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April 2, 2001 Getting the facts straight. At Reform’s Annual General Meeting in June 2000, over 96% of the members, including myself, authorized Chris Delaney and Bill Vander Zalm to enter into a process to unite five political parties to come together. They failed. Social Credit, Conservative and BC Party removed themselves from the process. That is the only time the party received 96%. On August 5, 2000, the Board was unanimous in not creating a 6th party. Despite the fact that the Presidents and Leaders of five parties did not reach a consensus, Mr. Delaney, without board approval, took it upon himself to send a mail-in ballot to approximately 3,000 party members. This was not a secret ballot; many felt vulnerable with some of the questions, particularly with religious issues and did not want to be recognized on where they publicly stood on that issue. Hence, did not return their ballot. Out of a return of 649 ballots, 444 (68%) voted yes. 154 ballots had no identity number. 51 members voted no to the merger. The other parties did not send out a ballot to their members. Mr. Delaney continued to push for Unity even after a resolution was passed by the Reform Board of Directors at the October 16, 2000 teleconference meeting to effectively suspend the process until after the next Provincial Election and move forward as Reform BC. Mr.Delaney did not attend this teleconference meeting; although while moose hunting, he was personally given the message that a meeting had been called by his own committee chairman, Terry Milne, to ask Reform to float a loan for Unity. He could have phoned in, but elected not to do so. The Unity convention held in Abbottsford in November 2000 was not a Reform meeting. Out of some 300 attendees, there were approximately 180 Reformers, 9 Social Credit and 2 conservatives. Approximately 90 supposedly Reformers voted against the religious and abortion issues, which would leave one to believe that 50%, not 96%, of Reformers in attendance supported the Unity movement. Since the Abbotsford convention, without consent from the members and without any further Reform board meetings, Reform's principal officers, Chris Delaney-President, Bill Vander Zalm-Leader, Bob Zayonc-Vice President, and Ross Mcquarrie-Treasurer, took it upon themselves to illegally use Reform’s Cloverdale and North Vancouver office, its membership lists, bank accounts, and material assets to benefit the Unity Party. Reform was formally informed by Elections BC on February 26, 2001 that it was being suspended for six months for overspending its expense limit in the Delta South by-election. Mr. Delaney, Mr. Vander Zalm and Mr. McQuarrie knew that the Bill Vander Zalm campaign had overspent when they met with Elections BC auditor on December 20, 2000. They were told then that the candidate had actually spent $58,275.36. It was then that Mr. McQuarrie moved the party election expenses from $13,573.39 to $28,079.57, still well below the limit of $37,080.17. All without approval from the Reform Board. The auditors set up a further meeting with Mr. Delaney and Mr. Vander Zalm for early January 2001. Reform filed suit with the BC Supreme Court against Mr. Robert A. Patterson, Chief Electoral Officer when he refused to disclose to Reform what was discussed at that January 2001 meeting that increased Reform to an overspending limit from $28,079.57 to $52,723.06. Is that why Mr. Delaney and Mr. Vander Zalm intended to deregister Reform? Is that why they shifted the overspending from the campaign to the party? The Principle Officers of Reform, without final approval from the membership, tried to force Reform into an alliance with Family Coalition, knowing full well that the process to unite five parties had failed? Why is Mr. Delaney going around the country telling people he has a membership of 5,000, which includes 3,000 Reform 1,000 Family Coalition some 200 Socreds and that "there is no Reform party in BC"? If you remove the majority of Reform from his equation, what you actually have is what Kathleen Toth is saying on her web site www.familyparty.bc.ca – "THE FAMILY COALITION PARTY HAS A NEW NAME!" – No mention of an amalgamation or discussion of Unity with any other party whatsoever. Reform may be suspended, or until the court says otherwise, but Reform BC is not dead. Since December 2000, the majority of the board has stayed with Reform. The decisions and so-called board meeting held on February 10, 2001 by the acting president Bob Zayonc where motions were passed to de-register Reform was illegal. They did not have a quorum. Since the resignation of Mr. Zayonc on March 4, 2001 the board has elected new principal officers. I have accepted to stand in as president, Grant Mitton from Peace River as vice president, along with our hard-working party secretary Shirley Abraham with the rest of the board until the next annual general meeting. Since my letter of March 26, 2001, we have received many responses of encouragement from our members along with some renewals. Donations are welcomed and greatly needed to help in our lawsuit against Elections BC. Unfortunately, until the suspension is lifted, we are unable to issue a tax receipt. If you have any questions regarding your membership or need information on what is happening in Reform, Barb Smith our Office Manager would be most happy to help you. Barb can be reached at Phone 604-929-8434 or Fax 604-929-8497. Reform BC has a great Foundation to build upon and has been constantly recognized in the polls by some 20% since March 1994. The one exception being during an election, where vote splitting with some has become an issue, and they end up holding their nose when they vote. This time will be different, as the Liberal Party is expected to win over 70 seats. Who will keep the Liberals’ feet to the fire? Who will hold a Liberal government accountable? The NDP? No, that is why we need Reform. Reform BC is not trying to form government. We realize that we need to elect a few Reformers to the Legislature first. By Elections BC denying Reform the opportunity to run candidates in this next election, democracy is denied, especially when allegations by Elections BC of wrongful doing by Reform BC are without substance. Questions to ask Mr. Delaney
Sincerely yours |