Horgan, Weaver support electoral reform
VICTORIA (CP) — Those for and against changing British Columbia’s provincial voting system to a form proportional representation will soon have a say as residents begin receiving referendum ballots in their mail boxes.
Debate started to heat up Tuesday in the legislature, with the Opposition Liberals calling the vote a “sham,” but it was all cheers at an evening rally in support of the change side.
About 1,000 people attended a campaign-style event that featured speeches in favour of electoral reform by Green Leader Andrew Weaver and New Democrat Premier John Horgan. Horgan told the crowd he is a late convert to proportional representation, but having his ideas constantly dismissed because he was not part of government convinced him to support electoral reform.
Wilkinson says proportional referendum will make one party majority governments a rarity in B.C.
Ballots for the vote were placed in the mail this week and must be received by Elections BC by Nov. 30, with a result expected several weeks later.
Engine malfunction forces rescue of whale watchers
VANCOUVER (CP) — Dozens of people aboard a whale watching boat in the Georgia Strait off Vancouver needed to be rescued Tuesday.
Zoe Ward with Wild Whales Vancouver says 33 passengers were on board their vessel when the engine malfunctioned, setting off a call for help. Lt. Tony Wright from the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre says it received a mayday call from the vessel Jing Yu at about 11:45 a.m. Wright says the centre’s hovercraft and another ship were dispatched, but a BC Ferries vessel and Royal Canadian Navy patrol craft were first on the scene.
He says the Jing Yu’s operators managed to put an engine fire out and the hovercraft transferred the passengers back to shore.
No one was hurt, and Wright says Wild Whales Vancouver is sending out another boat to tow the damaged vessel back to Vancouver.
Ward says those onboard will be getting a refund.
Canadian troops, families take shelter in hotel after hurricane
OTTAWA (CP) — Thirty Canadian military members and their families were forced to evacuate their Florida homes and are now living in a hotel after a hurricane ripped through the U.S. air force base where they are stationed.
The ordeal began earlier this month when the Canadians were moved to Mississippi before Hurricane Michael slammed into Tyndall Air Force Base, where Canada has a small contingent of service personnel.
Tyndall is home to the U.S. headquarters of the North American Aerospace Defence Command, the joint Canadian-American early warning system that is charged with protecting the continent from airborne threats.
While the Canadians were able to escape injury, NORAD deputy commander Lt.-Gen. Chris Coates said the hurricane damaged much of the base – including the Canadians’ rented accommodations.
It also knocked out the base’s electricity, water and sewage and forced NORAD to shift some of its operations to an alternative site in Virginia, where the Canadians are working on a rotation. While the focus is on getting them back into their homes, Coates said some are too damaged and “interim” accommodations will found. Officials, meanwhile, are now assessing each families’ needs.