BC Politics - started May 10, 2015

I think it's too early to determine what impact the Alberta NDP government will have on the 2017 BC election.

NorthReport wrote:

The way Alberta was perceived outside of Alberta will now create opportunities for the NDP right across Canada like never before. Voters will be thinking my goodness if the right-wing Albertans can handle a NDP government then what can be so frightening about NDP governents in Canada or in their respective provinces. 

 

Five provinces and the Yukon have plenty of experience with NDP governments. They don't need to live vicariously through Alberta.

If you want a BC NDP victory next time then send money to the BC Conservatives.  The BC NDP has only won when it faced a divided right.  But that is true for almost every time the NDP has won in this country. Unfortunately it is highly unlikely that Rachel will face a divided right wing in her next election.

The BC NDP is a tightly controlled non-democratic party that refuses to let any new blood into its ruling cabal that is not subservient to the party elite.  Until that changes the right wing attacks on the party will resonate with too many voters. 

kropotkin1951 wrote:

Unfortunately it is highly unlikely that Rachel will face a divided right wing in her next election.

I strongly don't think that will happen, at least not for the next decade.  The PCs got 28% of the vote and the Wildrose 24% to the NDP 40%.  They only need small up ticks in support to win, while the NDP growth potential will hit a cap (if it hasn't already).  The right-wing is much stronger here than in any other province.  There is no need to "unite the right" - Conservative Albertans would be smart to keep two Conservative parties unless they want to repeat the increasing corruption that has come with the Conservative dynasties of the PCs and Social Credit in power for decades.

I agree with you on BC largely.  The absence of a Conservative party in BC only helps the BC Liberals (in name only).  

BC might be the one place where the Alberta upset won't have any effect. People here aren't scared of voting NDP, as the polls showed last election before the bottom fell out. The party is just timid and confused and keeps blowing their advantage in each election.

Notley ran such an excellent campaign that it overcame the wariness of Alberta voters to support the NDP. In BC, they've run such poor campaigns that it overcame the wariness of voters to re-elect the BCLiberals.

BC is the one place in Canada where the public perception of the party as an option actually runs ahead of their abilities. They don't need a PR boost. They need to get their shit together.

The Tyee had a piece about the differences between the BC NDP and the Alberta NDP.  One of the factoids thrown in is something to remember. Since 1941 the NDP/CCF has been either the official oppostion or the government. 

Send money to the BC Conservatives not the BC NDP since what they really need is a second right wing party running. That was the case in all three of its wins in the last 60+ years since becoming official oppostion.

wow our MLA Shirley Bond....she knows how to work her constituents.

and you think people are caring about this? why?

The CBC local news in BC this morning did not think the by elections were even worth mentioning. State media through and through.

Quote:

“My name is Melanie Mark and I am a proud Niska woman. I am so proud to be Nisga'a, Gitxsan, Cree, Ojibwe, French, and Scottish,” she announced in her victory speech. 

“And to now add to my identity, I am so proud to be your member of the legislative assembly."

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/bc-liberals-lose-a-...

I love this entrance into BC politics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rz2rpLs9cgM

quizzical wrote:

Quote:

B.C. Liberals lose a pair of by-elections to NDP

NDP candidate Jodie Wickens, executive director of the Autism Support Network, captured the previously Liberal-held seat of Coquitlam-Burke Mountain, taking about 46 per cent of the vote to 38 per cent for Liberal candidate Joan Isaacs.

Ms. Wickens called the by-election and its outcome a “starting point” for the 2017 election. “It’s a taste test for what the general population is looking for. They have spoken and we need to honour that.”

In Vancouver-Mount Pleasant, an NDP stronghold vacated when former long-time NDP MLA Jenny Kwan decided to enter federal politics, Melanie Mark became the first aboriginal woman to be elected to the legislative assembly with an easy victory over Liberal Gavin Dew. She won with 61 per cent of the vote or 5,353 votes to 994 or 11.3 per cent for Mr. Dew.

Besides Ms. Wickens and Ms. Isaacs, the other candidate in Coquitlam-Burke Mountain was Joe Keithley, former frontman for the Vancouver punk band DOA now working as a record-company executive. Mr. Keithley won 13.8 per cent of the vote or 1,061 votes.

...The other candidate in this by-election in Vancouver-Mount Pleasant was social advocate Pete Fry – the son of Liberal MP Hedy Fry – running for the BC Green Party. The Greens won 26 per cent of the vote, ranking second to the NDP.

Merely propaganda in lead up to the next election.

The NDP’s only shot at winning in BC: Embrace the NEW ECONOMY

quote:

Magic formula

That narrative is simple. It’s the only one they can win with and it’s so simple and powerful that if they pick it up, short of a Monica Lewinsky-level scandal, it will return them to government. This is it:

New Democrats, New Economy

Why is this the perfect slogan? It does everything the NDP needs it to. It promises an economic vision and jobs – the things people most want to hear. It contrasts them with the Liberals’ dowdy Old Economy – a shortsighted, failing vision based on fifty-year old ideas like big hydro dams and oil and gas.

It promises the single most popular and alluring of election outcomes – the very thing that brought Barack Obama, Justin Trudeau and many other usurpers to power: Change. Finally, it sets the stage for protecting the environment and the economy at the same time – the Holy Grail of Canadian politics today. I’m telling you, roll with this slogan, backed by a solid campaign, and you win.

quote:

Say “Yes” to good ideas

So, the flip-side of that coin is what you say “Yes” to. You say “Yes” to renewable energy. I don’t mean rip-off private power projects and old-school, destructive dams – rather our abundant geothermal potential, wind and solar.

You embrace a group like Iron & Earth – oil sands workers lining up to retool their skills for clean tech.

It’s no big leap for an unemployed gas pipeline welder from Fort St. John to weld wind turbine components instead, or for an oil sands electrician to wire up roof-top solar. We have the workforce – we just need to shift it from an old, shrinking economy, to a new, burgeoning one.

All around the world, except Canada, the leading industrial nations are getting it – investing tens of billions in renewable energy and reaping millions of new, green jobs. As our contributor Will Dubitsky recently noted, “according to the International Energy Agency, in 2015, an astounding 90% of all global electrical power capacity added was attributable to renewables.”  Translation: nine tenths of the market for new electricity in the world today is clean tech, not fossil fuels. Pipelines, oil sands and fracking are on the way out. Why stake your future on a losing, outmoded idea?

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