental issues, focusing primarily on energy production/conservation and waste reclamation/disposal.

I can't promise you victory in North Vancouver-Seymour, given the numbers, no honest person could make such a claim. However, I can assure you that I'd represent the party well and do everything I could to bolster our standings there in advance of an eventual STV election.

If this sounds good to you, please give me a call or drop me an email. My contact info is below.

As it turns out, the person vetting the applications is someone I've worked with in the past, and he called me inside of an hour after I hit "send". We talked briefly about what was involved and he then informed that since we'd worked together for a while now, there was no need for a formal interview process -- the seat was mine if I wanted it. My hands shook a bit at the thought, but I said yes: I'm now the Green Party candidate for North Vancouver-Seymour.

The riding is a beautiful one, and likely to be rather right-leaning economically. My plan then will be to go after as much of the Liberal vote as I can based on their environmental record, specifically their support of run-of-river power generation and their decision to privatise the whole thing. Gateway will be a big one as well.

The truth is that the chances of my winning are slim, but they're there and I'm going to do my best to represent the interests of my party and simultaneously promote STV. Should be fun :-)