Coquitlam home and business owners paying their property taxes at city hall on Tuesday were also given a slip of paper from a group of citizens calling for a civic byelection.
The leaflet, which was handed out by Coquitlam residents Steve Bailey and Wayne Taylor as well as Anmore's Fred Soofi - a previous Coquitlam council contender - asks residents to sign an online petition to urge Mayor Richard Stewart and the six current councillors to vote next week in favour of holding a byelection to replace councillors Linda Reimer and Selina Robinson.
Reimer and Robinson are on leaves of absence until July 8, when city council will decide whether to extend their leaves until Jan. 3, 2014 a date that would prevent voters from going to the polls.
In May, Reimer replaced Joe Trasolini as the BC Liberal MLA for Port Moody-Coquitlam while Robinson won the Coquitlam-Maillardville seat for the BC NDP that was held by Diane Thorne.
Council has already budgeted for a byelection; the city's election reserve stands at $639,000.
Speaking from city hall yesterday, Bailey said he and his team - which also handed out leaflets during the Canada Day celebrations at Town Centre Park - have received mixed reactions about a byelection: Half of those surveyed want replacements while others don't like the hefty bill.
"We feel it's the democratic right of people in Coquitlam to exercise their franchise and to have a full complement of councillors to do the work," Bailey said. "We've had two very hard-working councillors elected to provincial office and they need to be replaced so that citizens have full access to dialogue, to airing their concerns, to solving their problems with councillors."
Bailey, a chaplain at the Royal Canadian Legion in Coquitlam and at seniors' homes who has been part of activist campaigns in the past, said his "approach is social justice and democracy rather than any political agenda." As of Tuesday, his team had distributed about 350 flyers.
"Council has a decision to make and it will do what is in the best interest of the city," Mayor Richard Stewart said yesterday.
Further, Stewart said he'd like to use the "savings" of not holding a byelection and not replacing the two council seats to speed up the school safety traffic program, for example.
To sign the petition, visit change.org/en-CA/petitions/coquitlam-by-election-now.
