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Citizens' group to publish WV slate

WEST Vancouver's controversial Citizens for Good Government electors group says all but one of the long list of candidates running in this year's election have submitted to its private interview process.

WEST Vancouver's controversial Citizens for Good Government electors group says all but one of the long list of candidates running in this year's election have submitted to its private interview process.

The organization's dozen or so directors are finishing their closed-door meetings with the candidates running for the municipality's council and school board, and will soon be drawing up a list of their top picks to present it to the group's 300-to 400-strong membership prior to its Oct. 27 "endorsation" meeting. The vote taken at that event will form the WVCGG's official slate of preferred candidates.

Historically, the list has been a close predictor of the outcome of municipal elections in West Vancouver.

"We highly respect anyone who offers themselves for public office," said president Gene Quan. "We're here to provide a service to the community,"

It appears incumbent Coun. Michael Lewis, who publicly denounced the organization during the 2008 election and declined to seek its endorsement, is the only one of this year's candidates to refuse again to take part.

"The process I objected to and thought was undemocratic (three years ago) hasn't changed," he said in an interview Tuesday. "We're going to have behind-closeddoor interviews with questions that are not released to the public and answers that are not released to the public. . . . I think it breeds cynicism; I think it breeds apathy. I think it's part of the reason young people have this disdain for the political process."

But Quan insisted there is nothing nefarious about the process. The group, which has been around since the 1960s and has had formalized practices since the 1980s, has no hidden agenda, he said.

"We're non-issue and nonpartisan," he said. "We do not take a positions on whether you should (support) the revival of Ambleside, or (increased) density or (reduced) density. It's about the candidate, whether they are going to be good."

In fact, the organization has asked directors to step down in the past when it became clear they were pushing for the support of a particular party, he said. And if anything untoward were going on, the interviewees would have complained about it publicly, Quan argued.

The WVCGG does not have a standard list of questions to release, and it has opted, after some debate, not to post taped interviews online. But Quan said the 12 or so directors conducting the sessions tend to ask candidates things one might expect: Why they're running; what they expect the job to be like; whether they've read the community plan, and so on. The closed-door format allows them to answer candidly, he said.

"When you go for a job interview, you don't do it publicly," said Quan. "You do it in a quiet, relaxed place where you can speak freely."

Far from being undemocratic, the WVCGG is helping to combat low voter turnout by sparing citizens the need to sift through endless campaign material and events in making their choices, he argued.

Lewis rejected that line of reasoning, however.

"I don't believe the citizens of West Vancouver need anybody to do their homework for them," he said.

The WVCGG will be hosting an all-candidates meeting at West Vancouver's Kay Meek Centre Thursday at 7 p.m. The event will mark the last opportunity for residents of West Vancouver to sign up with the organization in time to cast a ballot in its endorsement process.

Voters across the province go to the polls Nov. 19.

jweldon@nsnews.com