USOFF TSAO: If recall campaigns gets used as a means for people to over turn an election, then it may be the beginning of the end for our democratic system

The following commentary references a story this morning (December 29th) from CBC News:  

Why this Independent MLA wants to make it easier for MLAs to be ousted by voters 

Amelia Boultbee’s private member's bill seeks to lower the threshold for a successful recall...

To be fair, there needs to be a careful line drawn between voters who are unhappy with a MLA's genuine work, and voters whose choice for MLA lost, and who won't accept that the majority of voters didn't vote the same way they did. 

I've changed my opinions on recalls. It was one of the first things I asked Chief Election Officer Ms Campbell at the Thompson Nicola Regional District (TNRD) as I signed the paperwork as an election candidate; what are the processes of a recall if residents don't find me accountable so I can tell voters during election I am about accountability. I was told for the local order of government, there aren't any legislated recall processes and remember being disappointed.

But if recall campaigns gets used as a means for people to over turn an election after a victor has been decided, then it may be the beginning of the end for our democratic system.

When I lived and worked in China before 2008 (global financial crisis) and folks there looked up to those in the west, a supplier asked me over a meal "why do you think democracy works in the west?". 

I don't remember why, but my answer came out automatically to me; "It works because everyone agreed to play by the same set of rules". 

I gave examples where when Al Gore, George W Bush, Joe Lieberman, Sara Palin, John McCain, and others ran for an office and lost, and then  graciously accepted defeat and did not spend the next four years trying to undermine the victor of the election. 

I compared that to some democracies in Asia where people bicker constantly over politics more than governance. Where stunts like banana throwing and personal attacks on peers happen in the democratic governance system that never accepts defeat, and spends the next term trying to sink the ship that didn't let them be the captain of.

It seems that in the years that have followed, major western democracies are seeing people who no longer agree to the set of rules. 

If you lose, it doesn't mean you lost, it just means you keep fighting, and fighting, and fighting. And the victor no longer spends their time governing, but trying to fend off political attacks until the next election ... all to the detriment of the country.

One of the things I realized as we close in at the end of our BC local government term in office is that in politics there are no written rules; or very few of them. It is only as civil as the politicians choose to take it. 

Be "too civil" and you may get trampled and forever sidelined. Don't be civil and you create a political arms race where whoever can play the best games to out maneuver others gets to dictate other people's reputation and resources for their communities. 

The rules are written by us and we need to be very careful how some of us choose to rewrite them.

My hope is that MLA recalls don't become weaponized by people who lose an election, and then use it to deny residents of proper governance time by someone who won an election -- according to the rules we all agreed on.

Usoff Tsao is a Director for the Thompson Nicola Regional District (TNRD).  He represent Electoral Area "A" (Wells Gray Country