BC Refederation Party

The BC Refederation Party (abbreviated BC Refed) was a provincial political party in British Columbia, Canada advocating for a direct democracy and reforms to Canadian federalism. It was formed shortly after the 2000 federal election as the Western Independence Party of British Columbia with an explicit western separatist platform; it later renamed itself the Western Refederation Party of British Columbia before adopting its final name.

British Columbian Refederation Party
Active provincial party
LeaderVacant
PresidentDale Marcell
Founded2000 (2000)
HeadquartersSurrey, British Columbia
IdeologyDirect democracy
ColoursYellow
Website
bcrefed.com (defunct)

After the name change, the party slightly changed its focus; it hoped to force changes to the way that British Columbia is governed within Canada. BC Refederation believed in the collective wisdom of the people of BC and believed that nothing initiated by the citizens should be restricted including being allowed a provincial referendum on political independence from Canada for British Columbia if desired by the public.

The BC Refederation Party argued that there are three constitutional flaws in Canada. The first, that there exists no confederation document approved democratically. The second, that there exists no democratically achieved constitutional documents federally or provincially and the third, that there is no constitutional basis for the federal government's rights to collect income tax.

2005 election

As the Western Refederation Party of British Columbia, RefedBC nominated four candidates in the 2005 provincial election, who won a total of 653 votes (0.039% of the popular vote across the province):

2009 election

In the 2009 provincial election the party ran a total of 22 candidates who managed to achieve 3,748 total votes.

2017 election and deregistration

It nominated three candidates in the 2017 provincial election, none of whom was elected.[1]

It did not nominate any candidates in the 2020 provincial election and is no longer registered as a political party.[2]

Leaders
  • John Twigg, 2007[3]
  • Mike Summers, 2008–2010
  • Ingrid Voigt, 2010–2011

Party program

The goals of the BC Refederation Party were contained in a three-step plan.

  1. Enact direct democracy to immediately empower the citizens of BC to control politicians and the political process.
  2. Create a citizen designed and ratified written constitution that will entrench the rights of citizens and clearly define the rights of citizens over government.
  3. Regain areas of former provincial control from the federal government. This combined with the application of direct democracy principles will amount to a re-federation. This does not mean separation.

See also

References
  1. "BC Liberals cut to minority with Greens holding balance of power", The Globe and Mail, 10 May 2017
  2. Elections BC List of Current Registered Political Parties, accessed 16 Nov 2020.
  3. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2012-06-12.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
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