British Columbia Moderate Democratic Movement

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The British Columbia Moderate Democratic Movement is a minor political party in the Province of British Columbia, Canada. Its current status is unclear:

• In 2004, it joined with the British Columbia Democratic Alliance, the Citizens Action Party and Link BC to form the British Columbia Democratic Coalition.
• This coalition merged with the Reform Party of British Columbia and All Nations Party of British Columbia on January 15, 2005 to form a new, centrist political party, Democratic Reform British Columbia.

Despite this, the BCMDM nominated two candidates in the 2005 BC election: James Solhiem won 123 votes (0.61% of the total) in the riding of Chililwack--Sumas, and David Michael Anderson won 235 votes (1.20% of the total) in Chilliwack--Kent.

The party's website has not been updated since mid-2004.

[edit] Platform

The BCMDM's platform is typical of those of many small parties without thorough policy platforms. The proposals tend to lack detail, and the platform fails to address many important issues facing the province at the time. For example, there is no mention in the platform First Nations land claims, drug problems especially endemic to Vancouver's east end, and relations with the federal government of Canada.

The platform proposes:

• Education
  • forgivable student loans to cover tuition fees for B.C. residents
  • increased funding for school boards
  • greater autonomy for school boards to create new programs, subject to provincial standards

• Healthcare
  • paying practitioners for "promotion of wellness rather than the treatment of disease"
  • creating regional treatment centres covering all stages of care from diagnosis to treatment

• Economics
  • a B.C. business development bank to assist the creation of new businesses
  • an "Idea Development Centre" to help entrepreneurs develop business plans and gain funding

• Governance
  • opposing the privatization of public assets, and returning already-privatized assets to public ownership
  • requiring all Members of the Legislative Assembly to attend monthly town hall meetings in their communities
  • increased transparency, including access to information measures making all government, Crown corporation and public-private partnership records open to public inspection
  • laws to hold public officials accountable for what the party called "fiscal mismanagement and misleading budgets"

• Justice
  • to "ensure violent offenders are removed from our streets"
  • increased use of restorative justice, halfway houses, and intense supervision for first-time non-violent offenders

• Forestry
  • ensuring raw logs were processed in the community in which they were produced
  • funding forest management to prevent and control wildfires
  • ending the "self-policing" of forestry companies

• Environment
  • maintaining the ban on bulk water exports
  • funding scientific research as the basis for all environmental decisions
  • increasing penalties for environmental violations, and putting funds raised directly into park maintenance and habitat protection
  • investing in pollution control research

• BC Hydro
  • "fairly priced electricity" through investment in new generating facilities for BC Hydro, to replace aging facilities nearing the end of their life

[edit] See also

• List of British Columbia political parties

[edit] External link

• Moderate Democratic Movement site