It’s turning into a no good, very bad day, week, month and year for Liberals in BC!
First of all last week’s crashing and burning of Team Trudeau's candidate in Burnaby South
Now, for the second week in a row, it appears that Team Trudeau’s replacement candidate in Burnaby South former BC Liberal Deputy Speaker Richard Lee could be in serious trouble in connection with the bombshell report released today By BC Speaker Darryl Plecas
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But perhaps the most damaging news for Team Trudeau is the following article published in the news today
How Trudeau is helping Canada’s right fluorish
https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2019/01/22/Trudeau-Radical-Right-Flourish/
But perhaps the most damaging news for Team Trudeau is the following article published in the news today
How Trudeau is helping Canada’s Radical Right Flourish
Progressive talk and broken promises have already created a dangerous coupling
- Us Away
Tyee supporters blast past the goal we sought. Way past.
Fast forward eight years later. Flickering TV sets in millions of homes across the country light up expressions of dread as a mixture of melancholy and disbelief sets in. Surging on a platform of border walls and bigotry, Donald Trump has won the 2016 election, supported by 47 per cent of U.S. voters.
What happened between 2008 and 2016 in the United States? The answer to that puzzle is something of a holy grail. But Canadians need to take that puzzle seriously, too.
That’s because right now, Canada possesses a few of the same characteristics present in the U.S. during those eight years — a charismatic leader prone to betrayal, complacent centrism, and a resurgent right. And we should be worried about how those things will interact.
Trudeau has a record of broken promises. From the voting system, to climate policies, inequality, health care and trade deals, his commitments to reform in a wide variety of areas simply did not materialize.
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The resentment towards the Liberals’ callous attitude is palpable. A recent poll found that 35 per cent of the respondents approved of Trudeau, compared with 63 per cent in his first month in office.
There’s reason to believe that the mismatch between Trudeau’s progressive aura and his curiously elitist attitude as prime minister isn’t a coincidence.
A 2018 study suggested that many male politicians adopted socially liberal policies for purely practical reasons, like appealing to progressive voters.
The Liberals’ strategy is deeply problematic. Trudeau can fill his cabinet with as many women from the government and economic elite as he wishes. But if Canada’s underlying economic inequities are not resolved, the gender pay gap will continue unabated.
By choosing style over substance, Trudeau has simply left Canada’s underlying economic problems untouched. And Canadians are suffering the consequences of Trudeau’s failure to address Canada’s income inequality and stagnating wages.
Canada’s right is both growing and radicalizing. Figures like Jordan Petersonhave ascended to pop-star status, and there’s also been a surge of support for far-right extremist groups.
Doug Ford’s win in Ontario showed how the reactionary backlash can enter the mainstream, and Maxime Bernier’s new People’s Party of Canada — fed upwith “Trudeau’s extreme multiculturalism and cult of diversity” — shows the right-wing turn is also a federal phenomenon.
Trudeau’s government and the far right’s renaissance have coincided strikingly closely. But that’s probably no accident. This isn’t the first time that the far right has flourished under a centrist government with a penchant for betrayal.
At first, Barack Obama’s own slogans of hope and change promised a dramatic shift in America’s political status quo. Yet multibillion-dollar bailoutsand mass surveillance programs shattered that initial euphoria. For decades, the Democratic Party had retreated from working class concerns, and Obama was no exception.
As the disillusionment with Obama’s presidency grew, unknown political forces emerged from the shadows — alt-right leaders like Steve Bannon, or a billionaire turned sardonic presidential candidate. With Trump’s victory in 2016, the far right breached into the mainstream.
Trump was never a candidate with preponderant working class backing. But his ability to win reach key Rust Belt counties, as well as voter apathy, enabled his win.
------------
Trudeau’s failure to implement change will also have consequences. Voters initially enticed by Trudeau’s 2015 promise to tackle Canada’s socioeconomic divisions may now justifiably look elsewhere for change.
And since the Liberals have now associated socially liberal values with broken promises and elitist opacity, any cause with a progressive ethos may be regarded with deep suspicion.
In Betraying Canada’s Left Voters, Justin Mimics His Dad
Granted, it’s improbable that a Trump-like figure will appear in Canada, and that kind of hysterical prophecy isn’t what is being pondered here.
Rather, Trudeau has set the stage for the anti-immigrant, anti-progressive and pro-business right to infiltrate the mainstream and turn politics to the right. That process is already underway.
Conservative leader Andrew Scheer seems quite comfortable with personalities associated with Rebel Media, while his advocacy of tax cuts for corporations certainly will not empower Canada’s have-nots. Scheer’s penchant for mockery, coupled with his socially conservative stance and personal convictions, indicates he is taking his cues from the new American right.
For those of us who hope for a more equitable and just society in Canada, that’s a problem. In the wake of disappointment, the forces of reaction are emerging from the shadows. ![[Tyee]](https://thetyee.ca/ui/img/ico_fishie.png)
aEhttps://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2019/01/22/Trudeau-Radical-Right-Flourish/
[/quote]
...and Team Trudeau and Team Scheer are now tied for first place:
Nanos:
January 22, 2019
Liberal: 37%
Conservative: 36%
NDP: 14%
Green: 7%
BQ: 3%
People’s: 2%
http://www.nanos.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Political-Package-2019-01-18-FR.pdf
Thanks for making my point!
Do you really think a twit like Andrew Scheer would be polling so high if it weren’t for Justin Trudeau’s doublespeak?
...and Team Trudeau and Team Scheer are now tied for first place:
Nanos:
January 22, 2019
Liberal: 37%
Conservative: 36%
NDP: 14%
Green: 7%
BQ: 3%
People’s: 2%
http://www.nanos.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Political-Package-2019-01-18-FR.pdf
Thanks for making my point!
Do you really think a twit like Andrew Scheer would be polling so high if it weren’t for Justin Trudeau’s doublespeak?
...what explains Team Singh’s polling numbers?
Racism but polls are basically meaningless as everyone knows until perhaps a month away from the vote.
BCers can already start smelling the stench!
Perhaps we also need to have a look at Team Trudeau's Burnaby South candidate Lee's expenses while he was Deputy Speaker from 2015 to 2017.
Plecas report ruffles feathers of well-aged partisan chickens
The Plecas report, with its damning findings, only covers the past 18 months or so. A more appropriate time span would go back to September 2011, the start of Craig James’ tenure as the B.C. Liberal-backed clerk of the legislature.
As Speaker Darryl Plecas tells it, he was in his early weeks on the job when he first heard an accusation that the clerk of the legislature Craig James was biased toward the B.C. Liberals.
Perhaps as unsettling as the accusation itself to the former B.C. Liberal MLA was the source — Sergeant-at-Arms Gary Lenz.
“Mr. Lenz expressed the view that Mr. James was not impartial and that he was in fact very close with the B.C. Liberal party,” wrote Plecas in a report released this week.
“Before I became Speaker, that was not something that I had heard before, so I determined to reserve judgment on that subject.”
Plecas became Speaker on Sept. 8, 2017, after accepting an overture from the NDP minority government before he had served a term as Liberal MLA.
One standout aspect of the passage quoted above was the identity of accused and accuser.
Both James and Lenz have now been placed on administrative leave as a result of accusations assembled by Plecas and relayed to police. James and Lenz have retained joint legal counsel and denied any wrongdoing. They repeated the denials in response to the Plecas report, promising to go into greater detail later.
Though Plecas had not heard the accusation of partisan bias against James before the exchange with Lenz in November 2017, he goes on to say in his report that he did hear it again later in the course of his investigation of the two.
“Multiple witnesses have informed the Speaker of their view that Mr. James was aligned with the B.C. Liberals,” he writes, “with some suggesting that Mr. James’ unexpected appointment as clerk of the house was connected to his doing a job for the government as acting chief electoral officer.”
The latter is a reference to an unusual train of events in the imbroglio over the Harmonized Sales Tax.
https://vancouversun.com/opinion/columnists/vaughn-palmer-plecas-report-...
Not a good day, week month or year to be called Andrew Wilkinson
This Speaker's report is turning out to be quite the Christy Clark legacy
5 Damning Quotes About Top BC Liberals from the House Speaker’s Allegations of Misconduct Report
https://pressprogress.ca/5-damning-quotes-about-top-bc-liberals-from-the...
UPDATED FOR 2019 - The BC Liberal decade of dirty money: A timeline
A "decade of dirty money". That’s what an explosive new report is calling British Columbia's years under BC Liberal rule.
According to Peter German's report, the BC Liberals allowed millions upon millions in dirty money from illegal activity to be laundered through BC casinos on their watch. This money powered the fentanyl epidemic and contributed to the housing affordability crisis — and, as we learned over the last few weeks — it happened largely because regulators refused to act and chose to look the other way.
Not once. Not twice. But time and time and time again.
So what happened when — and who knew what? We’ve done our best to break it down for you, going all the way back to 2002.
It all begins when the new BC Liberal government restructures how gaming is regulated.
2002: The BC Liberal government passes a new Gaming Control Act, creating a new regulator called the Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch.
2004: The BC Liberal government and the RCMP create the Integrated Illegal Gaming Enforcement team (also known as IIGET) with a mandate to investigate crimes surrounding “common gaming” houses, animal fighting, and bookmaking. It falls under the purview of Solicitor General Rich Coleman.
December 2007: The Integrated Illegal Gaming Enforcement Team prepares a report on its future; warning that high-level illegal gambling targets would conduct their operations with "impunity" if the unit were disbanded.
November 2008: Reporter Sean Holman reveals that the BC Liberal party accepted more than $250,000 in donations from private bingo hall and community gaming centre interests between 2002 and 2007. This is despite an internal BC Liberal party bylaw banning donations from gaming.
Note: By the end of 2017 when corporate donations are banned, the BC Liberals accepted more than $500,000 in political donations from gaming companies.
An independent regulator raises the alarm on money laundering — and is swiftly eliminated.
January 2009: IIGET prepares a “Threat Assessment” report warning that BC casinos are extremely vulnerable to money laundering. They ask for an expanded role including BC casinos.
April 2009: Then-Housing Minister Rich Coleman eliminates funding for IIGET, disbanding the unit. He suggests the unit was not cost-effective and had failed to produce a business plan. Journalist Sean Holman later publishes a leaked copy of IIGET’s business plan.
October 2009: IIGET’s former commander Fred Pinnock speaks to journalists, stating that his team should have been expanded, not shut down. He comments “I'm not sure how motivated the provincial government was to have high-profile enforcement of illegal gaming in the province."
"I know what he said, and I don't agree with him."
January 2011: Inspector Barry Baxter from the RCMP’s Integrated Proceeds of Crime Section speaks to media about suspicions of dirty money in BC casinos and “sophisticated money-laundering activities by organized crime.”
He highlights a period of three months in 2010 where employees at 2 lower mainland casinos reported a combined total of $8 million in 90 large cash transactions, an average of one a day.
Rich Coleman criticizes Insp. Baxter, saying “Yeah, I know what he said, and I don’t agree with him, neither do all the superiors of his in the RCMP.”
August 2011: Following a request by Solicitor General Rich Coleman, the BC Office of Civil Forfeiture prepares a report on money laundering at BC casinos. The report recommends that BC Gaming update its approach to tackling money laundering.
November 2012: The head of the Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch identifies 543 suspicious transactions, totalling $39.5M between 2010 and 2011. According to the German report, most occurred at Richmond’s River Rock Casino.
March 2013: Over email, the investigator leading gaming enforcement warns that money laundering is taking place at BC casinos. He suggests that illegal sources are supplying loan sharks with dirty money, who are then supplying gamblers.
Less than a year later, Finance Minister Mike de Jong fires the investigator. No other action is taken.
Confidential reports link money laundering with terror finance, drug trade.
July 2015: The money-laundering crisis reaches historic levels with one casino accepting $13.5 million in twenty-dollar bills in a single month.
Later that month, the BC Lottery Corp sends the ‘Section 86’ report to the BC Gaming Enforcement Branch (an arm of the BC Ministry of Finance). It details the discovery of a massive underground banking network allowing organized crime to use illegal money transfer businesses in Richmond to lend cash to gamblers for chips at the River Rock Casino.
The 600 account holders in the underground banking network include known drug dealers in Mexico and Peru, and terrorist financiers in Iran.
July 2016: The BC Liberal government receives a report from accounting firm MNP LLP recommending changes to anti-money laundering practices.
They fail to implement the recommendations and withhold the report from the public.
Meanwhile, big donations continue rolling in.
May 2017: Rich Coleman accepts a $390 donation from Gateway Casinos to his personal re-election campaign. One year later in July 2018, he will tell CKNW’s Lynda Steele that he never accepted donations from gaming.
September 28, 2017: BC NDP Attorney General David Eby hires Peter German to investigate money laundering at BC casinos.
October 4, 2017: The ‘Section 86’ report is leaked to the Vancouver Sun. Mike de Jong refuses to comment.
October 19, 2017: Andrew Wilkinson cashes a cheque for $5,000 from Gateway Casinos for his leadership campaign. Other BC Liberal leadership contenders receive another $20,000.
The German Report is released, and denials begin.
June 27, 2018: Peter German releases his report, confirming the prevalence of money laundering in BC casinos. His report suggests that money laundering impacts both the fast-growing fentanyl crisis and affordability in BC’s real estate market.
German highlights the BC Liberal decision to disband IIGET as making matters worse.
Former BC Liberal cabinet ministers go into hiding. Instead, Andrew Wilkinson puts forward new MLA Jas Johal. He fails to accept any responsibility and blames the RCMP.
The RCMP issues a statement correcting the record, saying “At times, government is briefed on sensitive information concerning police investigations that cannot be released. However, it was the decision of government to disband [the] Integrated Illegal Gaming Enforcement Team (IIGET).”
June 28, 2018: Speaking to the CBC, BC Liberal leader Andrew Wilkinson refuses to accept responsibility, saying that asking politicians to do so is a “sad exercise.”
July 3, 2018: Former BC Liberal Attorney General Suzanne Anton (2013-2017) is asked by a CBC reporter whether her government’s response to money laundering took too long. She agrees, saying “That's correct. And it was slow.”
July 5, 2018: Calling into the Lynda Steele show on CKNW, Rich Coleman finally speaks to the issue. He calls the suggestion that his government did little to staunch money laundering ‘a load of garbage’. Like Johal and Wilkinson, he blames the RCMP for disbanding IIGET.
When asked if he’d act sooner knowing what he does now, replies "I think it's difficult to say you would do anything differently."
July 10, 2018:In an explosive interview with Global BC, former IIGET commander Fred Pinnock lays into the BC Liberals for their complicity in allowing money laundering to flourish in BC casinos.
“Fault lies at the feet of the BC Liberals while they were in government...They all knew what was going on in those casinos and racetracks. Primarily casinos, in particular, the big ones. It was wild west in those large casinos where organized criminal activity was running amok. It was no secret to government. At all.” - Fred Pinnock
Investigations continue, and the BC Liberals keep avoiding answering questions
Fall 2018:A sprawling, three-part investigation by Global News estimates that fentanyl drug traffickers laundered between 1 and 6 billion in metro Vancouver’s white-hot housing market, between 2012 and 2016.
“Fentanyl killed so many Canadians last year that it caused the average life expectancy in B.C. to drop for the first time in decades. But for crime kingpins, it has become a source of such astonishing wealth that it has disrupted the Vancouver-area real estate market.” - ‘Fentanyl: Making a Killing’
Meanwhile, Andrew Wilkinson and the BC Liberals refuse to waive cabinet confidentiality that would allow RCMP investigators access to records of high-level government discussions around what they knew about the money laundering at BC casinos, and when.
Did we say millions? We meant billions.
January 2019: A new freedom of information request from the CBC reveals that the estimated "$100 million" laundered through BC casinos is at least $700 million — and potentially as high as 1 billion in dirty money.
"The numbers would have exceeded $1 billion for sure in suspicious currency transactions. It was a staggering amount of money." - Joe Schalk, former senior director of investigations with the Gaming Policy Enforcement Branch
Years later, the alarm keeps ringing — and the BC Liberals still won't say anything about it.
There's still so much we don't know — and what British Columbians deserve to know.
John Horgan and the BC NDP are committed to ending dirty money and holding people accountable.
https://www.bcndp.ca/latest/updated-2019-bc-liberal-decade-dirty-money-t...
BC Liberals played major role in boosting career of BC Legislature Clerk Craig James
Horgan: B.C. Liberals to blame for legislature scandal
https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/2019/01/24/horgan-blames-bc-liberals-...
Pledge to amend B.C. freedom of information laws as spending scandal unfolds
Attorney General Eby to be asked about whistleblower protections
But Horgan rejected Wilkinson’s calls for non-partisanship after the latter’s November attacks on Plecas, who left the Liberal caucus and sat as an independent MLA before becoming speaker.
Wilkinson had slammed Plecas at the time for “building his own little empire” and running rogue investigations into two senior legislative officers.
“There's a grave concern that the speaker is out of control. We need to be concerned that he's building his own little empire, staffed with expensive lawyers, with investigators with no credentials, and he's being allowed to get away with it,” Wilkinson said.
Horgan said it was Plecas’ independence that allowed the allegations against James and Lenz to come forward.
“The independence of the Speaker’s office may well be the best thing that’s happened in the last 18 months,” Horgan said.
Questions still remain about the spending habits of Deputy Speaker Linda Reid, Plecas’ predecessor.
She has been accused by a former assistant of silencing concerns that she improperly filed meal and transportation expense claims. Reid said on Wednesday the assistant never raised concerns. The accusations are outlined in Plecas’ report, which notes James attempted to suppress an investigation into the expense claims, fearing that “we will wear it all,” should it come out. Reid said she “didn’t know” what James could have meant by that.
Some of Reid’s spending habits as speaker were scrutinized publicly. For instance, in 2013, she paid back a $5,500 expense claim for her husband to travel with her to a business conference in Africa – but only after it was revealed by media. She also cancelled a $16,200 annual travel bill to have her campaign manager-turned-assistant remain in Richmond, only after it became publicly known.
Expenses on an MLA snack lounge – the so-called Muffingate scandal - and security upgrades to her constituency office also came under fire.
Reid said she was likely the “most transparent Speaker” in B.C. history, having brought previously closed-door legislature committee meetings into the public realm. But she conceded little changed under her watch to bring any checks and balances and oversight of the clerk’s personal spending – which was approved by the committee only via broader legislature budgets.
https://www.burnabynow.com/pledge-to-amend-b-c-freedom-of-information-la...
‘BC Legislature probe could become the largest political scandal in Canadian history’
It pays to never judge a book by its cover I assumed because he originally was a Liberal that anything Plecas says or does needed to be taken with a very large grain of salt. Imagine my surprise to discover that he is a very principled person who was prepared to commit much time and effort to rooting out the right-wing rot at the BC Legislature It looks like rather than the buffoon the Liberals have tried to make him out to be, Plecas now will probably go down as one of the heroes in BC political history
Plecas used to be a B.C. Social Credit buffoon but he may have mentally matured with age. I would be very cautious about saying anything one way or the other about him.
Plecas the leader of a new political or the BC Conservatives?
Plecas the leader of a new political or the BC Conservatives?
Oh, my mistake. Is Daryl Robert's son?
Plecas the leader of a new political or the BC Conservatives?
Oh, my mistake. Is Daryl Robert's son?
Probably about a half dozen years difference between them, so no.
Plecas used to be a B.C. Social Credit buffoon but he may have mentally matured with age. I would be very cautious about saying anything one way or the other about him.
He got elected in 2013 as a BC Liberal after spending thirty years as a Criminology Professor. Please fact check yourself before posting.
Plecas used to be a B.C. Social Credit buffoon but he may have mentally matured with age. I would be very cautious about saying anything one way or the other about him.
He got elected in 2013 as a BC Liberal after spending thirty years as a Criminology Professor. Please fact check yourself before posting.
interesting factoid thanks.
Liberals don't know when to quit.
Every time Liberals have tried to discredit Plecas it is comes back to bite the Liberals in the ass, because Plecas is cut from a different kind of cloth from the Campbells, the Clarks, and the Wilkinsons. Who knew!!!
Could the Conservatives overtake the Liberals in next week's Nanaimo by-election?
If B.C. Liberals lose Nanaimo by-election, some veteran MLAs should consider resigning
by Charlie Smith on January 26th, 2019 at 9:38 AM
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- Mike de Jong (left) and Rich Coleman have been fixtures in the B.C. legislature since the mid 1990s.
If there's one MLA that mobilizes the social-media crowd against the B.C. Liberals, it's former deputy premier Rich Coleman.
POLL
Should former deputy premier Rich Coleman retire from provincial politics?
Yes
No
Related Stories
- Dirty Money report effectively gores Coleman and de Jong, ICBC report did in Stone, so what's next for Wilkinson?
- Watch the NDP government rely on Vision Vancouver tactics to destroy the B.C. Liberal brand
- B.C. Liberals played major role in boosting the career of legislature clerk Craig James
- B.C. Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson looks foolish in wake of legislature spending scandal
- Darryl Plecas report on legislature expenses turns spotlight on assistant deputy speaker Linda Reid
First elected in 1996, Coleman has been a mainstay on the B.C. Liberal side of the house for more than 20 years.
When the B.C. Liberals were in government, he oversaw some highly controversial files in cabinet, including housing, casino gambling, liquor distribution, and liquefied natural gas.
Coleman has also been a top B.C. Liberal fundraiser, interacting with some of the province's richest residents on behalf of his party.
Last year, however, Coleman came under severe criticism from the NDP in the wake of the Dirty Money report, which focused on the extent of money laundering in B.C. casinos.
And this week, Premier John Horgan linked Coleman to the appointment of the now suspended clerk of the legislature, Craig James.
At a news conference in Prince George, Horgan said that James received his lifetime position "at the whim of Rich Coleman", who was then B.C. Liberal house leader.
Horgan called this "absolutely unprecedented". And he emphasized that a bipartisan committee should have sought applications and made a recommendation to the legislature.
Premier John Horgan has blamed former deputy premier Rich Coleman for the hiring of Craig James as clerk of the legislature.
B.C. Liberals tarred with legislature scandal
A recently released bombshell report by Speaker Darryl Plecas has led to a media firestorm about James's management of the legislative assembly and the oversight of expense claims.
The report chronicles employee terminations without cause, lavish trips abroad, and payouts in lieu of vacation time not taken.
Plecas also linked the lack of James's vacation time to work that he performed for the World Bank.
None of the allegations have been tested in court.
James and the sergeant-at-arms, Gary Lenz, were placed on paid administrative leave in November. Both have insisted they've done nothing wrong.
In fact, James told CBC News this week that he intends to file a reply to Plecas's report.
In the meantime, the B.C. Liberals have taken a hit from this story in the midst of a crucial by-election campaign in Nanaimo.
In part, that's because B.C. Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson suggested last November that Plecas was "out of control" by launching an investigation into senior staff at the legislative assembly.
It left an impression with some that the B.C. Liberals were sympathetic to James and Lenz after they had been escorted out of the legislature by police.
At the time, the B.C. Liberals were particularly critical of the role of Plecas's aide, Alan Mullen, who was brought in last January.
The media played along by questioning Mullen's qualifications for conducting an investigation of this magnitude.
This week, Wilkinson and his party's house leader, Mary Polak, called for more transparency in the operations of the legislature.
Polak has defended her caucus's previous actions, saying the B.C. Liberals were the only ones asking hard questions in the wake of the suspensions of James and Lenz.
That resulted in a blizzard of criticism over social media, with one of James's foremost critics, blogger Norm Farrell, telling her that the B.C. Liberals owe Plecas an apology.
This week, James is being linked to the B.C. Liberals in a number of ways, not the least of which is through the Plecas report itself.
There's been a fair amount of media coverage of James's repeated visits to Vancouver and the Okanagan in 2017 and 2018 to meet ex-B.C. Liberal MLAs, including former premier Christy Clark, for which James expensed taxpayers.
The B.C. Liberal connection is also reinforced by coverage of spending controversies that dogged former B.C. Liberal speaker Linda Reid.
As well, this is happening via coverage of a reference in Plecas's report to a missing truckload of liquor—and his unproven suggestion that it may have ended up at the home of former B.C. Liberal speaker Bill Barisoff.
There have also been reminders of James's controversial oversight of the HST referendum when he was acting chief electoral officer, and his firing of deputy chief electoral officer Linda Johnson.
Assistant deputy speaker Linda Reid was first elected in 1991, making her the senior member of the B.C. legislature.
B.C. Liberal rebranding requires fresh faces
As long as Coleman is sitting on the B.C. Liberal side of the house, the NDP and B.C. Greens can continue to blame him for giving James so much power in the first place.
For now, the B.C. Liberals are pinning their hopes on winning the Wednesday (January 30) by-election in Nanaimo.
If they pull off an upset, the B.C. Liberals will have 43 members in the house—the same number as the B.C. NDP and B.C. Greens.
That could force a spring election.
But if the polls can be believed, it's more likely that the B.C. Liberals will lose this campaign.
If that happens, they can expect to remain in opposition for a couple more years before the next general election.
So far, the NDP has been fairly effective at portraying the B.C. Liberals as being soft on wrongdoing—whether it's in connection with money laundering, runaway spending at the legislature, campaign finance regulations, or poor regulation of the real-estate sector.
Rich Coleman can be tied to all of those areas. And he and other B.C. Liberals have given the NDP plenty of ammunition.
In fact, Coleman has become a B.C. Liberal liability as the NDP continues making him the poster boy for why the former governing party should remain in the political penalty box.
If Coleman is truly interested in the well-being of the B.C. Liberals in the wake of a future loss in the Nanaimo by-election, he should get out of the way as quickly as possible so his party can rebuild.
If Nanaimo voters stick with the NDP, Wilkinson should urge Coleman to resign his seat and make room for fresh blood.
A Coleman resignation would undermine the NDP's ongoing campaign, dating back to 2016, to brand the B.C. Liberals as the party that turns a blind eye to unethical practices.
Another former house leader, Mike de Jong, should also think about leaving B.C. politics for the same reason. He was first elected in 1994.
The same can be said for Linda Reid, who's been in the legislature since 1991.
They all occupy safe B.C. Liberal seats. If Wilkinson's party were to recapture all of them in by-elections, it would give him some momentum going into the next general election.
Christy Clark was smart enough to get out of the way after her party lost power in 2017. Nowadays, she rarely shows up in the news.
In the wake of the legislature spending fiasco, Wilkinson can only truly start to rebrand his party—and counter the NDP's efforts to paint the B.C. Liberals as not having clean hands—by encouraging three of his longest-serving MLAs to head for the exits as soon as possible.
It's Wilkinson's best chance of winning the next general election.
https://www.straight.com/news/1193111/if-bc-liberals-lose-nanaimo-electi...
You're literally reproducing copyrighted material in its entirety -- links, bullets, photos, everything.
I know you feel urgent about everything, 24/7, but in the interest of rabble not being sued for infringement, do you think you could slow down just long enough to edit copyrighted material to a salient paragraph or two and then link to the material?
Nanaimo byelection candidates condemn legislature staff expenses
With a legislature staff expense uproar in Victoria the week before the Nanaimo byelection, candidates were quick to offer their condemnations.
Accountability within government was one of a range of themes that came up during an all-candidates meeting Thursday night at the Beban Park social centre, hosted by the Greater Nanaimo Chamber of Commerce.
All six candidates participated: Justin Greenwood of the B.C. Conservatives, Tony Harris of the B.C. Liberals, Sheila Malcolmson of the B.C. NDP, Michele Ney of the B.C. Green Party, Robin Richardson of the VanIsle Province Party and Bill Walker of the B.C. Libertarians.
All six indicated they were upset by the spending scandal at the legislature.
“Every day we are learning more about the culture of entitlement with the B.C. Liberals. Another example where we cannot go back,” said Malcolmson. “Between the clerk’s office and the dirty money laundering scandal, people are talking with disgust and shock about the revelation and [demanding] that the B.C. Liberals come clean about what they knew and reveal what’s at the root of this.”
All-candidates’ meeting was held Thursday at Beban Park social centre
https://www.saanichnews.com/news/nanaimo-byelection-candidates-condemn-l...
Nanaimo election results in 2017
NDP 47%
Libs 33%
Grns 20%
'Put down the swords' Liberal leader Wilkinson is trying to recall Speaker Plecas!
You can fool some of the people some of the time!
You can even fool some of the people all the time!
But you can't fool all the people all of the time!
Former resident lauds Plecas
A letter writer says the House Speaker is trying to expose inappropriate behaviour.
A former Langley resident offers support to House Speaker Darryl Plecas whose riding includes Aldergrove. (File photo)
Dear Editor,
As a former Langley resident, it is a bit shocking to see a recall campaign under way for House Speaker Darryl Plecas. The argument for this recall is that he was “elected as a Liberal and is not sitting as one.”
Regardless of political stripe, no doubt most voters would see it as a privilege to have their representative as speaker, a role that requires absolute fairness. That he chose to sit as an independent is even better. He is proving his worth in uncovering the culture of privilege that has infested the office and trying to set it right.
When voters elect someone, regardless of party, they have the right to expect that they will be fair and honourable.
When money laundering goes on, it should not be ignored. When big money rather than the welfare of citizens takes precedence as the basis for policy, as it has for the past several years, it has to stop.
Congratulations to Speaker Plecas for leaving a party where he would have been expected to condone and defend these things.
The citizens of his constituency should be grateful.
Shirley McBride, Victoria
https://www.langleyadvance.com/opinion/letter-former-resident-lauds-plecas/
The ‘corruption’ watch that the watchdog refuses to wear
Whoa!
Over $600,000 in travel expenes alone!
This Liberal-connected clerk of the BC Legislature Craig James did quite well for himself
Here you have it in all its glory - a Liberal in BC who wants to put the swords away!
B.C. Liberal leader slams Darryl Plecas for 'building his own little empire'
Andrew Wilkinson says there's a grave concern that the speaker is out of control.
Photograph By TIMES COLONIST
B.C. Liberal leader Andrew Wilkinson slammed Speaker Darryl Plecas for “building his own little empire” and running rogue investigations into two senior legislative officers.
“There's a grave concern that the speaker is out of control. We need to be concerned that he's building his own little empire, staffed with expensive lawyers, with investigators with no credentials and he's being allowed to get away with it,” Wilkinson said Monday afternoon.
Questions have swirled around the role Plecas and his friend and special adviser Alan Mullen played in the investigation and suspension of legislative clerk Craig James and sergeant-at-arms Gary Lenz along with the decision to have police escort the men from the building.
“We have a real problem if we have the Speaker off in his own realm because the Speaker is nothing more than the referee in this chamber,” Wilkinson said. “And if he thinks he's going to run a parallel government with an investigative arm and a legal arm, we have to stop that behaviour.”
Plecas has not spoken publicly but wrote a letter to the three parties’ house leaders on Monday defending the suspensions and stressing that the entire legislature agreed to them.
He said it is open to the legislature to rescind the motion that led to the suspensions, but there was unqualified unanimity among the house leaders beforehand that it would not be appropriate for them to continue in the face of an “active criminal investigation.”
Wilkinson said if the Liberal caucus had a chance to vote again on the motion to suspend the two men, “we would ask very detailed questions because we see a government that doesn't seem to be particularly concerned about doing its homework before wrecking the careers and reputations of people.”
Wilkinson also criticized Plecas for not recusing himself during question period, which was dominated by Liberal MLAs asking questions directly relating to the Speaker’s role in the investigation.
Wilkinson and MLAs Shirley Bond and Mike de Jong repeatedly asked Attorney General David Eby to lay out a timeline of who knew what and when in regards to Plecas's investigation into Lenz and James.
Liberal MLAs demanded to know when Eby and Solicitor General Mike Farnworth knew that the Speaker had hired outside legal counsel to consult on the matter and when they found out that the Speaker had hired Mullen as his special adviser. The Liberals said answers are needed in order to ensure transparency and accountability. Eby deflected all questions, saying it would be inappropriate to give any details during an active criminal investigation.
“The NDP are stonewalling completely, hiding behind false excuses,” Wilkinson later told reporters.
https://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/b-c-liberal-leader-slams-darryl...
dp
The bad news trend for the Libeeals in BC is alive and well tonite
I am wondering if the Liberals might want to consider a leadership change as Wilkinson does not seem to be cutting it
I am wondering if the Liberals might want to consider a leadership change as Wilkinson does not seem to be cutting it
And for the second time Plecas says the public will be sickened, this time when we hear from the police. So far the Speaker is batting 1,000 per cent.
This is truly maddening
https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2019/02/14/BC-Ratepayers-Report-Private-Energy-Rip-Off/
https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/report-former-b-c-premier-campb...
The Daily Telegraph (London) is reporting that former B.C. premier Gordon Campbell is the subject of a sexual assault investigation in England.
The newspaper says Campbell is accused of groping a female London embassy worker in 2013 while he was serving as Canadian High Commissioner to Britain.
The complaint has been passed to the British Foreign Office, which is facilitating discussions between Scotland Yard and the Canadian authorities.
British government sources indicated that Canada may open its own inquiry and could waive Campbell’s diplomatic immunity if asked to do so.
...
Prins, 54, made her formal complaint in January 2014, which she resolved on terms she is prohibited from discussing. However, she passed details of the complaint to The Telegraph, describing the allegation plus several more claims of inappropriate behaviour over a seven-month period.
She also claims she was warned by Mark Fletcher, the then Consul General, that three other women raised concerns about Campbell’s behaviour before she took up the role.
....
Sheila Orr, who worked with Campbell for about 12 years in the Liberal party and as an MLA, said she knows him well and never saw him behave inappropriately with anyone during that time.
“Gordon Campbell is not a warm and fuzzy person but under no circumstances have I ever seen him groping anybody,” she said.
Orr said she did not wish to diminish Prins’ allegation and only wished to speak about her personal experience working with the former premier.
“Gordon Campbell was such a cold fish, I could never imagine him groping anybody,” Orr said.
Please, please keep Wilkinson as Liberal leader
https://globalnews.ca/news/5013443/andrew-wilkinson-walks-back-wacky-renting-comments/
Hopefully this guy Wilkinson will never ever become Premier of BC
Breaking. Very Bad.
"Treasury Board President Jane Philpott is resigning from the federal cabinet over the fallout from the SNC-Lavalin affair, telling Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in an open letter she has 'lost confidence in how the government' has dealt with the issue."
https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/treasury-board-president-jane-philpott-resign...