The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
The Manitoba government is not backing down from policy forcing school divisions to use a ward voting system, the setup that prevented half of Flin Flon from voting for its current school board. In a memorandum reviewed at Tuesday's school board meeting, the trustees learned that the province feels it's too soon to alter the system, which was implemented last year. "...given how recent these changes are, the government believes that additional time and experience is needed to adequately assess the value of this different electoral arrangement," read the memo from the Manitoba Association of School Trustees. Trustee Angela Simpson said she was "disappointed" with that response and made a motion that the board send a letter to Minister of Education Ron Lemieux opposing mandatory use of the system. The motion passed unanimously. This will be the second letter speaking against the ward system the board has sent to Lemieux. The previous letter was sent late last year. Implemented by the province in the summer of 2002, the ward system forced all Manitoba municipalities to establish at least two wards for school board elections. In Flin Flon, voters in one of the two wards were denied the opportunity to vote and the candidates running in that district were acclaimed. The ward system mandated that four trustees join the board from Ward 2. With only four candidates running in that ward, an election was not required. Had one less candidate ran in Ward 1 (four people vied for three positions), the entire 2002-2006 school board would have been determined with no voter input. See 'Trustees' P.# Con't from P.# At previous board meetings, trustees have several times stated their opposition to the system, which was apparently designed with larger communities in mind. "All I could see was confusion with this whole situation in a community the size of Flin Flon," said Trustee Gordon Mitchell. "All (the system) did to us was confuse things and I didn't think it was appropriate at all. It's not necessary here." "I know there were an awful lot of angry electorates who felt they didn't have the opportunity to vote the best persons in," said Trustee Angela Simpson. "There were a number of comments, particularly from people in Ward 2, who realized they had lost the right to vote and didn't like it," said Chair Jim Wilson.
