Local canvassers for the Sensible BC campaign to decriminalize possession of marijuana have been pounding the pavement as the deadline to collect signatures looms.
As of Nov. 8, the local Sensible BC campaign had collected about 900 signatures from people in Merritt. There are 35 registered canvassers looking for people to sign the petition in the area.
As of Nov. 13, canvassers in Fraser-Nicola had collected about 1,000 signatures. According to Elections BC, there were 22,187 registered voters in Fraser-Nicola in May of this year.
The campaign hit a bump when many of the signatures were rejected by organizers before they could be submitted to Elections BC, head organizer for Fraser-Nicola Leo Bice said.
“A large portion of the numbers we did have weren’t actually eligible for Elections BC,” Bice said.
Some of the signatures belonged to people who are not registered voters, while others improperly filled out the information required on their forms, Bice said.
Many of the signatures gathered across the Fraser-Nicola riding had to be discarded as a result.
“It was quite disappointing,” Bice said, noting a few weeks ago organizers had counted about 700 signatures and afterwards came back with about 340.
Bice said most of the issues came from the Princeton area.
Bice said they need about 3,000 eligible signatures in Fraser-Nicola to meet the 10 per cent requirement.
Another issue they’ve had is not getting feedback from Sensible BC very quickly after signing up local canvassers, Bice said. Two Princeton-based canvassers are still waiting to hear back from head campaign organizers in Vancouver, three weeks after they sent their paperwork in.
The initiative in Merritt has been heavily focused on going door to door to get Merrittonians’ endorsements, but canvassers also had a table location set up outside Davis Leathers for a few weeks at the start, Sensible BC second contact for the Fraser-Nicola riding Ryan Chypyha said.
The Merritt canvassers have been going to every area of town to seek out signatures, Chypyha said.
“We’ve been all over the place,” Chypyha said, noting canvassers have manned a table at Centennials games as well.
Chypyha said the Sensible BC canvassers in Merritt represent a wide variety of people, noting canvassers range from people in their 20s and 30s to the elderly.
“It’s totally varied, and because this is kind of pointed toward the taxpayer – why are we spending all this money enforcing the current cannabis laws – it’s attracting a lot of people,” Chypyha said. “Doctors and teachers and respectable people in the community are signing this for that reason because it’s not like, ‘Oh, I just want to smoke pot,’ it’s a little bit more than that,” Chypyha said.
Chypyha also said the reaction to the petition from the people of Merritt has been quite positive and non-confrontational.
“In front of the hockey arena or anywhere that we’ve been, no one’s asked us to leave, no one’s really been confrontational or anything, it’s actually been really good,” Chypyha said.
He said canvassers go out each week seeking signatures.
If Sensible BC receives signatures from 10 per cent of the voting population in each riding it will trigger a referendum on decriminalizing marijuana possession in B.C.
Canvassers across B.C.’s 85 electoral districts must collect 400,000 signatures – representing 10 per cent of the voting population – by Dec. 5. Fraser-Nicola needs about 2,200 signatures to meet the provincial requirement.
The goal of the campaign is to get the province to hold a referendum and look Sensible BC creator Dana Larsen’s Sensible Policing Act.
