Proposed sign-up limit divides B.C.'s New Democrats

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      Some New Democrats want to limit the number of people joining their party through “paper memberships”.

      Forward B.C. NDP, which formed after the party’s election loss on May 14, is proposing to restrict recruitment to 10 people a week per person. Organizer Sage Aaron told the Georgia Straight that this is in response to “questions around bulk sign-ups”.

      But the idea doesn’t sit well with some New Democrats of colour, because complaints about mass sign-ups are often raised when visible minorities turn up in large numbers to vote in leadership and nomination contests.

      An outraged Rey Umlas, a veteran NDP organizer, went as far as to suggest that the proposal is discriminatory.

      “They’re trying to muzzle the visible minorities,” Umlas told the Straight in a phone interview.

      A retired health-union representative, Umlas was the NDP government’s liaison to the Filipino community in the 1990s while Glen Clark was premier.

      According to Umlas, the proposal that the group wants taken up at the party’s fall convention is a “step backward”.

      “The pervasive problem that is with the party is that they think they are intellectually above anybody else,” Umlas fumed.

      Forward B.C. NDP’s Aaron denied that the measure is directed at minorities.

      “I don’t think that there is any desire whatsoever to create a barrier to any community that wants to participate,” Aaron told the Straight in a phone interview.

      She noted that “some problems” with mass sign-ups resulted in “real distractions” when the provincial party held its 2011 leadership contest.

      Interestingly, Aaron’s mother and long-time Surrey–Green Timbers MLA Sue Hammell was one of the key supporters of the winner of that race, Adrian Dix.

      At the time, then leadership contestants Harry Lali and Mike Farnworth complained about the mass ethnic sign-ups made by the Dix camp.

      Lali claimed that organizers from the Filipino and South Asian communities delivered loads of membership forms without attached fees, in violation of party rules.

      Aaron stressed that limiting paper sign-ups to 10 per person a week is only a “small change”.

      Her group is also suggesting online sign-ups with no limits. “By making these changes, we can make sure that nobody is vulnerable to any of these questions,” Aaron said.

      Meanwhile, Balwant Sanghera, a former chair of the B.C. NDP’s multicultural committee, believes that restricting paper sign-ups will limit the party’s growth.

      “As a party, we should reach out to all of the communities, including the Indo-Canadians, Chinese Canadians, Filipino Canadians, everybody,” Sanghera told the Straight in a phone interview.

      According to Sanghera, president of the Punjabi Language Education Association, parties usually attract huge numbers of new recruits during leadership contests because
      of the excitement generated by these races.

      Complaints about sign-ups are nothing new to the B.C. NDP. Wendy Bales filed one with party headquarters to no avail after she found out that 121 people were on the membership lists of both the NDP and the B.C. Liberal Party in Abbotsford-Mission.

      Bales, a director with the Fraser Valley Regional District, lost the B.C. NDP’s nomination to her South Asian rival Preet Rai. She ran as an independent in the last election.

      She has quit the New Democrats, telling the Straight in a phone interview, “I was so frustrated.”

      Comments

      11 Comments

      cathy

      Oct 2, 2013 at 1:17pm

      The NDP are over, finished.
      Fighting over how they sign up people is like "rearranging chairs on the Titanic".
      Who cares?

      Tim.

      Oct 2, 2013 at 1:19pm

      Trying to move the party to online sign-ups have nothing to do with reaching out to ethnic communities. What is has to do with is modernizing the party.

      Embracing technology is important if the BC NDP wants to win elections and I fully support this proposal.

      RUK

      Oct 2, 2013 at 2:12pm

      It's deeply hilarious that Umlas would admit that mass signups muzzle minorities.

      Because, you know, minorities - like me - we are incapable to joining anything of our own free will, having independently had an interest and a desire to research which, if any party, is the vehicle that best expresses our notions of good governance.

      No, we are like babies, we must have good nursemaids like Umlas to sign us up dozens or hundreds at a time, which is not at all suspicious or anything.

      Gee Umlas, you really let the cat out of the bag. (And that was wrong, because, as a minority, I was planning to eat that cat.)

      DocJ

      Oct 2, 2013 at 3:09pm

      I'm not sure either of these dudes has read the motion in question. Moving unlimited sign-ups online versus on paper? The horror! The outrage!

      Peter Bing

      Oct 2, 2013 at 4:44pm

      This motion has NDP MLA Sue Hammell's name written all over it. During last BC NDP leadership race she held her own nomination to avoid new members from being eligible to vote in her own nomination meeting due to the 90 day membership rule. Connect the dots.

      SPY vs SPY

      Oct 2, 2013 at 7:36pm

      Yah want to join a Canadian Political Party - you show in person and pay $100.00

      These mass sign ups are all about Political Manipulation and there should be no new memberships for 30 days before a leadership or candidate vote.

      Wendy Bales

      Oct 2, 2013 at 10:55pm

      Well gosh Carlito, I was frustrated sure leaves a lot up to interpretation, LOL. There were several issues that I was trying to deal with through NDP’s secretary, staff, executive and the table officers.

      Part of my frustration was that when I went door knocking to talk to members that I hadn’t signed up, there were people that didn’t know that they were members. So how do you join a party, sign under clause 4 on the form and not know that you are a member? I had asked that they cross check signatures from member’s forms along with ID to validate who people were just before the riding election. That would have shown whether they were valid as far as actually signing themselves up. That wasn’t done. Recruiting fraud was only one of several riding election issues that I was looking into. I asked to look in their files to check for multiple handwriting on several forms. That was not allowed or addressed either.

      Online voting could make fraud easy since you have about a year to sign people up with known election dates. People who know how the game is played can just send in 10 members forms every week for a year… since any member can recruit they can also multiply that by getting their friends to send in 10 forms a week. I have also heard there were massive 1 dollar memberships.

      At the riding election they allowed for any one member vouch for any other one member, so no proof of where you lived or who you were is necessary.

      That is just a start to many other issues that need to be addressed. If they want to revive some credibility they should make a fresh start with new people in the core group who are making the decisions.

      Jas

      Oct 3, 2013 at 9:47am

      The motion put forward by the group is meant to disenfranchise thousands upon thousands of people particularly from the ethnic community groups. Not everyone has the ability to sign up as members online for a variety of reasons, including but not limited to, a lack of a credit card, no access to a computer at home etc. There is something fishy going on here. I am a resident who resides in Surrey Green Timbers. I was super curious as to why in the middle of a the last BC NDP leadership race, the NDP MLA for that area decided to have her own nomination. It was simply to prevent new members like me, who care about the party to have a vote in her nomination process.

      RUK

      Oct 3, 2013 at 2:56pm

      Jas, when a spot check of members indicates that many have no idea that they were signed up, the motion to clean up the membership process is not only warranted, it is long overdue if the NDP intends to present itself as the clean governing alternative.

      If the review and the signup reform eliminates thousands of people, that's horrifying, but not because of review and the reform. It's horrifying that the NDP would have, in a lax and stupid way, permitted the rigging of its internal nomination process.

      As for the not having a computer issue, sure, paper signup = internet signup. I don't care about that mechanical aspect at all.

      The point is, there is a revolting odour emanating from this process and it is just one more thing to tidy up before the next election.

      Samanth K.

      Oct 3, 2013 at 3:38pm

      I agree. Do spot checks or check of every membership. But to prevent legitimate sign ups by recruiters who go door to door, thats not right. I like idea of online applications but not at expense of paper applications. Keep it all open without any limitations. It is up to party to verify and do spot checks or check of every membership.