We’ve Moved!

Know How They Vote has acquired a web domain! www.knowhowtheyvotens.com will now be the main web source for updates and information. I will keep this blog running for a few more weeks so that everybody knows about the change!

On The website you will notice many new features. There is now a petition being circulated online that we hope to present to the Legislature at its next sitting. This is being co-coordinated by the Atlantica Party of Nova Scotia. We also have a new page dedicated to facilitating YOUR involvement…letter writing, media awareness, etc.

Dal Gazette Article

The Dalhousie Gazette published an article about this campaign on Friday. You can read about it here

 

Black Friday: Twelve Votes at Third Reading go Unrecorded

October 30 was a dismal day for transparency in Nova Scotia.

After going through the Law Amendments Committee with no amendments, Bills 1, 2, 4, 6, 9, 10, 15, 16, 25, 27, 34, 40 all passed Third Reading. Not one of these final votes was recorded in Hansard. Citizens have no objective record of how their local MLA voted on any of these Bills.

The total number of unrecorded votes now sits at 39. That compares with 4 recorded votes, all of which were recorded for either political reasons or tradition.

It is quite obvious that MLAs simply don’t see, or don’t care, that unrecorded votes represent a loss of transparency for citizens. Nova Scotians from one end of the Province to the other must begin to educate their MLA by writing, phoning and e-mailing them on this issue. Know How They Vote has launched a communication campaign to help facilitate that.

Charlie Parker, Speaker of the Legislature has indicated that he intends to call the Committee on Assembly Matters in a “resonable period of time.” Let us make sure that we remind him to do so.