When we look at politics and politicians, it is important to understand that if you stripped away political parties and election positioning, most politicians have a lot more in common with each other than they differ.

I have friends who support the Liberals, NDP, Greens, and Conservatives and while we have different policies, there are many basic ones that we agree on. We all agree that we need a strong economy, a good education system, proper health care and that poverty and homelessness are bad.

We may have policy difference on what levels of services the government should provide, what level of taxation is needed and what things we should tax, what kind of balance between economic growth and environmental protection is best. However, our differences are rarely as big as they sound, until the policies get attached to a political party.

David Schreck is a typical BC-STV foe. Along with Bill Tieleman, he served in the Premier's office during Glen Clark's government. That government was marked by scandal and had been elected in 1996 with only 39% of the vote, receiving more seats that the BC Liberals while earning 40,000 less votes. If it had not been for our broken electoral system, he is well aware that the NDP probably would not have served back to back terms in the 1990s.

David's real fear is that smaller parties will get elected under BC-STV.

He doesn't want to see any competition from independents or the Green Party, and indicated that the current system seems to work. Although, if you read his other postings, he it strongly opposed to the unilateral actions of the current government. It is almost like he prefers bad government.

After running in two successful federal campaigns, I now get to focus all of my efforts on getting electoral reform in place in BC.

I have been brought on as an organizer for Fair Voting BC and am working with local groups around the province to organize in advance of a Referendum we are having next year. I took on a similar role during the last referendum, but this time around I am able to work around the clock on getting BC-STV through.

The momentum is picking up. We have campus groups forming at most of the major Universities. UVic, SFU, UBC, UFV and we're close to getting clubs going at the interior Universities. Our main facebook group already has 2000 users, and we have 100s of volunteers lined up to take on various tasks. A few weeks ago, we did a blitz alongside the municipal elections and we managed to get over 150 people out in 40 communities.

Going into the final weekend, the Green Party moved back into second place in BC according to Harris Decima.

http://www.harrisdecima.com/en/downloads/pdf/news_releases/101108E.pdf

The Conservatives are in first place with 40%. (Weighed by the interior and Fraser Valley Ridings.)

The Greens are in Second Place with 21% (Tied with the NDP)
The Liberals are in Fourth Place with 18%.

This could make the result real interesting, as a riding like Vancouver Quadra polls much higher than the rest of BC. In the by-election, we received 14% of the vote, however 65% of eligible voters did not vote.

This is my first general election campaign as a candidate and I am quite disturbed with the events that are unfolding around me. (Despite being ecstatic about the rise of the Green Party.)

The attack ads are getting ridiculous, the individual smears are getting too frequent, and what I call "Gotcha" politics is taking over the campaign.

So far, 4 candidates (one Green and 3 NDP) that I have worked with in the past have been forced to resign for various reasons, and another (A Conservative) just made the news tonight although he is still running.

Instead of talking about real issues, such as the environment or the economy, this campaign has been based on google searches and youtube videos from the past.