The Vision Vancouver mayoral nomination membership drive may be over. But it didn't come off without a hitch. On April 29, provincial New Democrat president Jeff Fox notified the civic association that many of his members were "concerned that BC NDP membership lists have either directly or indirectly found their way into the hands of the Vision campaign." The reason: a number of them have "called our office to advise that they have been contacted by phone by one of the candidate campaigns for Vision Vancouver." The letter doesn't name the campaign. But Mr. Fox goes onto to ask Vision Vancouver to "advise candidates and their campaigns that under no circumstances should they avail themselves of lists that are know to be or arising from current or past membership lists of the BC NDP." The following is a complete copy of that letter.

April 29, 2008

Vision Vancouver
Carolyn Askew, President
Mike Magee, President
PO Box 4635, Station Main,
Vancouver BC V6B 4A

Dear Carolyn and Mike,

Recently many of our members have called our office to advise that they have been contacted by phone by one of the candidate campaigns for Vision Vancouver. These calls have solicited support as well as a request for donations. The members were concerned that BC NDP membership lists have either directly or indirectly found their way into the hands of the Vision campaign. In one instance when a member asked how their name and number had been obtained, the caller offered up the explanation that the individual must be a member of the BC NDP. In another instance, a constituency executive discovered that every member of the constituency executive had been called, despite the fact that one of the newer members does not belong to any other like-minded organizations in the lower mainland.

As you can appreciate the issue of list-sharing and protection of privacy of our membership lists is of great concern to our members. To help alleviate some of this concern we would ask if Vision Vancouver could help with the following

* Notify candidates and their campaigns of the proper procedure for establishing list-share policies
* Advise candidates and their campaigns that under no circumstances should they avail themselves of lists that are know to be or arising from current or past membership lists of the BC NDP.

As you know the BC NDP has developed very specific policies with respect to list-sharing as outlined below:

Under no circumstances may constituency associations or federal riding associations provide member or supporter information directly to NDP members running for local office or to an organization that is not affiliated with the NDP. Members or constituency or riding associations providing such information directly would be in violation of party Policy and may unwittingly violate statutory provisions or regulations.

We believe that it is not helpful to either the Party or Vision Vancouver if BC NDP members that that the protcols that dictate the proper use and protection of membership lists are not being adhered to. Any assistance you could provide in helping to deliver this message would be most appreciated.

Sincerely,

Jeff Fox
President
BC NDP