News release

Coast residents join Assembly

Sechelt – British Columbia’s Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform swelled its ranks with the selection of two new members Saturday.

They are Anne Whitelaw Dykes and Rick Dignard, both from Roberts Creek and the provincial electoral district of Powell River – Sunshine Coast.

Their names were drawn at random at a public meeting in Sechelt.  An additional 44 members will be selected at meetings in the Lower Mainland during November. Selection began October 14th in Fort St. John, where the names of the first four Assembly members were drawn. 

Whitelaw Dykes, 46, is an administrator/sales representative, currently working for a local newspaper. Originally from Ontario, she worked for 13 years in the United Kingdom. She is married. Dignard, 37, is a shipwright, married, with two children. He enjoys the outdoors, woodworking and most sports.

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.