So from the shores of the Burrard Inlet I see one as being dead in the water while the other is flying under the radar with its stealth gear fully engaged. I am way more scared of the first strike bomber than a lame duck.
You've made a very eloquent and reasoned argument - I'm not arguing with you.
What is happening to Liberal cough, cough, Charest in Quebec is child's play compared to what is going to happen to BC Liberal Christy Clark in BC.
BCers though must be so tired of their nonsensical mainstream press when it comes to reporting on politics.
Kinda reminds me of the Toronto mainstream press and pollsters reporting on the Quebec election. 
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/1250314--christy-clark-expect...
A total of 13 Liberal MLAs have now announced they will not run in the next election, resigned, or left to join the provincial Conservatives. The rats are now leaving the sinking Cristy Clark ship. The departees include: Kevin Falcon, who lost to Clark by only a couple of percentage points in the Liberal leadership race and was Finance Minister; George Abbott, who finished third in the leadership race and was Education Minister; Barry Penner - Environment Minister; Mary McNeil - Children's Minister; and John Van Dongen - former Soliciter General who joined the Conservatives. She will now have a hard time running a government, let alone winning an election.
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Three+more+Liberals+announce+resignatio...
When Abbott suggested Clark could still win the next election because she is a good campaigner and communicator "NDP leader Adrian Dix said 'what British Columbia needs is a better government, not a better campaigner.' Dix said the Liberals had lost their way since the 2009 election, and that the government's principal legislative achievement remains the HST, which was withdrawn in the face of public pressure. 'The challenge for them is that, since the 2009 election, they haven't delivered on what people expected from them and they seem to be out of gas,' he said. Dix contrasted that with his team, which he said is united and strong. Clark's former rivals for the Liberal leadership have decided to leave politics, but Dix noted that his rivals - John Horgan and Mike Farnworth - plan to run again."
Three more Liberal MLAs announced plans to retire today bringing to the number of Liberals who will not run in the next election to 13. One of three was the Transport Minister Blair Lekstrom.This is in addition to 2 cabinet Ministers who resigned already (in addition to the ones identified in my last e-mail), leading to the loss of these Liberal ridings to the NDP and the defection of another Minister to the Conservatives, bringing the total number of present and future Liberal losses to 16. Most of these MLAs were cabinet ministers at some point during the Campbell and Clark administrations. While this is obviously partly due to the extremely poor polling numbers of the BC Liberals it also reflects on Christy Clark personally. It goes well beyond left-right issues.
While she is a good partisan campaigner and communicator with a megawatt smile, she is a dreadful administrator. It was not an accident, that despite her very high popularity during the Liberal leadership campaign, only one Liberal MLA supported her. She had already been a cabinet minister and made a mess of her portfolio, left to be a right-wing talk show host, and never seemed to be a team player. The one MLA supporter, Harry Bloy, was rewarded with a cabinet minister post but turned out to the worst joke imaginable. He could not even read written answers prepared for him with other ministers beside him to coach him. Clark has no sense of direction as she shifted positions with the political winds. She also has no teamwork skills, something I saw when I returned to university for a year 25 years ago at a time when she was running for university president. She lost by a few votes and then proceeded during the following year to paralyze the student government in legal rangles in attempt to overturn the election. Thus, those who actually worked with her in cabinet knew the potential for disaster that she represented and felt no loyalty to her because of her behaviour.
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/more+Liberal+MLAs+announce+plans+retire...
Vaughn Palmer commented on some her weaknesses in the following article about Kevin Falcon, her Finance Minister and her chief rival in the leadership campaign:
http://www.vancouversun.com/Opinion/Columnists/Palmer+Falcon+resignation...
"The Falcon campaign commissioned and circulated two opinion polls showing that Clark, because of her long-standing ties to the federal Liberal party, posed a threat to split the provincial governing coalition.
“Christy Clark is the candidate who poses the greatest risk to the coalition, and thus the future success of the party,” declared Ryan Beedie, Falcon’s key backer in the business community, in a missive leaked to the news media on the eve of the leadership vote. Falcon himself took aim at Clark’s other weak spot, the suspicion that she was only interested in the leadership and would likely reclaim her spot as a host on radio station CKNW if she didn’t win. ... When Clark defeated him 52 per cent to 48 per cent in the final balloting on Feb 26, her first task was to placate Falcon and his powerful supporters among the federal Conservatives and in the business community.
She rose to the occasion, appointing him deputy premier and minister of finance, putting him in charge of keeping the government on track to balance the budget within two years. Not much longer as it turned out. Wednesday (last week) Falcon announced that he was leaving the cabinet for the proverbial more time to spend with family and greener pastures (meaning “greenbacks”) in the private sector. ... But as a dedicated player of the political game, he knows as well as anyone how this action will be interpreted. He’s leaving party and premier in the direst straits, just 18 months after he vowed to stick with them win or lose.
Ironically, the one member of the government who can’t complain publicly about being left in the lurch is person who defeated Falcon for the leadership. For as Clark noted in a press conference that followed closely on the heels of his announcement, his departure bore a more than passing resemblance to her own exit from provincial politics eight years ago."
Evan Solomon: An open letter to B.C. Premier Christy Clark
Yeah, because Christy Clark is totally going to win back Reformatory types to the BC Liberals by having her ministers get paid not to sit in the legislature...
I think Clark may be headed for a real electoral disaster unless she is planning some kind of surprise next spring.
I think Clark may be headed for a real electoral disaster unless she is planning some kind of surprise next spring.
"You all get a car! Everyone gets a car!"
Oprah Clark perhaps? :P
As long as it's 'green'. 
Stockwell Day recognizes the disaster that Clark and the Liberals could be heading for.
"Stockwell Day says he realizes that 'people do not feel drawn' to B.C. Liberal premier Christy Clark.... In a statement his aide sent, the former head of the federal Canadian Alliance and leader of the Official Opposition in Parliament pointed out that he’s doing 'all I can to hopefully stave off a disaster'."
http://www.straight.com/article-775841/vancouver/stockwell-day-calls-uni...
Interesting and very telling comment on that article from "K Taylo":
"While its not great for the Liberals, and I'm a Liberal, having a right-wing party to absorb the wing nuts and social conservatives out of the BC Liberal party is a good thing. We'll have to scrub out the people who shriek "if you dont vote for us the NDP will get in" and start talking about real ideas again, and the BC Liberals can start standing for something other than being anti-union again. I am no fan of public sector unions (I think they should be illegal due to conflict of interest as their employer can be voted out) but this incessant picking fights with the unions by the hard right is counterproductive. Send them to the BC Conservatives and into the backwoods and grow the centrist true big L liberal part of the party again."
Pathetic but hardly surprising.
Lower Mainland folks please volunteer to do one poll each in Vancouver-Point Grey as the NDP can win here.
BC Fall Session Cancelled Because Politicians In Legislature Too Much
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/09/19/christy-clark-bc-fall-session_n_...
3177
Christy's Legacy:
BC Rail Scandal
HST mess
BC Liberal cabinet ministers bailing
Liberal MLAs bailing
BC's Finances
Outrageous severence packages for BC Liberals
What else could go wrong?
Having your Chief of Staff resign perhaps 
Is there anyone else left in the BC Liberal tent?
3276
A friend of mine on Twitter wrote:
Time to reset the counter. BC Politics: Resignation free for [0] days in a row.
I wonder exactly what he did to one of his staff?
British Columbia Premier Christy Clark has replaced her chief of staff Ken Boessenkool following investigation of "an incident of concern" that happened two weeks ago.
...
The letter did not provide details of the incident, and Clark said she could not release them due to privacy laws governing employers and employees, though she did say there's no suggestion of any criminal conduct.
http://thetyee.ca/Blogs/TheHook/BC-Politics/2012/09/24/BoessenkoolResigns/
Apparently it involved a female government staffer at a downtown bar. Hopefully she is unionized and hopefully her union will support her.
What is disturbing is that it appears the only reason Christy fired him is that Global TV were making queries about the incident, otherwise it was probably going to be hushed up and sweep under the carpet.
Now for the BC Liberals supporter Vancouver Sun to be expected pablum. How long the V Sun has known about it.
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/national/letters+from+Boessenkool/72963...
Strangely that was exactly my first thought. I hope she files a human rights complaint against him for sexual harassment and his boss Cristy for creating a poisoned atmosphere for women.
Apparently free enterprise politicians of both the Con and Lib varieties (or I should say variety) cannot allow a day to go by without making BC politics more interesting (just like the Chinese curse). After the Cons stole the spotlight on the weekend by having their star byelection candidate of only five months ago quit on Friday to join the Liberals after having called the Liberal party the party of "deceit, incompetence, and financial mismanagement", the only BC Conservative MLA (a former Liberal who quit over the privatization of BC Rail scandals) resigned to become an independent who says just might attend the next Liberal convention.
Thinking that the Liberals could not possibly top this, I took my eye off the political scene for just one day. However, I underestimated Christy Clark and the BC Liberals. For the very next day, Ken Boessenkool, Christy's chief of staff had to resign for what? Christy would not tell us -it was personal. That is, she kept it so personal the public knew nothing about it - until the media started asking questions. Then faster than the speed of light Christy fires Ken Boessenkool, who was brought in January as her third chief of staff in 18 months - since imitation is the greatest form of flattery, it must be that they were imitating Christy's great record of jumping in and out of government as quick as you can snap your fingers. As Ken makes clear in a letter written in January at the start of his too short term of office, he rode into wild frontier as the lone super-hero gunman from Alberta in order to save BC from the heathens at the gates of power: "There are few things more important to keeping western Canada strong, and therefore to keeping Canada on course, than keeping the NDP away from the reins of power in British Columbia. So when Premier Christy Clark recently asked me to play a bigger role in making sure her free enterprise coalition stays in power, I said yes." His role was to build a strong link between the federal Cons and the BC Liberals so that there would be a united front against the quickly multiplying heathens. Ken was perfectly placed for this as "a former high-powered lobbyist who straddled the dividing line between politics and government relations, a longstanding political ally of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, as well as a spritual mentor."
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/national/letters+from+Boessenkool/72963...
However, initially Christy took the slow, deliberate process of checking out every detail in order to be fair to everyone, or so she says. But, Christy shifted to warp speed when "late last week, Global TV, acting on a tip, approached the government directly about the allegation against Boessenkool — which involved a female government staffer and took place at a Victoria bar. The Liberals then knew that one news organization was pursuing the story and others might catch wind of it as well. Not much hope of keeping a lid on the incident and maybe avoiding the loss of a key member of the premier’s inner circle. As for the need to protect Boessenkool’s privacy, it was convenient for all concerned. However it strikes me that in the course of negotiating the release of the resignation letter, the premier ought to have insisted on the release of enough detail to contain the speculation about what happened. The rumour mill is working overtime in the capital. Eventually the details will come out, adding to the fallout from this episode."
http://www.vancouversun.com/Palmer+Premier+response+chief+staff+resignat...
I can't wait until tomorrow.
Is Clark in a position to be brought down by a confidence vote?
No BB.
Most BC Liberal MLAs that have announced they are not running in the next election are still sitting as BC LIberal MLAs until the May 14, 2013 fixed-date election. Several cabinet ministers have resigned their cabinet portfolios but not their seats.
And BB, the legislature is not sitting so there is no opportunity for a vote.
And Clark is right that she can't release information about staff - privacy. This works both ways, for both the employer and for employees.
I would hope that this employer is also concerned about the injury to dignity, feelings and self respect that this may have caused the victim of this assault and are in the process of signing a fair and equitable settlement for the human rights violation that this appears to be. The government took two weeks to investigate before firing him so there is definitely an substantive rights issue in play.
This man was effectively this persons top boss and therefore our government is responsible for his actions. He was the employer not just an employee.
The point being....
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/clark-questioned-ab...
For two weeks, Premier Christy Clark was aware of allegations of misconduct by her top political appointee involving a female subordinate. But Ms. Clark refused to explain Tuesday why her chief of staff Ken Boessenkool remained on the job until media inquiries about the incident led to his dismissal.
-------------
But the public was not informed of the firing until days after media inquiries were made about Mr. Boessenkool’s conduct – which allowed her government to enjoy a relatively good weekend on the political front, with the troubles of the rival BC Conservatives in the spotlight.
That secrecy only makes matters worse in the public’s eye, said marketing expert Lindsay Meredith, from Simon Fraser University’s Beedie School of Business.
“From a damage-control standpoint, the one thing that will get you in a lot of trouble is stonewalling,” he said. The BC Liberal government, in its third term of office, has been damaged by a number of instances, most recently with the surprise adoption of the harmonized sales tax, that have created suspicion that it has tried to hide bad news from the public. “It is one more nail in their coffin. It tends to feed the consumer perception that these guys are not coming clean with us,” Prof. Meredith said. “That kind of cumulative perception will kill a corporate brand, and it can kill a political brand.”
The BC Liberals have been trying to repair their brand since 2010, when the botched rollout of the HSTharmonized sales tax forced the resignation of then-premier Gordon Campbell. Mr. Boessenkool was brought into Ms. Clark’s office to help address the party’s continued problems, notably the loss of conservative supporters from their coalition party.
Premier Christy Clark's ex-Chief of Staff Ken Boessenkool says Conservatives' biggest victory?
Killing national child care threat!
If you want to know why BC Premier Christy Clark has a massive 30 point gender gap problem with women voters, take a look at this video clip of her ex-Chief of Staff Ken Boessenkool's argument that the Stephen Harper Conservative government's biggest victory was to kill a national child care program!
http://billtieleman.blogspot.ca/2012/09/premier-christy-clarks-ex-chief-...
well, it wasn't hard to "kill" because it hadn't even got off the ground with Liberal Martin govt, in it's dying gasp of power, finally put it forward as a hail mary pass. So pulling the plug was easy, no money had gone out and no infrastructure setup. They basically just had to rip up the policy.
$700??!!
Big spender, eh?
Christy announced $700 million in spending measures at the annual Union of BC Muncipalities meeting today, most of them of the we need more blacktop variety, the classic right-wing the-election-is coming kind. She obviously is hoping this will also take the resignation of her chief of staff scandal involving "inappropriate behaviour" with a female employee that Clark won't discuss, including the fact that she left the employee under the chief's charge for two weeks after the scandal was revealed and did nothing until some of the media got wind of it. She "plans to four-lane the Trans-Canada Highway from Kamloops to the Alberta border, start work on replacing the congested George Massey Tunnel south of Vancouver and speed up road, hospital and sewer projects throughout B.C. ...
Clark has been through a particularly rough period lately, losing her former chief of staff, Ken Boessenkool, who left his post after admitting to an act of unspecified inappropriate behaviour.
Clark has lost several veteran cabinet ministers to political retirement and her Liberals are trailing well behind the New Democrats in public opinion polls."
She also promised to ensure the Northern Gateway pipline will not be built unless environmental conerns are met. A true Liberal. Run to the left and rule to the right.
http://www.theprovince.com/news/politics+Premier+Christy+Clark+looks+ahe...
Good article by Vaughn Palmer comparing Adrian Dix's high road approach of refusing to engage in gutter politics with Clark's highly partisan attack dog approach and how this one (of the many reasons) Dix and the NDP are popular in BC while Clark has sunk like a boulder from her high popularity at the time she won the Liberal leadership and became Premier.
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Palmer+Adrian+sets+example+taking+high+...
The strong possibility of NDP victory in the 2013 election is attracting many excellent candidates to run for riding nominations, as in the Vancouver-Fairview riding where George Heyman defeated Geoff Meggs tonight by 221 to 161 votes. "Heyman said he will step down as executive director of the Sierra Club of B.C. to focus on beating Liberal incumbent, Health Minister Margaret MacDiarmid, next spring. ... Meggs said he would not seek a nomination in another riding and will get back to work at city council, something which may have affected his ability to knock on voters' doors during the campaign." (http://www.vancouversun.com/business/George+Heyman+wins+nomination+Vanco...)
Geoff Meggs is a Vancouver city coucillor who has been elected citywide in 2008 and 2011. He focused on "eliminating homelessness, creating affordable housing and expanding quality public transit". (http://vancouver.ca/your-government/geoff-meggs.aspx)
Mr. Heyman is the former president of the B.C. Government and Service Employees' Union and is now executive director of the Sierra Club of B.C. "George Heyman served as president of the B.C. Government and Service Employees' Union (BCGEU) for nine years - from June 1999 to June 2008. ... With a strong record on global warming issues, Heyman was instrumental in introducing a proactive approach to global warming while chair of the B.C. Federation of Labour's Climate Change Working Group (2006-2008).The union began and continues measures to reduce its carbon footprint and encourages members to take steps to deal with global warming through community-based projects such as promoting local food security. The BCGEU was the first union in B.C. to establish an environmental officer. Heyman is currently a member of the steering committee of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA-BC) Climate Justice Project, a multi-year research project to develop carbon reduction policies which ensure that societal and industrial transitions are equitable and just." (http://www.sierraclub.bc.ca/about/staff/george-heyman)
Vaughn Palmer: Even Enbridge buys a table at NDP fundraising event
The title of this article in the Vancouver Sun yesterday is both a source of satisfatisfaction and a possible cause for concern. It says that the business community, and even Enbridge, acknowledges that the NDP is the likley winner of the BC provincial election next May. It also says that they hope to shift the policies that are implemented by the NDP as much as possible for a social democratic party towards the centre-right.
"Navigating around the room at the big fundraiser for New Democratic Party leader Adrian Dix this week, reporters were immediately struck by the breadth of business interests that had put up the necessary $3,500 per table to attend. Movie makers. New car dealers. Bankers. Salmon farmers. Hoteliers. Trial lawyers. Pharmacists. Dairy farmers. Enbridge. ...
The NDP grossed something like $350,000 from all those paying customers. Sold out several weeks in advance, too, forcing the New Democrats to scramble to find enough room for late arrivals, including interested bystanders from the news media. Sure, the trade unions bought a bunch of tables too. Jim Sinclair and the leadership of the B.C. Federation of Labour were front and centre, keeping an eye on their guy.
The loudest applause was for his refreshing insistence that the province needs to put the “toxic politics” of polarization and personal attack behind it.... Too much emphasis on divisions among our parties are misleading to the public, Dix reckons. Example: He’d raise the income tax on big corporations to 12 per cent from the current 10. The most recent Liberal fiscal plan proposes taking it to 11 per cent. A difference debatable at the margins. But not the difference between free enterprise and socialism, as he put it. ...
Dix's “No. 1 priority” is to devote more resources and effort than the Liberals have done to higher education and skills training. That, in turn, can only proceed with greater cooperation from government, business and labour, Dix declared, a unity message that played well to those in the hall and got the second strongest response of the evening. While there’s significance, to be sure, in the receptiveness of the mostly business crowd, one also has to note that Dix’s outreach would appear to be playing well with his own supporters.
When Mike Harcourt tried to craft a pro-growth, business-friendly pitch in the late 1980s, he was denounced openly in significant quarters of the NDP. Carole James, for making similar overtures in the past decade, was disparaged, including by some of the same folks who are now marvelling at Dix’s shrewd political acumen.
How does he get away with his moderate message on taxes and growth when his predecessors could not? Probably because unlike centrists Harcourt and James, Dix hails from the left side of the party himself. Those who suspected the intentions of earlier leaders still feel that in his heart, Dix is one of them. Plus New Democrats, no less than business leaders, can read the opinion polls. Like all those who bought tables the other night, they know Dix stands a good chance of leading the party back to power. NDP supporters would need to have a death wish to rain on that parade."
http://www.vancouversun.com/opinion/columnists/Vaughn+Palmer+Even+Enbrid...
While I think Dix may provide a respectable left-wing government, he may find that he has to choose one side or the other once he gets elected in a polairzed province like BC and taxes may be the issue that determines which how far things change in the province.
I figured it was just a matter of time before Enbridge woke up and smelled the coffee.
I figured it was just a matter of time before Enbridge woke up and smelled the coffee.
And gave the BCNDP 3,500 to smell that coffee - now that is sooo ironic. 
While I think Dix may provide a respectable left-wing government, he may find that he has to choose one side or the other once he gets elected in a polairzed province like BC and taxes may be the issue that determines which how far things change in the province.
Couldn't you also argue that as the BC Liberals are proposing to raise corporate taxes, that it shows that the left is already winning the public debate and successfully framing the issues?
Crusty is hoping to run against Big Unions not on the record of the last decade they have been in power. One can only hope that none of the unions take the bait and go to war with her.
Crusty?
Or do you mean Krusty the Clown?
Not that there seems to be much difference these days, eh?
BC's Crusty spells her name with a C not a K. I was just trying to show her some respect. 
NDP leader Adrian Dix is outlining a cautious platform with regard to taxes for the upcoming May 2013 election. He has promised to not reinstate the tax on corporation capital, nor roll back most of the cuts in income and corporate taxes made by the Liberals, and "No surprises", such as the implementation of the HST by the Liberals two weeks after being elected and denying throughout the campaign that they would do that.
According to Vancouver Sun columnist Vaughn Palmer:
"His reading of the situation, while discouraging to the high expectations of some NDP supporters, is fully in keeping with the way the fight against the harmonized sales tax changed B.C. politics. The anti-HST campaign was in large measure a revolt against the Liberals, for what was widely interpreted as a post-electoral double cross. But it was also a tax revolt, a realization that may have escaped the public-sector unions and others who threw themselves into the campaign with short-sighted enthusiasm.
When Dix says the tax room "is not there any more," he's acknowledging a limited public appetite for higher taxes. When he promises "no surprises" on the taxation front, he's paying his respects to post-HST political reality here in B.C."
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/metro/Dixs+agenda+bows+postHST+reality/...
The BC Liberals response to freedom of information requests about Ken Boessenkool, former advisor to the Harper government brought to Victoria to strenthen ties between the federal Cons and provincial Libs, would make Harper proud. Boessenkool had to resign in September following a complaint relating to female staffer in a bar, but only two weeks after it came to the attention of Clark and only when she became aware that the media were on the trail of this issue. She promised a complete investigation by the Public Service Agency but refused to say more until the review was complete. However, when freedom of information requests were made by the media, the response was the ultimate in stonewalling, as outlined in the following article.
"All those events unfolded over the space of two weeks without anyone generating a single, solitary scrap of paper. Not even a memo that could have been redacted by the Liberals under the many options available to them in the access-to-information law, which is riddled with loopholes.
Incredible. Just incredible.
"Our review immediately began and that review followed the processes that are set out and laid down by B.C.'s Public Service Agency," she told reporters after the news broke on Sept. 24. "All of the procedures were absolutely followed."
Really? Agency procedures are posted in detail on the government website. The emphasis is on putting things in writing, particularly regarding matters serious enough to warrant a resignation, as did this one. Not much about the word-of-mouth option.
Clark again: "After the investigation was done and I was presented with all the facts, I had a decision to make and I made that decision."
After she was presented with the facts in a strictly oral briefing. No notes, interview transcripts or written recommendations.
And again: "I think an employer has a duty to gather the facts before letting someone go."
How many employers, confronted with these circumstances involving one of the senior officials in their organization, would neglect to put the key findings in writing, just in case either the complainant or the target of the complaint were to seek legal recourse?
Lastly: "Everything that was done, was done absolutely to the letter." Which is not to say that her government generated an actual letter, or, indeed even one written word that could be sought after the fact by a pesky journalist.
Amateurish and sneaky at the same time. But at least we now know how badly Clark wanted to keep people in the dark about her handling of the departure of one of the most powerful officials in her government."
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/metro/Handling+Boessenkool+resignation+...
How does he get away with his moderate message on taxes and growth when his predecessors could not? Probably because unlike centrists Harcourt and James, Dix hails from the left side of the party himself. Those who suspected the intentions of earlier leaders still feel that in his heart, Dix is one of them. Plus New Democrats, no less than business leaders, can read the opinion polls. Like all those who bought tables the other night, they know Dix stands a good chance of leading the party back to power. NDP supporters would need to have a death wish to rain on that parade."
I can see how Dix gets compared favourably to James by the left of the party, but how in blazes name does Dix manage to get compared favourably to Harcourt by the left of the party when he's is running on a platform well to the right of the Harcourt government? The BC Liberals have moved both the government, and the conversation about government, far to the right, and dix is refusing to yank it back more than a tiny fraction of the way to where it was when Harcourt was premier.
How does he get away with his moderate message on taxes and growth when his predecessors could not? Probably because unlike centrists Harcourt and James, Dix hails from the left side of the party himself. Those who suspected the intentions of earlier leaders still feel that in his heart, Dix is one of them. Plus New Democrats, no less than business leaders, can read the opinion polls. Like all those who bought tables the other night, they know Dix stands a good chance of leading the party back to power. NDP supporters would need to have a death wish to rain on that parade."I can see how Dix gets compared favourably to James by the left of the party, but how in blazes name does Dix manage to get compared favourably to Harcourt by the left of the party when he's is running on a platform well to the right of the Harcourt government? The BC Liberals have moved both the government, and the conversation about government, far to the right, and dix is refusing to yank it back more than a tiny fraction of the way to where it was when Harcourt was premier.
Especially considering that in Ontario Andrea Horwath is very popular because she suggested that the well-to-do need to start paying their fair share of taxes, in spite of how else she may have mishandled the budget negotiations with McGuinty.
It's more than just Dix not promising to undo the BC Liberals tax cuts. If Dix becomes premier and doesn't renationalize BC Rail, doesn't end the contracting out of cleaning food service jobs in health care, doesn't undo the BC Liberals tuition fee hikes, doesn't undo the BC Liberal's downsizing of the BC public sector ect., he'll run a government that is structurally well to the right of the Harcourt government on much more than just taxes.
It's more than just Dix not promising to undo the BC Liberals tax cuts. If Dix becomes premier and doesn't renationalize BC Rail, doesn't end the contracting out of cleaning food service jobs in health care, doesn't undo the BC Liberals tuition fee hikes, doesn't undo the BC Liberal's downsizing of the BC public sector ect., he'll run a government that is structurally well to the right of the Harcourt government on much more than just taxes.
And structurally right of many prior SoCred governments as well.
If Dix becomes premier and doesn't renationalize BC Rail, ...
No one ever renationalizes anything, so awake from that dream.
But that sparked a side question of historical interest:
[b]When was the last time a NDP government ever nationalized anything?[/b] Last thing I remember was Potash Corp (1975), though of course once that was privatized, future NDP governments were just pleased as punch with that and did nothing about it.
Anything since 1975? Reality checkers, please.
The sale of BC Rail needs a public inquiry that delivers its report about 3 months prior to the 2019 election.
What we do need is progressive labour legislation so that unions can organize without practically having both hands tied behind their backs, and constructive enforcement policies.
The best way way to keep a government in power is to provide decent job opportunities.
BC's most prolific nationalizer was WAC. He was a right wing, bible thumping, racist who understood the fact that public ownership was the only way to deliver necessary services. He also got the idea that high wages meant good times for medium sized small town business owners. The classic clip of him opening a new dam explains his popularity with unionized working people. He bragged not just about the number of construction workers employed but that they had the highest pay and benefits of any workers in North America.
Asking the NDP to run on a Socred platform would be asking them to move radically to the left. Not going to happen.
Mind you I would still not vote for WAC because he was a right wing, bible thumping, racist who raised a slime ball for a son.
What we do need is progressive labour legislation so that unions can organize without practically having both hands tied behind their backs, and constructive enforcement policies.
The best way way to keep a government in power is to provide decent job opportunities.
The NDP needs to rewrite the Employment Standards Act immediately in its first legislation and hire enforcement officers to enforce the rules. It also needs to fire the complete Labour Relations Board and have union side lawyers rewrite the Code to ensure workers have enhanced rights to join together in unions.
Those things will not cost a lot and will help the right people.
I guarantee that when the NDP gets to see not just the books but all the hidden details of the contracts for things like the Canada Line and the Port Mann Bridge and the fine print of the BC Ferries loan agreements with the US vulture funds it will be revealed that the province is not just broke but effectively indentured to Wall Street, Greek style. I hope that the brain trust has contingency plans that include the reality of the off book debts of the province. It is going to take more than a little tinkering at the edges of our tax regime to right the problems that will be found when the current corrupt regime falls.
i lived in Langley for five years. It is the Fraser Valley Bible Belt although it is changing somewhat as Greater Vancouver grows and is one of the most right-wing ridings in the province. When NDPers are enthusiastic about the possibility of winning in this previously overwhelmingly right-wing riding, you know things are going very well for the BC NDP.
On a financial forum I also peruse, someone proposed that Dix is going to be running for re-election from day one. Hence the "no sudden moves" platform. If he can win in 2013 and stay popular/uncontroversial until 2017, he gets to be a two-term premier *and* bolsters Mulcair's chances.
The BC Liberal-Christy Clark denial of reality machine keeps on rolling along.
The Conflict Commissioner of British Columbia, Paul Fraser, has stated that he has no problem investigating an allegation against Premier Christy Clark, even though his son, John Paul Fraser, has been a friend of the Premier for more than 20 years. Furthermore, the Commissioner does not believe that he is in any conflict of interest because of the fact that John Paul is working as a senior official within Cristy Clark's government. The Commissioner also sees no conflict of interest even though his son worked for Clark's husband, Mark Marrissen, a senior strategist for the federal Liberals and organizer of the 1993 federal Liberal election campaign, at his government relations firm, Burrard Communications.
Although the Commissioner admits "that 'there will be people who will connect the dots in their own way,' but said he is confident there is no personal conflict. ...
Independent MLA John van Dongen publicly revealed he has asked Conflict Commissioner Fraser to determine if Clark broke the Member’s Conflict of Interest Act in 2003 by participating in cabinet meetings where the sale of BC Rail was being discussed."
An email from the Premier's office reasurred everyone that everything is fine with the comment "John Paul has and will be kept out of any discussion involving the investigation.”
http://www.leaderpost.com/news/Commissioner+denies+conflict+pursuing+Pre...
