Will BC Politics be altered?

*sigh*

Long ago got tired of relying on wishes...people are pretty on it here though, we were almost tackled on the street to get a signature, and Shirley Bond has been giving out community awards, to elevate her profile positively, unforunately for her it was to the 'wrong' person/people though.

Is there some place that explains about the recall process, that I could direct people to?

Thanks scott....

Yes, as there may not be enough "registered voters" even though they think they have enough.

and what happens if all 85 are recalled?

so that 40% in 60 days is where you get you numbers above then....

So if the recall is successful and it results in the Liberals losing the right to govern and the NDP are allowed to form a government what is the likelihood that they would kill the HST - after all they just raised it 2% points in Nova Scotia -  and if they did how would they repay the millions that the Federal government would want back - through budget cuts, raising taxes or allowing the deficit to increase. Has Carole James and the leadership of the BC NDP flatly stated that they will repeal this legislation or would they just amend it to make it more equitable to the lower income types.

I think that anyone who gets to vote in a recall by-election if they happen should demand that they will start a recall petition against any NDP'ers elected who does not stand up in the Legislature and introduce a bill to kill the HST.

Can anyone find information on the fact that any referendum is non-binding on the government. We all agree, I'm sure, it would be stupid for the government to ignore such a vote if it came to a referendum and it passed, but HOW is it possible that a referendum can be non-binding. That seems to me like a fundamental principl;e of democracy being undermined.

Remind, politics is talking about the cost of repealing the HST.  There was the matter of (I may have my numbers backwards) a 4.1 billion dollar payment to the province in exchange for implementing the HST.  Politics is basically asking how an NDP government would go about repaying the federal government the 1 time payment.  Its probably more like 1.4 billion, because Campbell sold everyone out so his deficit projection wouldn't look as bad as it did.  (Deficit 5 times worse than projected, but apply 1.4 billion to it, presto whammo, wasn't that far off.  And he accused the BCNDP of fudgit budgets).  I say the following respectfully.  The entire HST campaign is not fuelled solely because of the tax.  From the rallies I've gone to, and seeing the broad cross section of people involved in this "campaign" its more about being completely lied to and deceived by Campbell... again!  I'm not going to go on about the 2009 election, strategic blunders failures, communication snafus and the like.

What I see at the rallies aren't just hard core NDP'ers and those left of those people.  You have people who's politics are middle of the road with slight bends to the right and to the left.  Disenchanted, pissed off, angry people, some of whom feel totally betrayed. I know, what else should they expect from Premier Pinnochio, but there's more going on.  People are looking for an alternative to Campbell, yet when they look at the NDP as an alternative, they can't make that step, because they perceive (quite wrongly) that the party is weakly led and has no direction.  Its always been my contention that if Carole was allowed to do what she was elected do when she won the leadership race in 2003, I think that this party could broaden its base and be more inclusive, rather than talking about making a move further to the left.  When I was young, even up to 1998, (just turned 40 last week) I remember politics in this province being insane.  But when Vanderzalm, he of the brown paper bag and the comment about welfare receipients should just pick up a shovel,  shares the viewpoint on this idiotic government of right wing neo cons that I do, that shows me just what this is all about.

This entire HST campaign has shown how out of whack the political spectrum in this province is.  John Winter isn't listening to a lot of his members who are up in arms over the HST.  He's pushing it hard at a lot of small business' expense.  Gordon Campbell isn't listening to the electorate (whats new with that I know) and alot of his core support came from restaurants and other small businesses who are going to get hammered by the HST. He doesn't give a shit.

Yet... those people who are taking it up the you know what do give a crap. They feel betrayed (they should.) angry, and some are now teetering.  What's coming out of this is that the right side of the spectrum is setting up to be split again.  Delaney and Vanderzalm are really revving it up good, and look at the BC Cons numbers, they're rising while the BCNDP's numbers are stagnant.  This is good news (not the numbers) but the split of the right wing again.  Its not good news right now per se, because the election is 3 years away.  But if anyone thinks that if there's recall, that the NDP will automatically pick up those seats.... better think again.  If the split still exists in 2013, than I think that the BCNDP will win the election, unless the Liberal vote completely collapses into the BC Conservative party.  But there's a movement out there, almost a Gordon Wilson moment type thing, about how neither the Libs or the BCNDP suits the bill with alot of people.  Hopefully the party appartiks (sp?) are paying attention to this entire thing, because aside from NO HST, there are other messages coming forward.

If the BCNDP can seize upon the momentum, and reach out and become more broadbased rather than more harder left, they have a chance.  But that's the key, IF!!  I, for one, am not holding my breath.  But I've been proven wrong before.

Don't get me started on John Winter, as he and I have had our own run ins, which I won though, so he can be beaten

But he controls the District representatives, so nuttin is going to get done for small business, until the local chambers change the district reps, or at least  have them be accountable to  the chambers they represent and oust him. if they can.

The best thing for them to do is stop being BC Chamber members.

Mean Moe wrote:

Ryan1812 wrote:

Can anyone find information on the fact that any referendum is non-binding on the government. We all agree, I'm sure, it would be stupid for the government to ignore such a vote if it came to a referendum and it passed, but HOW is it possible that a referendum can be non-binding. That seems to me like a fundamental principl;e of democracy being undermined.

 To me this seems like an afront to democracy. We vote in a referendum when it comes and yet it's non-binding. How is that possible?

The Recall and Initiative Act- it is non-binding

Hopefully people will think of altering politics.

Mean Moe wrote:

NDP wins:

 Boundary-Similkameen

If that seat would ever go to a by-election, the Con Joe Cardoso, who attained 20% in 2009, would easily pick that one up. The demographics are different than the NDP populist Bill Barlee's by-election win during the late 1980's under Vander Zalm's imploding administration.

The demographics have been increasingly been tilting right-ward with the Albertan/Ontarian retiree influx into the South Okanagan Valley and the Similkameen Valley to a much lesser extent. 

If this thing ever got to the referendum stage, an interesting question would be:

Do you want to repeal the HST and give $400 per person back to the federal government?

In any event, my read of the legislation suggests that winning this sort of referendum is next to impossible, because it requires getting a Yes vote out of 50% of registered voters, much more difficult than a simple majority of those who choose to vote.  You would have to miraculously get something like 2/3 support and a 75% turnout. Since voter turnout in the 2009 General+Referendum was only 50%....