News release

Citizens' Assembly grows to 34

Eight new members joined the Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform Tuesday night, bringing the total to 34 of the eventual 158.

Selected at a meeting in Kelowna were:

Nyen, 42, is in retail management, married with two sons, and is a big fan of the Kelowna Rockets. Keller is 44, in administration with a property management firm, and is married with one daughter.

MacDonnell is 26, and a child and youth worker with the Okanagan Boys and Girls Club. Womacks, 35, is a stay-at-home dad with two children.

Follestad is 33, self-employed, and has lived in Kelowna all his life. Gonsalves is 65, retired, and used to own her own garden centre.

MacDermott is a 51-year-old physiotherapist, a gardener and mother of two young adults. Stinson is 78, a retired RCMP officer who's into fly-fishing and skiing.

By Nov. 25, the Assembly will have 158 members from all over B.C. – one man and one woman from each of the 79 provincial electoral districts. The 158-member Assembly will spend much of 2004 examining electoral systems in use 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 the Assembly members recommend a change, it will be the subject of a referendum for all voters in the 2005 provincial election. Any change approved by the voters would take effect with the 2009 B.C. election.