News release

Eight Burnaby residents join Assembly

Burnaby – British Columbia’s Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform brought its membership to 98 with the selection of eight new members Thursday night.

They are:

Their names were drawn at random at a public meeting in Burnaby.   An additional 60 members will be selected at meetings in the Lower Mainland, Victoria and the Sunshine Coast during November.  Selection began October 14th in Fort St. John, where the names of the first four Assembly members were drawn. 

Hurst, 69, is a fundraising assistant for Muscular Dystrophy Canada. Previously, she worked for a freight forwarding company and taught in Burnaby. She is married with three children and six grandchildren. Assim, 49, is a courier driver for DHL Canada. He is married with two children. Originally from Guyana, he has lived in Canada since 1974.

Mak is a 28 year-old chartered accountant, working for the British Columbia Ministry of Provincial Revenue. He is single and was born in Hong Kong. Drew, 72, is a daycare owner/operator. She has been married 50 years and has five children and two grandchildren.

Irimescu is a 20 year-old, third-year commerce student at the University of British Columbia, majoring in marketing and logistics. Henschel, 43, is an intern architect with a background in construction.

Todd, 44, is a construction sales manager. He is married with a three year-old daughter. McAskill is an office manager, treasurer for her church and active in the Girl Guides. She is 51, married and has two adult daughters.

The Citizens’ Assembly on Electoral Reform is an independent, non-partisan group of British Columbians randomly selected from communities around the province to review the way we elect our provincial political representatives.  This process is unique in Canadian history; never has such a representative group of citizens played such a vital role in shaping the electoral process. 

By November 25th, the Assembly will have 158 members from all over B.C. – one man and one woman from each of the 79 provincial electoral districts.  Beginning in January, the Assembly will spend much of 2004 examining electoral systems used around the world and will decide if they should propose a change to B.C.’s current system of translating votes into seats in the Legislature.

If Assembly members recommend a change, B.C. voters will decide in a referendum on May 17, 2005, the date of the next provincial election.  Any change approved by the voters would take effect with the 2009 B.C. election.