About

The Independent BC Initiative is comprised of a group of citizens committed to educating voters about the electoral process, with a focus on independent candidates for election as Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) across BC, in the next election. We are not a political party. Nor, are we associated with any political party. We exist simply to:

• educate voters about a ‘new way to vote’
• to help communities recruit an Independent Candidate to represent them
• to offer guidance to communities on running town hall meetings
• and to provide Independent Candidates with information about their MLA career.

Independent BC was founded because 50% of voters did not vote in the 2020 provincial election. That is over 1.5 million voters; people who lost faith in the democratic system because, in fact, it no longer was a democratic system. And, it no longer represented them.

Organization founder, Salvatore Vetro, is a genuine, authentic, kind and compassionate man, whose main interest is in serving humanity for freedom and justice. His most recent accomplishment was spearheading the David Eby Recall campaign over Bill 36.

Bill 36, the Health and Professions Act changes the very fabric of health care in BC, and yet very few people are even aware of it. The secretive legislation was not thoroughly debated, and was rushed through, being passed without any public consultation.

Premier Eby was one of the main people responsible for this disturbing, undemocratic action. The current NDP government invoked closure (shut down debate) on the Bill, and the main stream media was silent. Plus, no town hall meetings took place to inform the public of how the government was changing health care in BC.

Passage of Bill 36 happened just before Christmas, when people had other important matters on their minds.

The recall team distributed 80,000 pieces of information, over the course of 60 days, to the good folks of Vancouver Point Grey. Most them had never heard of Bill 36, nor did they know who David Eby was, even though he is actually their MLA, and represents them in Victoria.

Although the team didn’t obtain the required signatures for a successful recall, not all was lost. Very few have succeeded over the past 30 years, due to the onerous nature of the Recall and Initiative Acts of BC.

Salvatore had great success in 2011, when he partnered with Bill Vander Zalm to defeat the HST (Harmonized Sales Tax) plan.

Rick Dignard served as the lead coordinator in the David Eby Recall campaign, and was boots-on-the-ground for 60 straight days. Rick is a former VP member of the No STV BC Citizens Assembly on Electoral Reform, as well as a successful former director of the ‘Fight HST’ campaign.

Independent BC offers educational materials to people in all constituencies of BC, along with a template to help and encourage them, to look for a worthy candidate to represent them, and only them, in the BC Legislature. Independent representatives will have a free vote on all new laws, not restricted to voting as they are told how to vote by the party whip and leader.

They will be able to work collaboratively with all other independent MLA’s to come to consensus focused on what the VOTERS actually want. People no longer want to be held hostage by top-down governance, where politicians only meet with the public at election time, then, after the polls close, introduce all kinds of laws the public never heard of, nor supports.

Join us in this Grass Roots Initiative from the bottom up, as we spread the word about a “New Way to Vote….  Electing trusted persons in our communities to represent us as Independent MLA’s in the BC Legislature.  Building Collaborative Independent Voices for all 93 BC Ridings.