W
Index
News Editorial Letters Destination Steveston Youth Views Sports Classified
3 8 9 15 22 25 28
E
D
N
E
S
D
A
,
Y
M
A
1 5 ,
Y
2 0 1 3
Godzilla roars into town
Body found in river
Steveston was once again transformed into a movie set war zone, this time for the remake of original monster movie Godzilla.
The Coast Guard and police hauled a body out of the south arm of the Fraser River Monday night after it was spotted by a fishing crew.
7
3
$1888 $109 ROYAL FLUSH 604-273-1071 ONLY VALID AT
5651 No. 3 Rd, Richmond
www.carfixbc.ca
enter vacatio n contest ! ! YOUR
SOURCE
FOR
LOCAL
SPORTS
,
NEWS
,
W E AT H E R
AND
Scan page for video and more photos
VernonMakeItYours.com
Advanced polls up
PHOTOS BY JOHN CORREA/SPECIAL TO THE NEWS
Members of the ELD Party (Environment Learning Development), above, question a rival ‘party’ during Homma elementary’s mock election debate. Left, the Steveston Supremes party gets set to make its feelings heard.
Steveston ‘provincial parties’ battle
It’s slightly up, but maybe not as much as BC Election and Richmond’s 19 candidates may have hoped. Four years ago, seven per cent of registered voters in the city voted in advance of the provincial election. Before Tuesday’s election, that figure rose to nine per cent, with a total of 11,644 people casting their ballot ahead of time out of the 129,954 potential voters. The Richmond Centre riding enjoyed the biggest rise, with a 43 per cent spike. In 2009, the same riding suffered significantly from voter apathy, having the second lowest turnout in B.C.
Rapid rail, wind farms and tidal power topped agendas in Homma elementary’s mock election Monday As well as the ELD and SJP, on the ballot there were the CPS (Construction Party of Steveston), the DPS (Democratic Party of Steveston) and the SS (Steveston Supremes). Each had five candidates bidding for a seat and each party had researched their platforms and made pre-election promises, including: creating a surging economy through tourism; rapid transit rail from Steveston to Richmond city centre; cures for deadly diseases; jet fuel pipeline for and against; treating all citizens with respect and wind farms on Garry Point.
BY ALAN CAMPBELL
acampbell@richmond-news.com
With his finger pointing and voice raised, Jason Aginsky, of the Environment and Learning Development Party, tried to poke holes in the SJP’s platform to be elected to govern the province of Steveston. In a retaliation Christy Clark would have been proud of, Katie Snell, of the SJP (Steveston Justice Party), challenged the ELD’s masterplan to use revenue from underwater tidal power off Garry Point to fund a new hospital in Richmond. Such was the intensity of debate and depth of knowledge from each candidate, if you weren’t sitting in a Grade 6/7 classroom in Steveston’s Tomekichi Homma elementary, you could be forgiven for thinking you were in the Legislature’s public gallery in Victoria. In the run-up to yesterday’s B.C. election, the students in Michael Gilles’ split class formed five political parties for five imaginary ridings to lay claim a seat in the fictitious province of Steveston.
Richmond News coverage
For election stories about each of the Richmond ridings, head to www.richmond-news.com. and click the B.C. Election tab under News. To see maps, tweets and how the night unfolded, check our Live Election page, also under the online News tab.
Few got a free ride, however, and all parties’ fluffy pledges were tested and twisted during a fiery question and answer session, moderated by student teacher Brian Pantaleo and timed by Gilles. “Statistics show that students who study elections and politics will be lifelong voters themselves and will take the issues home and not be lethargic voters in later life,” said Gilles. “It’s incredible how they took on the roles and they’ve really done a lot of research and have a really good understanding of the issues.” The class also took part in the province-wide “Student Vote,” which runs parallel to the actual election and has all participating schools mark a mock ballot for the actual candidate in their riding.
Homma election results:
‘Province of Steveston’: The SJP (Steveston Justice Party). Actual riding of Richmond-Steveston: Scott Stewart (NDP) with a landslide 18 votes; Carol Day (BC Con) 8.
AUTO WEST BMW xPERIENCE SPRING EVENT
]261F P2V/TUPW4T .XLP2R. 12 X44 2TJM 0/TK1J2TU X2U UT31 "=Y.* 2013 BMW X3 xDrive28i Demo LEASE PAYMENT/mo
LEASE RATE
398 1.9
$
%*
*
INCLUDES 4-Year / 80,000 km NO-CHARGE SCHEDULED MAINTENANCE
48 Months
Auto West BMW 10780 Cambie Road, Richmond
604.273.2217
autowestbmw.com
O>TX.T /X-T. X/T -Q1.T 1SST/TU WF "=Y [P2X2VPX4 8T/LPVT. 124F 12 X00/1LTU V/TUP-I ;/PVT$ %A,M&,)IA&I =12-Q4F 4TX.T 0XF3T2- 1S %B&)I++M DI&# 4TX.TM A( 312-Q.M DCMEEE53GF/I _1J2 0XF3T2-$ %+M,EEI D.- 312-Q^. 4TX.T 0XF3T2-M S/TPRQ- ! ;_@ \%CMB&,ZM XU3P2P.-/X-P12 VQX/RT. X2U -XHT. TH-/XI 71-X4 4TX.T V1.-$ %BCMBEDI(&I 9T.PUNX4 LX4NT$ %CCM)CAI <SST/ P. .NW6TV- -1 XLXP4XWP4P-F X2U 3XF WT VX2VT44TU 1/ VQX2RTU JP-Q1N21-PVTI ]//1/. X2U 13P..P12. THVT0-TUI _T4PLT/F 3N.- WT -X5T2 WF ?N2T CM CEDBI 8-1V5 '$ ?BEDE) \BM,,E53ZI :N1-T '$ ,ADB&(BI _TX4T/ (DDBI