If you are a Senior Minister in a government and really don’t like your leader how would you bring that person down without openly challenging her leadership?
Seems Finance Minister Kevin Falcon has found the way.
As a senior minister this type of discussion sends a message that you are not optimistic about winning re-election under that leaders tenure.
Second, you call a press conference to re-introduce an older tax after the majority of people voted down a newer version with more vile than ever seen before in BC.
During that press conference you refer to the revamped tax as ” a better stupid” version of the old tax pretty much guaranteeing that people get you again in an upcoming general election.
Those two steps alone finish off any chance Premier Clark had of winning re-election next year.
So there we sit, our GDP low enough to keep us out of trouble but close enough ( 90% or higher) would get us going down a lane we don’t want to go.
This gives cause for thought in that we ( The country) are facing 3 major provincial elections in the next year and a bit.They would occur in British Columbia, Quebec and Ontario.
I have lumped Ontario in the group because although they have just come through a provincial election, it resulted in a minority of tenuous proportions.
With pollsters releasing numbers here at home in BC and 48% of people saying they would vote NDP, the chart above gives me cause to wonder why anybody would even answer that question at this point in time.
With all the problems in the world’s economic situation, why would anybody say they would vote one way or another without reviewing a parties economic platform and seeing how it would affect them?
Why would almost half of the polled people say they would vote BCNDP when history speaks of all the economic mismanagement and mayhem they caused as recently as the 1990’s?
( I know you are thinking the BC Liberals have made such a mess of things we need to give them the boot! We do, but there are other options than the BCNDP) )
In these coming elections, voters need to be better educated than ever. They should review the policies and platforms each of the 3 main parties lists on their web sites.
With all the hullabaloo and bullshit surrounding the outburst sitting MP and resident big mouth Kevin Krueger,
most people have forgotten that the Premier is about to slip away on air plane on her ill-timed vacation to Asia.
She should be here in the house showing leadership while a number of serious bills are debated or at least while all the mayhem is happening with the teacher’s contract.
This trip could have been scheduled after the house adjourned. Anybody tells you different is full of crap.
But no, as usual Premier Dementia was busy packing her bags and laughing at the whole episode.
Actually , I think she was laughing along with the MSM, who missed the point of Krueger’s blow-up.
That would be to help cover her tracks while she is leaving town.
They all got sucked in again!
She used the same strategy in April when the BC Liberals were busy getting hammered in the by-elections by using Harry Bloy to blow up and take the heat off during the final week.
Make no mistake about it, the gun has sounded to start the next election.
Inept, Unelected Premier Christy Clark of the BC Liberals is out of the gate with her vote-buying scheme of giving you an additional day off in February.
Not only that,she wants to include you in the decision-making process.
Not the part that matters ( your budget), just wants your opinion on which day in February to have it.
Why? She could care less what day the holiday falls on, she wants to buy your vote. She will rub your face in it with photo op after photo op between today and next May when the election happens.
So what about the holiday?
Well, if 20 % of British Columbia’s employees work in one form or another for the government, you as a taxpayer will have to fund their festivities. This is a tax increase in disguise.
If you are one of those folks reading this and sitting at home thinking “What ! They need more time off,they never do anything anyways.” How does that make you feel?
This comes on the heels of your MSP bill coming in the mail with its increase ( Those folks that fall in the 20% mentioned above get free MSP on you, so the increase didn’t affect them either).
If you are amongst the aforementioned 57%, this new holiday will add extra stress in your life via looking over your shoulder and wondering whether your employer can afford to have you work enough days to qualify you for that special day off.
This is not a holiday for small business owners and entrepreneurs, rather it is a tax grab.
Add this in with gas,carbon, MSP,Hydro,increased minimum wage and all the other assorted taxes and it becomes quite clear.
Businesses have to survive and socialist governments like the BC Liberals don’t make it any easier.
So before you buy what Christy Clark and her gang are selling over the next 12 months ask yourself what will it really cost?
Van Dongen knows a thing or two about being tough. He just crossed the floor to party with no seats and hired a lawyer at his own expense to get to the bottom of this mess!
The central question being ” if the act says “A debt or obligation to the government may not be forgiven without the approval of the Lieutenant Governor in Council [cabinet] if the amount forgiven is $100,000 or more.”,why then were two government flunkies allowed to make a decision relating to a write-off of over 6 million dollars of debt owed to the government?
Doing her best Wally Oppal impression ,Shirley Bond, said the matter was under audit and she would not be prepared to answer that.
In fact look for them to drag this out until the next election,unless John van Dongen gets his way.
This outright corruption,cover up and sleaze is just one of many reasons ( Clark’s leadership another) why a name change in the party won’t make any difference to the Liberals fortunes.
I have said more than once, that when Costra Nostra changed their name to the Mafia, they never fooled anybody. They were still gangsters by any name.
The same poll shows the Christy Clark led BC Liberals would be virtually wiped out and reduced to 13 seats.
In the last few weeks since the by-elections ,the BC Liberals have kicked around the idea of changing their name.
The MSM has mused about the merger of the BC Conservatives and The BC Liberals.
This poll shows neither will work with those polled not willing to forget the baggage the Liberals have just because of a name change.
That same baggage ( and the Liberal name) is also responsible for very few Conservatives wanting to merge.
The other problem the BC Liberals have is that Christy Clark is the most inept leader in the history of the province.
The next 12 months will be very interesting in BC politics.
Given all the wanton economic destruction the NDP have caused the few times they have been in power it will be interesting to see if the polling actually translates into votes.
I have to think the voting public is a little smarter than that.
The safe bet would be that some of those votes will be parked with the BC Conservatives.
She then went on to ramble about being a role model for children and having to respond to tough questions like that.
What she said is so wrong for a number of reasons
1) People want their politicians to quit beating around the bush and answer questions dead on. That is the biggest thing people talk about in the coffee shops and yes I heard a lot of that on the door steps during the by-elections in Port Moody and Chilliwack.
2) The role model dodge is not in vogue either. In the Premier’s case ,as in mine, we have children. She should have discussed the drug issue at length with her son by now.This would include whether she smoked it or not.
3) Public officials , especially those running for the office of Premier, have their private life under a microscope. They have to be prepared to answer the tough questions. Whether you smoked pot or not is not a tough question to answer, given all the discussion about legalizing the drug lately.
4) Speaking of questions, in the same interview the Premier also dodged the question about whether pot should be legalized. Again people say time and time again when retired politicians come out in favor of legalization : Why could they not have taken a stance when they were in office,when they were in a position to do something about it.
The answer of course is that they were gutless as was Christy Clark yesterday.
Not only that, but the Premier,who has trouble connecting with people, and is down in the polls because of it, missed a wonderful chance to do just that.
What a joke. Sometimes Conservative,Sometimes Liberal,Sometimes NDP leaning Premier, Christy Clark shelled out $67,000 to get rid off press secretary Chris Olsen less than a year after SHE hired him.
This was one of a long list of gaffes that Premier Knucklehead has caused in her short stay in office.
As usual, the Premier’s mistakes are passed on to the Taxpayer. We got hosed again.
How many times will the Premier reorganize her office before she realizes the reason she is dropping in the polls is not the people she hires but a direct reflection of her.
Look in the mirror Premier, you will see the simpleton the rest of us see.
And please,do not hire any more staff,it winds up costing us a fortune!
In other news , BC Federation of Labor President Jim Sinclair, wants to stick it to small business even more and raise minimum wage up to $11.25 in November. This comes on the heels of today’s increase that took it to $10.25.
WTF Jim, while we are on a roll why not $12? There won’t be any small business left here to pay it anyways?
Take a look in the mirror too Jim, you might even see Christy’s reflection peering back at you.