The people have spoken, and the government has heard. The forms are being improved. It wasn't so long ago that the first new forms were issued pursuant to the changes recently made to the Condominium Act, 1998. Amongst the first of them was a new proxy form. Complaints were instant. It was complicated, incorrectly formatted, and contained instructions that really only further confused issues relating to how it could be used. Well, the government has heard those complaints, and a new proxy form was recently issued that almost, but not entirely, corrects every problem. Here are the key changes:
Well, it ought to be, anyway. But, in fact, there are some situations that the proxy form doesn't appear to contemplate or help with.
One of those is where the proxy granter does not list a sufficient number of candidates to fill all of the positions available. A case could arise, for example, where there are two positions available for election, and the proxy granter fills in only one name on the form. Can the proxy holder vote however he or she likes for the second position? The way the proxy instructions are set out, the answer is a resounding 'no'. Unfortunately, this will not always render a fair result. For example, what if just one person had put her name forward to be a candidate in time for the notice of meeting to be sent out? Hers might be the only name that was available for the owner granting the proxy to insert in the form prior to the meeting. Then, presumably, at the meeting one or more people might step forward to be nominated from the floor. Because the proxy granter had filled in one name, the proxy holder would be disallowed from voting for any of the new candidates to fill the second available spot on the board. If a sufficient number of owners attend solely by proxy, this could render nominees from the floor unelectable. There really seems to be no good reason that the form could not have been drafted in a way that would allow a proxy holder to vote for both pre-selected candidates and candidates nominated from the floor in circumstances like those.
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