December 4, 2000 Election News Over The Edge Page 7 Federal Election: Liberal’s Third Straight Majority Mandate By Lorenzo Sia | was working at the polling center at Lakewood Secondary as an election scrutineer. Being there to check for procedure and watch the ballots being dropped was interesting. | understood what it meant to be an elector voting for the member of our community to be responsible for govern- ment and its functions. From this experience, | watched the ballots being cast, the elec- tors being checked off, and the process of counting the ballots. 7:00 pm came and the doors to the entrance of the school and gym were sealed shut. The deputy returning officer began to our instructions to us regarding the process of counting ballots, how to check for ballots, and how two witnesses were required before validation of ballots can occur. 7:15 pm came and it was announced that the Liberals had won a majority UNBC Student Goes By Mel Bostrom Watching the unfolding drama of the Federal election Monday night, | was not sur- prised by who would be our next Prime Minister. All | wanted to know was really what happened in BC and more to set my mind at ease, what happened in the Lower Mainland. The results were sure to reveal a major change from the last Federal election, due to the forming of the Canadian Alliance. As | was watching BCTV, a name | knew was put up as being the winner. To my surprise a for- without even counting the ballots here. The Liberals have a majority government. They have 172 seats in the House of Commons, a clear majority over what they accomplished at the last federal election in 1997. Prime Minister Jean Chretien planned his strategy well by calling this early elec- tion. Seeing that the Progressive Conservative Party was disappearing from the political face of Canada, it was an auspicious time to call an election, three and a half years into the Liberal’s man- date. By securing 100 of the 103 seats of Ontario, plus a faltering Bloc Quebecois in Quebec, and Brian Tobin ral- lying support in the Maritimes, the Liberals swept through eastern and central Canada like a storm. The Canadian Reform- Conservative Alliance was able to win nearly all the seats of British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan, nearly half the seats of mer roommate, who | knew had a very keen interest in politics, had in fact run as a Canadian Alliance candidate. So let’s get the run down on who he is, James Moore - 24 years old - was until earlier this year a student at UNBC. He completed all the require- ments for a _ bachelor’s degree in Political Science, and has taken some courses that will go towards an UNBC master’s degree. During his time at UNBC, James was actively involved in university life, serving as President of the UNBC Political Science Students’ Association. In Manitoba, an d2 of 100 seats in Ontario. They won more seats than in 1997 as the fed- eral Reform Party of Canada. In the Lower Mainland, the Alliance picked up two addi- tional seats; in Richmond, Raymond Chan, Liberals lost to Joe Peschisolido, former Coquitlam Mayor Lou Sekora, Liberals and lost to former UNBC student James Moore. However, the Alliance is still far from becoming a national party. The Alliance has nearly twisted itself such that it changed its name and has tried to gain support to unite all conservatives. Its plan to unite the right never material- ized and in most cases, the loss of votes to the PCs lead to defeat of the Alliance in the Ontario riding. The alliance was not received so well in central and eastern Canada; it was still in some regards, a radical party with an unknown leader who was- nt as plausible as Jean Chretien. The Bloc, on the other hand, had its hands tied with the works of the Parti Quebecois, the governing political party of Quebec. Apparently, the Bloc was suffering form plat- form problems dealing with issues of sovereignty, eco- nomic woes and being out of touch with most Quebecois. The collapse of the PC vote in Quebec combined with the Alliance begin a ‘new’ party, and sovereignty being the least of issues, the vote was split between the Liberals and the Bloc Quebecois. The Progressive Conservatives maintain offi- cial party status with 12 seats in the House of Commons. there isn’t one place where the PCs did exceedingly well, although Joe Clark did win his seat in Calgary, right in the middle of Alliance territo- ry. And likewise, Alexa McDonough’s New Democratic Party won 13 seats federally, a significant drop form 1997. In British Columbia, the drop has been attributed to the provincial NDP and how British Columbians viewed their track record in the provincial government. Nelson Riis of Kamloops lost his seat to the Alliance. Many students have expressed their disgust with the results. The west has lost representation in the Liberals government, seeing that the only seats won by the Liberals in British Columbia were restricted to the cities of Victoria and Vancouver. The Liberals see this as a loss of representation for the west and a lack of under- standing of western provinces toward the Liberals. However, many westerners have viewed this as the Liberal Party and the Liberal government's inability to understand the needs of the western provinces. on to Bigger And Better addition to that and his course load, James worked for 550CKPG as host of his own talk show on political issues. Additionally, for a good old plug for OTE, James voiced some of his views through the paper. James ran in the Port Moody- Coquitlam-Port Coquitlam riding, beating incumbent Liberal MP Lou Sekora, with 28, 685 votes and 49.80 % of the vote compared to Sekora’s 16, 929 votes and 29.40% of the vote. At James’ homepage, he said, “Thank you very much for the honor you endowed to me on Monday, November 27th in electing me as your Member of Parliament. As the M.P. for Port Moody-Coquitlam-Port Coquitlam | promise to work hard on your behalf to make sure that our values, priorities and interests are represented in Ottawa and brought to the front of the agenda of the Parliament of Canada. | will fight for the best interests of Canada’s future generations to ensure that the country we create and mould will be stronger, more democratic and more prosperot's than it now is. It will be my honor to serve as your M.P. in Ottawa, and | will serve with respect and firmness to do all that | can for you, your future, and our country.” In addition, UNBC Political Science professor Dr. John Young says, “James has a passion, not only for politics, but for sound principles and he has a refined sense of the public good. James is excep- tionally able, and he will be an effective voice in Ottawa.” So congratulations to James and let’s all think of the cir- cumstances that can take us to better job.