Andrew MacLeod, Today, TheTyee.ca
Craig James is acting as British Columbia's chief electoral officer while a legislative committee seeks a replacement for Harry Neufeld, whose term in the position ended in June. But this week staff at the independent, non-partisan body learned that James had made a major change to their organization. A "restructuring" has pushed out the second in command, deputy chief electoral officer Linda Johnson. "I was told the acting chief electoral officer is reorganizing Elections B.C. and my position as deputy chief electoral officer was eliminated," said Johnson, reached at home Thursday morning. She had been with Elections B.C. for 28 years, the last 19 of them as deputy CEO. Elections B.C. oversees provincial elections and referenda in the province, and in August, Elections B.C. certified the success of the petition to repeal the harmonized sales tax.The position is defined in the Elections Act and has all the same powers and authority as the CEO, with the exception of making regulations, said Johnson.
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DEMOCRACY FURTHER DELAYED
The committee that will decide what to do with an initiative petition to repeal the harmonized sales tax ended its first ever meeting Wednesday with a decision to invite the chief electoral officer to its next meeting. They set that meeting for Monday, Sept. 13. Better get the calendar out again -- the Liberal government appointed interim chief electoral officer Craig James is away at a conference and won't be back until Sept. 20. Elections B.C.'s spokesperson Don Main declined to say what the conference was about, but said it had something to do with James' volunteer work.
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