Liberal Leader Gordon Campbell is to be commended for his policy statements on changing the political system: fixed legislative calendars, free votes, fixed budget dates, a functional committee system, and open cabinet meetings. More importantly, he delivered his clearest statement to date that he will allow British Columbians a vote on how we elect our politicians.

"It's time we gave the people of B.C. the right to determine how they want to elect their MLAs," said Campbell to party faithful in Kelowna. " - within our first term in government an independent Citizens' Assembly will be - asked to review and publicly debate all the options for electoral reform - from the status quo to preferential ballots to proportional representation - if at the end of the day, the Assembly recommends changes to our electoral system, those changes will be put to the people, by way of referendum."

The commitment takes direct aim at what is clearly the greatest weakness of our political system: a voting scheme that regularly 'elects' governments with 40% or less of the popular vote.

It's high time the majority of citizens have some say in who governs them - especially when one considers the extreme concentration of power granted the victors after an election. Consent of the governed is at the heart democracy and democratic accountability.

Mr. Campbell's conversion didn't come overnight. The Electoral Change Coalition of B.C. (made up of every political party in BC save the Liberals and NDP) and FAIR Voting B.C. are two groups that have articulated the short-comings of our first-past-the-post voting system and presented alternatives to it.

Every other Commonwealth country in the world has either reformed or is well on its way to reforming its voting system. That Gordon Campbell has taken possession of this issue is visionary. Should he follow through, it would be nothing short of historic.

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The NDP government has introduced the Probate Fee Act to reconfirm the long-standing practice of imposing inheritance taxes in drag. First some background.

In October 1998 the Supreme of Canada deemed Ontario's probate fees unconstitutional on the grounds that government "fees" must bear some resemblance to the cost of a service or be treated as taxes and put to the legislature for passage.

As was the case in Ontario, the B.C. cabinet jacked up probate fees

considerably - 133% in March 1997 - without consent of the legislature. Probate fees are charged by the courts to confirm a deceased persons will. But since the fee is based on a percentage of the value of the estate and not the actual cost of confirming the will, probate fees are nothing less than inheritance taxes in disguise.

The Supreme Court's ruling has forced all jurisdictions to amend how they apply fees generally and probate fees specifically. The most sensible response to date has come from Yukon Territory which implemented a flat $140 fee for each estate probated regardless of its value.

But not B.C.

The new Act retroactively guarantees all past probate fees collected and allows the same in the future. It grants the government immunity from lawsuits and - because the probate fee is now legally a "tax" - overrides their much ballyhooed Tax and Consumer Rate Freeze Act. Another day, another broken promise. Par for the course from this bunch.