Leader vacant Founded 2000 (2000) Colours Yellow | President Dennis Shaw Ideology Direct Democracy | |
Headquarters Surrey, British Columbia | ||
The BC Refederation Party ("RefedBC") is a provincial political party in British Columbia, Canada advocating direct democracy and reform 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 as the Western Refederation Party of British Columbia before adopting its current name.
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The party has since slightly changed its focus; it now hopes to force changes to the way that British Columbia is governed within Canada. BC Refederation believes in the collective wisdom of the people of BC and believes 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 argues 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.
Leaders
Party program
The goals of the BC Refederation Party are contained in a three-step plan.
- Enact direct democracy to immediately empower the citizens of BC to control politicians and the political process.
- Create a citizen designed and ratified written constitution that will entrench the rights of citizens and clearly define the rights of citizens over government.
- 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.