Dear Editor:
In your Oct. 19 North Shore News story, Citizens' Group to Publish WV Slate, you state that West Vancouver Citizens for Good Government claim that all but one of the candidates have submitted to its private interview process. You then go on to quote its president as saying "We highly respect anyone who offers themselves for public office."
If this were so, would you not expect them to correctly identify how many candidates are not submitting to their incamera interviews. As far as I am aware, at least two important council candidates are not playing their game - incumbent councillor Michael Lewis and past councillor and runner up in the 2008 West Vancouver mayoralty race, Vivian Vaughan.
I would also expect you, as responsible journalists, to check the facts before printing them and potentially affecting the election outcome. I trust that your sense of fair play will lead you to write an article clarifying who and who is not being interviewed by this group.
Mr. Quan claims that there is no hidden agenda, and it's about whether a candidate is going to be good.
"Going to be good?" This sounds like a rather subjective quality, if not somewhat precognitive. Last election, the group claimed they were looking for vision and synergy. Drug addicts have visions and a flock of sheep have great synergy, but I doubt that either of these two qualities make for good governance.
Mr. Quan also argues that they are helping to combat low voter turnout. What evidence does he have for this? One could just as easily claim that they are encouraging low voter turnout by discouraging people from trying to change what is a foregone conclusion. To compare their secret interviews of those running for public office to private job interviews is clearly unreasonable and does not serve the public good in any way. Why not trust the voting public to make up their own minds?
Apart from the secret interviews, the missing candidates, the vague criteria, and the dubious claims, the final result is completely undemocratic, since it is the votes of the 300 to 400 membership present at the meeting that make the final decision. Last election, mayoralty candidate John Clark walked out of the WVCGG meeting, before any results were announced, since there was a clearly partisan membership, based on the cheering for certain candidates when they appeared. All you have to do is pack the hall with your friends and supporters to get the WVCGG nod. No "vision." No "synergy." No "going to be good."
It is time that the provincial government changed the rules, and put an end to this undemocratic process.
Bill Vaughan West Vancouver
