It is a matter of choice, not a matter of voting.

The majority of people equate being able to vote with being or living in a democracy. They are wrong.

If it was merely a question of being able to vote in elections then China would be a democracy. After all the Chinese government regularly holds elections for elective office that citizens turn out in their millions to vote in. Yet most Canadians would not consider China to be a democracy.

Why? While Chinese citizens get to vote and are encouraged to vote, they are limited to casting their votes for candidates all of whom are from the Communist Party and approved by the Party. They cannot make a choice onthe policies, direction, priorities, practices or behaviours of their government.

Democracy is not defined or contingent upon voting; rather it is a matter of choice, the ability to use your vote to choose and/or have a say in the policies, direction, priorities, practices or behaviours of the government.

Since incorrect policies, direction, priorities, practices or behaviours by the government will give rise to negative, perhaps very negative, outcomes – citizens want to choose MLAs and a government that will pursue policies, direction, priorities, practices or behaviours that will bring about positive outcomes.

If, as in the current BC provincial election, only bad policies, direction, priorities, practices or behaviours are offered to choose among, without some way to reject the bad choices citizens are denied the ability to make a choice that will have positive outcomes.

In being denied the ability to choose policies, direction, priorities, practices or behaviours that will have positive outcome; citizens am denied the ability to choose.

It is the inability to choose, to vote for desired, policies, direction, priorities, practices or behaviours that makes the current provincial election an undemocratic election.

Indeed given the current state of elections in BC and throughout Canada, denying as they do citizens the ability to choose policies, direction, priorities, practices or behaviours they want their government(s) to pursue, Canada has ceased to be a democracy.

While Canada has not yet become as undemocratic as China, until we as a country adopt election legislation that presents citizens with a range of choices reflective of desirable policies, direction, priorities, practices or behaviours or enables citizens to reject all choices if they are considered unacceptable – elections will be undemocratic in nature and Canada will not be a democracy.

The judgement that emerges from a deliberate consideration of the choices being offered BC voters in our current BC provincial election is that this election is no more free and democratic than elections in China.

In China voters “choose” from among candidates presented to them from the Communist Party.

Our provincial BC politicians would undoubtedly claim that citizens can “choose” from among the candidates and various political parties.

The problem is what, as is the case in the current election, if none of the choices offered are acceptable?

This is exactly the situation that more and more citizens find themselves in at election time and either have no one to cast a ballot for or, if they want some kind of say, are forced to vote for the least objectionable.

If citizens are denied their right to vote because there is not a candidate who they want to choose to represent them or are forced to vote for the “least objectionable” choices then these citizens have been denied their right to vote for candidates of their choice.

Therefore it follows that the current election in BC is not occurring in a “free electoral system” and thus is not a democratic process.

This is the exact position I find myself in. No party or candidates are addressing the issues and priorities I deem most important. I also find myself with serious policy differences with the positions taken by the parties and their candidates.

In a democracy one would have the option of addressing this lack of acceptable choices among those being offered by choosing to run oneself. Indeed in the municipal election in November of 2008 I was able to exercise my Charter guaranteed right to seek office and thus raise issues.

In BC my right to seek office and be heard is denied me in violation of my Charter rights, a right acknowledged by Elections BC on their own website.

Livings in poverty I am prevented from participating and seeking office through the imposition of the $250 fee required in filing the appropriate documents and running in the election. There are tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of poor and those living in poverty who are in a similar situation and denied the right to run or be represented by peers through the agency of the filing fee.

My right to run is a Charter right and I could seek to have my rights recognized and enforced by the Supreme Court of Canada. All I would need is the money to hire effective legal representation. Of course if I had that kind of money I could afford the $250 and the point would be moot. Catch – 22.

Whether it is tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands or simply me – the current electoral system violates our/my Charter rights to seek election, to be represented by peers and/or to vote for candidates of ones choice.

Thus the current BC election is undemocratic in nature. Any results arising from this election can no more be called democratic or claimed to represent the will of the people than an election in a nation such as China can.

Further, since it violates the Charter rights of BC citizens, this election is illegal and any outcome tainted by that illegality.