While political parties never seem to stop campaigning, the writ officially dropped today. As an independent candidate, this means I can now start fundraising and issuing tax receipts—something parties can do all year round. The election funding rules aim to prevent influence peddling, but they’re so restrictive that I can’t donate more than around $1,400 to my own campaign. In contrast, parties receive millions in subsidies, have four years to collect donations, and can recoup half of their expenses from the previous election.

Currently, most services are exempt from Provincial Sales Tax (PST), but legal services are not. This means that any legal bill is subject to a 7% PST, effectively inflating the cost as if it were a new television. While this additional cost may be a minor concern for corporations and affluent clients, it represents a significant burden for the average client, particularly those already in financial distress.

With British Columbia facing an alarming $8.9 billion deficit, both the NDP and Conservatives are making irresponsible promises: cutting taxes while increasing spending. This is a recipe for endless deficits. Every time the government runs a deficit, it’s a debt that you, your children, and future generations will have to repay. While some deficits are unavoidable, slashing taxes without first cutting spending is reckless.

September 12, 2024 - "For Immediate Release" - Chilliwack, BC.

Experienced business and real estate lawyer, Dan Grice, entered the Chilliwack North election campaign as an independent candidate on Wednesday when his nomination papers were approved by Elections BC.
Mr. Grice, a parent of two children in Chilliwack schools, decided to enter the campaign in frustration over the NDP's plan to abolish the law society and its ongoing attack on professional independence.

As a parent of two children in the Chilliwack School District, the state of our education system is fundamentally important to me and my family. My spouse and I collectively hold five degrees, and we deeply value education at all levels. Our experience so far has been very positive—our children’s teachers regularly communicate with us about school events, and I have never felt that my children were being taught anything inappropriate for their age.

Going into this election campaign, there is still ongoing concerns about election interference. Even within our borders, we are faced with ongoing disinformation campaigns from domestic players that risk undermining confidence in our elections. While Elections BC has functioned as a professional and competent body, it's ability to deal with a serious threat or a major partisan misinformation campaign has ever been seriously tested.

In 2013, I co-authored a paper on online voting with Professor Schwartz. In it, we looked at various experiments in online voting and the risks and challenges to using them in Canadian elections. We found that in order to implement online voting, government would need to be able to convince voters that the system met the following democratic principles we expect in a voting system:

The thought of running in the provincial election did not cross my mind until this spring, when out of nowhere the NDP introduced and rammed through the Legal Professions Act, a horrible piece of legislation that will abolish the law society and confiscate $40,000,00 in assets including Vancouver law society building where the law society runs its legal training programs. While my local MLAs were generous enough to meet with me, it was clear that they had their marching orders and could do nothing to stop or even slow the process down.