Of course, the aforementioned compromise (or the unions will whip your ass) proposal wasn't the only document circulated to the provincial New Democrat's executive council on Wednesday night. Also included in that package was a memo from party president Jeff Fox detailing a constituional amendment that will introduce a one member, one vote system for selecting party leaders. The following is a complete copy of that memo.

OMOV Proposal for Council, Convention

From: Jeff Fox, President

As you know, the Council has not amended the Constitution re OMOV as it was empowered to do by the 2003 Convention. Given the closeness of Convention, after consultation with others I believe that doing this at Convention, in tandem with affiliation, makes more sense, and that's what I'd like to propose for discussion tonight. The following resolution is a draft of how that could be done by Convention:

Whereas the June 2004 meeting of the Provincial Council endorsed the full implementation of "one member, one vote" for any leadership election to be held after January 1, 2006 and empowered the Executive to develop constitutional proposals to enable that process, pursuant to Article XIX of the Constitution, passed by the 2003 Convention;

and whereas the work of the OMOV Committee and the timing of and preparations for the provincial election delayed the process of Council amending the Constitution under Article XIX;

And whereas the Provincial Convention is to be held in approximately one month, in November 2005, and, notwithstanding Article XIX, the Convention is the most appropriate body to amend the Constitution;

and whereas the Council and Convention are also considering constitutional changes relating to affiliated organizations, also authorized as per Article XIX;

Therefore be it resolved that the Provincial Council recommend to the Provincial Convention, that Article 12.01 of the Constitution of the BC NDP be amended to read as follows:

"The Provincial Leader shall be elected through a ballot of all individual members of the party residing in BC who are in good standing 90 days prior to the date of the election of Leader. Appropriate regulations for the conduct of the election and of election balloting shall be developed from time to time by the Provincial Executive and all such regulations shall be placed before the Provincial Council for ratification.";

[currently reads: After 2003, the Provincial Leader shall be elected by all individual and affiliated members in good standing of the Provincial Party.]