national | Political Insider

Nice Continent This North America Eh! #bcpoli #canpoli #usapoli

I am telling the Truth sir, there is nothing going on in North America!

It’s only fair if Jeffrey Simpson of the Globe and Mail can write about discussions with his Uncle Fred on Galiano Island, I can at least report on discussions our alien friends are having this week as it relates to North America.

I can only imagine what one Alien Underling would report to his Commander on the goings on ( or not ) on our continent in the last week.

It would go something like this:

Commander: What have you to report from your post overseeing North America?

Underling: Nothing.

Commander : What do you mean nothing, that cannot be !

Underling: It is so, this week.

Commander : Explain yourself or be replaced!

Underling: Sir in the USA everything is closed, the government is shut down. They were discussing something called ObamaCare but one side just walked away shutting down the government. Right now the man named Obama who seems to be the inventor of the care is threatening them with a debt ceiling whatever that is. They are not listening. I think it should be called Obamawedon’tcare!

Commander: Surely something must be happening in Canada?

Underling: No Sir the man they call the Prime Minister has prorogued parliament. That means in a sense they too are shut down.

Commander : What about in your favorite place to report from BC, surely there is something to report there. Nary a week goes by without Premier Clark and her government getting themselves in some sort of trouble?

Underling: Not this week sir. Premier Clark refuses to open the government’s place of business and has herself pretty much gone into hiding.

Commander: Into hiding?

Underling : Yes sure she tried for some sort of thing called a quick win and is now being investigated by something called the RCMP.

Commander: What happens if she is found guilty

Underling : I am not sure sir. By all reports the RCMP shot somebody with a 3 inch knife 9 times and tasered him. I can’t imagine what they would do for quick winning.

Commander : Is there anything on the horizon that you will be reporting on other than nothing?

Underling : yes I have heard of something called a BC Conservative AGM……..

Who is the Worst Premier in Canada? #bcpoli #canpoli

As we head into a new week in this the silly season ( two days ago I was in shorts, today I looked for a parka, right now an ark) I thought it a good time to ask just who is the worst premier in Canada?

Could it be Christy Who? You know the premier who in her heart has vanished, shut down the legislature until spring?

Could it be Pauline, let’s have a secular treaty and see what that does for our economy and for our chances of re-election?

Could it be *Kathleen Wynne whose policies are killing the Ontario economy and who threatened the two other parties propping up her minority government with an election she would surely lose.

Tough choices to be sure.

For the time being I give the nod to Marios and Wynne two premiers who are turning Canada’s largest provinces and the supposed economic drivers into have-nots.

How about you?

* Wynne had help from a man named McGuinty but she is continuing his tradition.

Political Insiders Coveted Barf Bag of the Summer Goes to? #bcpoli #canpoli #telus #bell #rogers

I turned on my car radio today and the first thing I heard was that stupid commercial that the telco’s are doing to portray the Conservative government as the big bad folks for allowing the potential of Verizon to come to Canada and take away jobs and use the infrastructure for free.

I have a little screw in my brain and those ads are the screw driver that tightrns it to the point of no return.

I am awarding these companies the Political Insider coveted Barf Bag of the Summer award.

These guys just don’t get it and I bet in the long run these commercials will cost them customers like me.

I don’t know about you but I have reached my limit.

As a good friend of mine said today ” if these companies hadn’t of been acting like money grubbing oil sheiks all these years they wouldn’t find themselves in this mess”

Those job losses they keep whining about, does that include the call center jobs those same Telco’s have farmed out to India and the Philippines? Doubt it!

Oh and the money they are using to finance those irritating ads; would it not be better spent investing in that so called infrastructure or better yet reducing our cells bills.

They encourage you to write your MP.

You should; write and say thanks for allowing the competition that will no doubt lower cell costs for both usage and for equipment.

It’s the right thing to do.

Anti-Pipeline Gang Should Rethink Their Priorities ! #bcpoli #canpoli #pipline

In the last month we have had at least four terrible accidents involving either rail or trucks that transport oil in this country.

We have has rail oil spills in Saskatchewan and in Quebec.

We have had a jet fuel spill in the Slocan Valley and most recently a life ending collision in Lloydminster Saskatchewan that resulted in a number of deaths.

You would expect that by now the environmentalists and the anti-pipeline gang would be either chaining themselves to railroad tracks or lying across roads in an effort to stop this .

But no, they are lining up against Enbridge trying to kill the pipeline.

Seems to me their priorities are a little out of whack, don’t you think?

Federal Politics: Boundary Changes Coming; So are Nomination Battles! #bcpoli #canpoli #election2015

All is calm on the federal election front :NOT!

Federal politics is about to get very interesting.

Shortly there will be what is purported to be a major cabinet shuffle in Ottawa.This will result in the usual amount of retirements and those who say they will not run in the 2015 federal election.

Evidence of this is the quick retirement of Cabinet Minister Vic Toews.

Soon after the shuffle , the new federal boundaries will be announced. This will result in the number of ridings increasing in Canada from 308 to 338.

I would expect this announcement sometime in the fall.

The Prime Minister has already gone on record saying there will be open nominations in all ridings. This did not happen in 2011 because of the minority government situation.

Already the chirping has started with the folks in Alberta up in arms over who runs where.

I think that what goes on in the rest of Canada will be pale in comparison to what will go on in BC, specifically Surrey.

Take the riding I live in, the potentially named West Langley-Cloverdale.

Already former MP Gurmant Grewal has announced his intention to seek the seat.

That was followed by the announcement of “never been more than a back bench MLA ” Dave Hayer retiring from provincial politics ( likely because he thought the BC Liberals were going to lose the last election) and declaring he will also run.

On top of that we now hear rumors that former Federal Liberal supporter and Sukh Dhaliwal backer ( you remember Sukh, he was a former MP turned MLA wanna be who the BC Liberals tossed for forgetting to file his taxes) Paul Brar is telling local folk that he too will contest the seat.

I have also heard rumors of other potential entrants into the fray. Current Langley E.D.A. President Tako J.van Popta‘s name has been bandied about.

That’s 4 potential contestants already and it’s only 2013. ( I haven’t even mentioned that this is the EDA that current Surrey-White Rock MP Russ Hiebert calls home)

This by the way won’t restrict itself to my beloved Conservative Party.

Election Mania will run rampant as soon as the new ridings are announced.

Hear a rumor? Let me know, confidentially of course, and I’ll check it out and share it with everybody via the blog!

The Senate: Rumour Du Jour #bcpoli #canpoli #senate

Once the current senate turmoil in Ottawa involving Senators Duffy and Wallin blows over, a strong rumor out of Surrey suggests former BC Liberal Finance Minister Kevin Falcon will be appointed to the Senate.

Should this happen it will quash the other rumor, namely that Falcon is going to run in the new riding of Cloverdale-Langley ( or whatever it is to be called) against already declared candidate former MP Gurmant Grewal.

We shall see!

Justin Trudeau: Let the Coronation Begin! #bcpoli #canpoli #liberalleadership

With news that Marc Garneau is pulling out of the Liberal Leadership race, I would imagine that there are high fives all around the PMO today.

This announcement confirms that the Liberals will indeed have a Leadership Coronation whose result will lead to vote splits between the Liberals and the NDP in key ridings across Canada.

This will produce the obvious result of another Conservative majority which will set off another round of merger talks between the Liberals and the dippers.

Trudeau for his part is probably too busy to notice that Garneau pulled out given all the whining for an extension to register voters to the coronation.

Justin, Or Pierre Junior as he is sometimes referred, should have a better get out the vote team in place.

When the election that matters comes, there are no extensions.

Once the polls close it’s over.

As it almost certainly will be for the Liberal Party and Trudeau’s Prime Ministerial aspirations.

Adrian Dix: New Angus Reid Poll Proves He is in the Right Role! #bcpoli #bccp #canpoli

Today’s released Angus Reid poll shows Adrian Dix at the top of the list ( tied with Nova Scotia Liberal Leader Stephen McNeil) as the best opposition leader.

Perhaps then since Dix has played the role so well he should be returned there after the next election to continue.

After all if you are good at something you should play to your strengths, correct?

In the who would make the best premier list Brad Wall finished first while Ontario’s Dalton McGuinty
finished last.

This is after McGuinty saw the writing on the wall and announced his resignation.

That would therefore imply that our Premier, Christy Clark,who finished second last would actually be the last once McGuinty leaves.

What should she do?

The Rise of the Greens!

The people have spoken and the Stephen Harper led Conservatives have won two out of three seats in today`s by-elections.

The big story out of the by-elections tonight is the rise of the green party who took 25% of the vote in Calgary and at least 35% of the Vote in Victoria.

Is this a trend or is this a mini protest vote against all of the parties.

I think this is a protest vote period!

In Calgary some are pissed at the Conservative Party of Canada but a lot walked from Justin and his team after some blazing gaffes in the past week.

The folks in Red are probably crying in the back rooms over what could have been.

The Razor thin NDP win in Victoria with a somewhat safe NDP seat going down until the final polls is a poke in the eye to Tommy Mulcair and dutch elm disease. ( Traditionally the Conservatives have never been much of a factor in this riding and in fact it used to be a Liberal seat that David Anderson occupied).

It probably took Jack Layton crying out from the grave to rescue this seat.

The message here is that all parties better their act together before 2015 especially the opposition.

In fact today Joyce Murray entered the Liberal leadership race with her plan of only running one opposition party candidate against the Conservatives in the next election.( She means run either a Green,Liberal or NDPer)

I can imagine the backroom fighting,

I can also imagine it never flying.

Just wait until the blame game starts tomorrow!

The Great Debate About All Candidate Debates!

With Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi calling out Conservative Candidate Joan Crockatt for not participating in a by-election all candidates debate, I thought today would be a great time to tell you where I stand on all candidates debates during elections.

As some one who has been fortunate to participate in politics and live in a lot of major centres in Canada I can tell you that these debates all have one thing in common.

It is this: They are a waste of time!

The first thing you would see if you went to one would be all the wanna be politicos,campaign managers, candidates and party volunteers.

What you would be hard pressed to find would be actual voters who want to learn about the issues.

The reason for this is that these debates are stacked with political volunteers who ask their candidates softball questions to make them look good. Most people know that.

The average person get their news from the internet because there is no time to give up 2 or 3 hours for a partisan debate.

If you are the frontrunner( no matter what party) it is a night of all three parties ganging up on you.

Another thing, in my experience is that everybody and their dog wants to host a debate.

In the last federal election I can recall being invited to at least 8.Most of these are devised by people or groups whose sole reason for being is one issue.

Do I ever recommend candidates participate in an all candidates debate? If it is hosted by a Chamber of Commerce or Board of Trade then yes. They are mediated properly and keep partisan bs to a minimum.

In truth and in fact, politicians and voters would be much better of engaging on the door step.

Firstly a candidate will reach more voters by door knocking.

Secondly,the discerning voter can ask the questions they want answers to and demand an answer. Most good candidates will either know the answer or if they don’t say so and promise to get back to you.

All candidates Debates? They are a big waste of time and Naheed Nenshi made my case for me.