Please join me for
"Sounds Like Salt Spring"
on Sunday, July 4 at 4 PM when my guest will be Tea Leaf Reader Tanya Lester and at 5 PM Larry Pierce of The Gulf Islands Citizens Council and Kimberley Linegar of Islanders For Self-Government, direct from the Sunday rally.
Including an exclusive interview with Senator Larry Campbell...
By Sean McIntyre - Gulf Islands Driftwood
Published: July 06, 2010
Frustration and discontent rolled into Centennial Park on Sunday afternoon as hundreds of residents from throughout the Islands Trust’s jurisdiction called for a change to the way they are governed.
“We only ask for common sense to be used during the development of our community,” said Kimberly Lineger, a former Salt Spring trustee and one of the main organizers of Sunday’s event.
“We do not want the communities of retirees, of wealthy weekenders or summer people. We want a diverse and varied rural community with resource workers, contractors, police and firemen and women and school teachers and store clerks and, above all, young families and children, but unless you’re rich or have owned property here for decades, the young and the middle class cannot afford to live here.
“Our communities are dying on the vine.”
Lineger said she believes improved local governance would facilitate the accommodation of growth without sacrificing the “small, quaint and rural” lifestyle that has attracted so many to the islands.
“Islanders for Self-Government are not against the environment,” she said.
A parade of heavy equipment that included a septic truck, front-end loader, tractor and dump truck heralded the opening of Sunday’s rally with a raucous blockade in the heart of Ganges.
The festive antics continued throughout the afternoon as emcee Arvid Chalmers entertained alongside “the Queen,” as portrayed by Reid Collins, and O Canada was sung by a large gorilla.
The two-hour event, dubbed the “coffee party,” culminated with the launching of burlap sacs and boxes marked with the Salt Spring Coffee Co. logo into Ganges Harbour from the Centennial Park boardwalk.
Salt Spring Coffee Co. president and owner Mickey McLeod, who recently announced that his company will relocate its administrative offices and manufacturing facility to an as-of-yet undetermined site in the Vancouver area, spoke to a need for change.
McLeod’s announcement followed the Salt Spring Local Trust Committee’s August 2009 rejection of his company’s application to rezone a Fulford-Ganges Road property.
A failure to change, said Hornby Island’s Larry Pierce, is why so many Gulf Islands are becoming the exclusive domain of the wealthy at the expense of young families and middle class.
“This has become a Gucci zone,” Pierce said.
Pierce has spent the last month circulating a petition that calls on the province to initiate of review of the 36-year-old Islands Trust Act. As of Monday, he said he’d collected more than 1,000 signatures, 200 of which came during Sunday’s event.
He seeks signatures from 10 per cent of the roughly 25,000 people who live within the Trust’s boundaries by the end of the summer.
“The Islands Trust is out of date. The model is broken,” he said. “People need fair, honest representation. They need equal representation, we need local government and we don’t need any more control and selective bylaw enforcement.
“We live in Canada. It’s a free country. Sign the petition.”
Senator Larry Campbell, a resident of Galiano Island and a former mayor of Vancouver, spoke of the need to reinvigorate the democratic process throughout the Gulf Islands.
Harnessing the energy expressed by so many at Sunday’s event, he said, is crucial to the movement’s success.
“If we remain silent then we’ve accepted the status quo,” Campbell told the crowd. “If we don’t get involved then we get exactly what we deserve and, as I said in Vancouver, if you don’t vote, don’t bitch to me.”
Campbell said it’s time all islands in the Trust area become incorporated to ensure local residents have the ultimate say over what takes place in their communities.
“I believe that every single island should be in charge of their local affairs, their local planning and their local development,” he said. “The Islands Trust could be the overseer . . . I don’t want somebody from Salt Spring telling people on Galiano what they should be doing.”
The Gulf Islands Alliance, a pro-Trust organization with membership spread throughout the Trust area, wasted no time formulating a response to Sunday’s event.
In a June 29 press release, GIA chair Misty MacDuffee said Trust Council and individual local Trust committees are publicly elected bodies, voted into office by island residents.
MacDuffee doesn’t oppose a review of the Islands Trust Act and said a legitimate review could strengthen the Act by giving the Trust more tools and resources to achieve its mandate.
“The petitioners seem to have forgotten that the Islands Trust region is not a place for business-as-usual growth and development. The unique Islands Trust Act was put in place specifically to protect the ecological and rural value of this region and to constrain rampant development. That is ultimately what this petition appears to be objecting to,” MacDuffee said.
Islanders greet federal Green leader
By Sean McIntyre - Gulf Islands Driftwood
Published: October 14/09
It was farewell to Nova Scotia and hello Gulf Islands as Green party leader Elizabeth May offered Salt Spring Islanders an election-style speech at Mahon Hall on Thursday evening.
“This time, wouldn’t it be exciting to cast a vote that changed the history of Canadian politics?” May asked an enthusiastic crowd of about 150 people. “What we have to do is make the case to our friends and neighbours that there is only one candidate in the race that has [Conservative party MP] Gary Lunn worried right now — and it’s me.”
The Thursday evening fundraiser marked May’s first official function on Salt Spring since she confirmed her intention to run as a candidate in the Saanich-Gulf Islands riding last month.
May’s rhetoric made clear that she and her party are already gearing up for the quest to make her the country’s first Green member of parliament.
She said her party is prepared to launch a major campaign that will place an unprecedented emphasis on the riding whenever an election is called.
“We are going to run the first really major campaign that’s effective and well organized to defeat the current MP,” May said. “It’s not personal. I’m sure Gary Lunn is lovely, but his decisions and his record condemn him and he doesn’t deserve to be in the House of Commons.”
May specifically criticized Lunn’s 2008 decision to fire the head of Canada’s nuclear safety watchdog.
“Every form of health and safety regulation in this country was weakened [when he made that decision],” she said.
During the two-hour event emceed by island folk musician Valdy, May touched on topics that included climate change, deficit spending, aquaculture, run-of-river hydro projects and the need to resuscitate the country’s ailing democracy.
May attacked what she said was the Conservative government’s failure to promote more renewable energy initiatives as part of the latest round of infrastructure spending.
Even China’s $600 billion in infrastructure spending emphasizes its transition from being the world’s predominant supplier of cheap consumer goods to a leading producer of energy-efficient and renewable energy-related technologies.
May called on her supporters to speak with friends, family and neighbours in an effort to reinvigorate the political process in the riding and beyond.
“Electing anybody else isn’t going to change anything,” she said.
“When I’m in the House of Commons as the leader of the Greens, I’m in a different position than a backbencher for the Liberals or a backbencher for the NDP, or even a downwardly mobile minister of state for sport.”
Despite its leader’s optimistic spirit, the modest Green party machine will have to contend with Lunn’s long-standing popularity in the riding.
Lunn has held the seat since 1997 as a member of the Reform, Alliance and Conservative parties.
In the 2008 federal election, one in which the NDP had no official candidate, Lunn grasped victory with a respectable 43.43 per cent of the riding’s total vote.
The Liberal party’s Briony Penn finished in second place with 39.36 per cent of the vote and Green party candidate Andrew Lewis received 10.45 per cent of the vote.
From The Saanich News:
Green leader will run in Saanich-Gulf Islands as May wins Saturday nomination.
It's official.
After months of speculation, Elizabeth May will represent the federal Green Party in Saanich-Gulf Islands. May easily beat out Stuart Hertzog, the Victoria-based writer and editor who challenged May for the nomination.
“It is so heartening to receive such an overwhelming vote of confidence from the grassroots of our membership,” said May in a Green Party press release sent out after the Saturday night nomination meeting at the Mary Winspear Centre in Sidney.
“I have been overwhelmed by the response from the community. I am ready to get on with the ‘real’ campaign – to win a seat in parliament.
Every single day, voters in this riding tell me that they have worked or voted for other parties in the past, but now are uniting for real, positive change.”
About 100 people attended the meeting.
May chose Saanich-Gulf Islands after courting several ridings across the country that Green strategists thought gave the party its best shot at winning a seat.
A Nova Scotia resident, May was born in Connecticut in 1954 and moved to Atlantic Canada with her family in 1972.
After spending time in her new riding this summer, May committed herself to moving to B.C. and trying to become the first Green party member to be elected as an MP.
May’s campaign office is located at 2417 Beacon Ave. in Sidney.
Vancouver, B.C. - One of Canada’s most-loved authors is asking his thousands of fans across British Columbia for a birthday present.
Farley Mowat, whose books have been translated into 20 languages and sold in the millions around the world, turns 88 on May 12. He has one wish on our election day: vote yes for BC-STV.
The author of such time-honoured books as Never Cry Wolf (1963) and Sea of Slaughter (1984) says British Columbians have the opportunity to finally retire our current outdated voting system and set the standard for democracy right across the country.
On May 12, in a province wide referendum on electoral reform, voters will have a chance to make history and change the way politicians are elected.
British Columbians will choose between the current “first-past-the-post” system and the STV system that was recommended overwhelmingly by the Citizens’ Assembly on Electoral Reform.
In the last election, BC-STV received more votes than any political party, nearly 58 per cent. However, the referendum requires 60 per cent approval to be adopted by the government.
British Columbians for BC-STV is the official proponent of the single transferable vote (STV) system, as proposed by the BC Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform in 2004.
On May 12, British Columbians will keep the old system or accept BC-STV, a new way of electing MLAs as proposed by the Citizens' Assembly.
The assembly was guided by three basic values: Fair Results, Effective Local Representation, and More Choice. How does BC-STV yield fair results?
BC-STV wastes few votes. A wasted vote is a vote that does not help elect anyone. Under the current system, in most elections just over half of all votes are wasted and those voters could have stayed home for all the difference their vote makes.
Increasingly, more do stay home. Such voters have no one in Victoria they helped elect, no one to represent them. They are orphans in our democracy.
But wait, it gets even worse. Votes that are in excess of what an MLA needs to be elected are also wasted. On that measure, 64 percent of all votes in the 2005 election were wasted.
In contrast, BC-STV makes very efficient use of votes. The theoretical maximum number of wasted votes is about 18 percent, province-wide. That is a huge improvement over what we have.
The current system delivers results that on any measure are completely unfair. Is it fair that in the 2001 election, every 11,907 Liberal voters were rewarded with one seat, but it took 171,578 NDP votes to get one seat, and the nearly 200,000 Green voters got no seat at all?
Is it fair that the vote, our most precious democratic possession, is more powerful for British Columbians of a certain partisan stripe than that of others?
Occasionally, our voting system is so perverse that the party with the most votes loses to a party with fewer votes, as was the case in 1996. Is it fair that, regularly, a minority of the votes is translated into a majority of the seats for one party? Should majorities not be earned, rather than manufactured?
Pundits always say we get the government we vote for. That is true in most places in the world but not in British Columbia. BC-STV has far fewer wasted votes and therefore translates votes into seats far more accurately than the system we have.
Will BC-STV elect many small parties making government weak as in Israel and Italy? No. This is not proportional representation as commonly understood.
The proposal is for relatively few seats per district to weed out small parties, and the preferential vote of BC-STV weeds out extremist parties. Votes are for candidates not parties, while independents, unencumbered by party bosses, do get elected.
The choice is not between, fair voting or stable government. Currently, we have neither fair voting nor stable government. British Columbians deserve both, and BC-STV delivers both.
The present voting system is unfair to voters and it frequently produces wild swings in public policy. In the 1990s, British Columbia went through 7 premiers in 10 years.
By exaggerating the strength of some votes the current system ensures that BC politics is always more volatile than BC voters.
The Citizens' Assembly had it right: do not expect stability in politics and government until votes are treated equally and fairly.
For more information about BC-STV, you can view and download this
ebook.
There is a BC-STV infomation session at GISS multi-purpose room on Rainbow Road at 7 PM on Monday, April 27, 2009.
You can visit our BC-STV information booth at the
Saturday Market.
"Happy Earth Day to you,
Happy Earth Day to you,
Happy Earth Day dear Salt Spring,
Happy Earth Day to you..."
Creekside Rainforest Celebration & Thank You Reception
The big party was held at ArtSpring on Tuesday night and the celebrants were treated to an outstanding selection of Salt Spring Island's best in wine, food, music and art.
Harry Warner introduced Ed and Gail Peekeekoot who gave us a sampling of the wonderful music they were to share on Friday at El Zocalo.
Former British Columbia Lieutenant Governor & TLC Honorary President Iona Campagnolo (who was raised on Galiano Island), and Campaign Coordinator Maureen Moore (as well as several others), thanked all the folks who helped to save Salt Spring Island's Creekside Rainforest. (see the list below)
Then Harry and The Black Velvet Band entertained while we mingled and celebrated this latest victory to preserve part of this special island for generations to come.
In case you're new and don't know what all the fuss was about, here are a couple of videos that tell the story...
"Congratulations and thanks to everyone who has contributed money, time, creativity, and positive energy toward the preservation of Salt Spring's Creekside Rainforest. When all the pledges come in, we will have accomplished the seemingly impossible. As campaign coordinator, I am thrilled to make this announcement on behalf of all supporters who have worked so hard and given so much to protect this precious temperate rainforest and salmon creek. It makes me so happy to live in such a vital and generous community. This island's passionate support made ANOTHER Salt Spring "miracle" come to pass. Together we have saved an example of one of the rarest ecosystems on Earth." - Maureen Moore (from The Gulf Islands Driftwood, April 2, 2008)
Thanks to everyone who worked long and hard to save Salt Spring Island's Creekside Rainforest:
Appeal Coordinator
Maureen Moore
Core Worker Bees
Matt Tobey,
Pat Barclay,
Sheila Ie,
Deborah Miller,
Jenn Johnson,
Megan Hyslop,
Juliette Laing
Forest Guides
Matt Tobey,
Rick Laing
Websites & Maintenance
Matt Tobey,
Tina Kempling,
Dave Lettinga
Poster Design &
Communications
Mike Wall,
David Denning,
Matt Tobey
Community Posters &
Brochures
Jo Yard,
Deborah Miller,
Maureen Moore
Telephone Outreach
Sharon McCollough,
Deborah Miller,
Jo Bealy,
Nancy Tyler,
Megan Hyslop,
Pat Barclay,
Sheila Ie,
Maureen Moore
Publicity Team
Deirdre Rowland,
Pat Barclay,
Matt Tobey,
Maureen Moore
Editors & Proofreaders
Judi Stevenson,
Harry Warner,
Maureen Bendick,
Nora Layard,
Pat Barclay,
Maureen Moore
Volunteer Treasurer
Fraser Hope
Island Mailouts
Pat Barclay,
Debora Miller,
Nichola Walkden,
Sheila Ie,
Juliette Laing,
Maureen Moore
FUNDRAISING EVENTS:
"Unless The Eye Catch Fire"
PK Page,
Romany Miller,
Pat Barclay,
Don Tarris,
Vaughan Fulford
Reading For The Rainforest
Arthur Black,
Pat Barclay,
Brian Brett,
Shirley Graham,
Peter Levitt,
Kathy Page,
Murray Reiss,
Chris Smart,
Mona Fertig,
Sandi Johnson,
Derek Lundy,
Kelsey Mech,
Briony Penn,
Elizabeth Woods,
Evelyn White,
Donn Tarris,
Osman Phillips,
Maureen Moore
Art for The Rainforest Art Sale & Silent Auction
Birgit Bateman,
Robert Bateman,
Alan Bibby,
David Borrowman,
Andrea Collins,
Janet Dwyer,
Steve Friedman,
Tamar Griggs,
Susan Huber,
Amarah Gabriel,
Shari MacDonald,
Theresa Mackey,
Osman Phillips,
Karen Reiss,
Samantha Sanderson,
Kevin Steinke,
Phyllis Webb,
Stella Weinert's Gr 4/5 class for their paintings
Rainforest Gala & Winemakers Dinner
Sheila Ie,
Pat Barclay,
Rick & Juliette Laing,
Jesse Blanchette,
Myles Ferryman,
David Godfrey & Godfrey-Brownell Wines,
Arthur Black,
Lynne Raymond,
Adrian Selby,
John & Alicia Herbert,
Anna Squier,
Shelley Lawson,
Karen Hudson,
Lianna North,
Lesley Kimber,
John Keller,
Richard Badman,
Maureen Moore
Dessert Bakers
Deborah Miller & David Denning,
Ellen Karpinski,
Jane Petch,
Gillian Kidd,
Jacqueline Thomas,
Andrea LeBorgne,
Ruth Tarasoff,
Joanne Montrichard,
Rosemary Herbert,
Jane Squier,
Sharon Maldover
Rainforest Music Event in Victoria
Dylan Stutt & Friends,
Ocean Island Backpackers Inn
Publicity Photos
Shari MacDonald,
Susan Huber,
David Borrowman,
Matt Tobey
Donation Liaisons
Bill Turner,
Cassie Holcomb,
Tom Arnold,
Maureen Moore
Scientific Team
Bristol Fraser,
Katherine Dunster,
Kimberley D. Kornbacher,
Kate McEwen,
Terry McIntosh,
Kathy Reimer,
Lara Matthias,
Briony Penn
You Tube Video
Brandy Glovka,
Alan Micelli,
Donn Tarris,
Matt Tobey,
Pat Barclay,
Maureen Moore
Special Friends And Dedicated Helpers
Judi Stevenson,
Harry Burton,
Adina Hilderbrandt & Andrew Haigh,
Barbara Caves,
Trish Maddison,
Eileen Wttewaal,
Christine Waymark,
Anne Buckley,
Erin Porter,
Sarah Bateman,
BACARA,
Ian Abbott,
BJ Vicks,
Aaron Ableman,
Ian Tamblyn,
Robin Ferry,
Aileen Hope,
Salt Spring Centre School,
Fulford Elementary Nature Club,
Salt Spring Books,
Don Logan,
Eduard Andringa
Salt Spring Island Rainforest News
Sheila Ie,
Pat Barclay,
Matt Tobey,
Harry Burton,
Arthur Black,
Bill Turner,
Iona Campagnolo,
Tom Gossett,
John B. Sprague,
Andrea Collins,
Dr. Margaret Fulton,
Bristol Foster,
Peter Levitt,
Bill Henderson,
Mary Toynbee,
Adina Hilderbrandt & Andrew Haigh,
Bob Wild,
Judi Stevenson,
Briony Penn,
Jai Wilson,
Kathy Page,
George Sipos,
Rick & Juliette Laing,
Shari MacDonald,
David Borrowman,
Mike Wall,
Salt Spring Granny,
Birgit Freybe Bateman,
Salt Spring Centre School,
Leslie Wallace,
Don Stevens,
Shirley Morassutti-Horvat,
Imagine That Graphics,
Valerie Tabone,
Jen Hobson
Creekside Rainforest Celebration & Thank You Reception
Many thanks to the following organizers, volunteers, guest speakers and businesses involved: Deborah Miller, Adrian Selby, Sheila Ei, Rick & Juliette Laing, Shelley Lawson, Nichola Walkden, Bill Turner, Bob Weeden, Susan Paynter, Richard Badman, Cassie Holcomb, Jen Hobson, Harry Warner, Ed & Gail Peekeekoot, Briony Penn, Jane Squier, The Black Velvet Band, Maureen Moore, Garry Oak Vineyards, Salt Spring Coffee Company, Moonstruck Organic Cheese, Thrifty Foods, Arigado Sushi & Teriyaki, Jana's Bakery, Ganges Village Market, Embe Bakery, Salt Spring Island Cheese Company, Wildfire Bakery in Victoria, Natureworks, ArtSpring, Salt Spring Painters Guild, Salt Spring Island Conservancy, Islands Trust Fund, Salt Spring Island Foundation, The Land Conservancy and TLC Honorary President Iona Campagnolo.
Here's the latest Salt Spring Island News.
Salt Spring Island Transit Is A Popular Success!
Having begun service in January, 2008, Salt Spring Island buses carried a record 657 passengers this week and ridership is only expected to increase as summer approaches.
Stepping up to meet the demand, Salt Spring Island Transportation and Transit Commission is releasing an enhanced summer transit schedule, effective May 3.
There'll be a trial, Saturday-only loop route to the government wharf in Fernwood that will take summer riders from the Visitor Information Centre in Ganges, along North End, Fernwood and Walker's Hook roads, and returning via Maliview and North End Road.
Summer riders will also see more frequent service to Fulford and Long Harbour, plus four express routes from the Visitor Information Centre to Fulford Harbour that will have limited pick-up and drop-off along Cusheon Lake Road.
The current Vesuvius route will be re-routed to include Mobrae Avenue.
Two new Salt Spring Island schedules will be printed: one for the May 3 to June 24 route, and another covering June 25 to September 1. They'll be available on buses and in retail outlets before the new schedules begin.
