Shocking news today; Geoffrey Cowper released his report on the justice system and it said what we already knew namely that the legal system in BC needs a major overhaul.
Inept Premier Clark created this one man commission to review a justice system that is both prone to meddling from premiers( remember Clark tried to get the hockey riot trials televised) and open to slicing and dicing from political parties when they are looking to save a buck.( remember it was the BC Liberals who cut back on judges and closed court houses earlier on)
I am going to spend time with my family now so that when I take off to Ottawa in a couple of years they will remember who I am!
Kevin Falcon announced this morning that he was stepping down from his ministerial positions effective immediately,serving out his term and leaving politics to spend time with his family and the new-born expected in February.
Admirable to be sure.
Also a definite shot at the Christy Clark leadership.
It could also be paving the way for a run at a Federal Conservative seat in 2015.( The newborn will be 2 by then)
Where will he run? The in the process of being created new federal seat in the soon to be called Electoral District Association of Surrey Cloverdale, that’s where.
By leaving now he escapes the slaughter that will be known as the May 2013 provincial election where the BC Liberals will almost certainly be wiped out.
What do you think, Is Kevin Falcon preparing for loftier goals?
A little different twist today. I have borrowed this from a family friend and thought I would share it with all of you. You could easily interchange BC and Clark for Ontario and get the same result!
What do you think?
ONTARIO
The Premier of Ontario is jogging with his dog along a nature trail.
A coyote jumps out and attacks the Premier’s dog, then bites the Premier.
The Premier starts to intervene, but reflects upon the movie “Bambi” and then realizes he should stop because the coyote is only doing what is natural.
He calls animal control .. Animal Control captures the coyote and bills the Province $200 testing it for diseases and $500 for relocating it.
The Premier goes to hospital and spends $3,500 getting checked for diseases from the coyote and on getting his bite wound bandaged.
The running trail gets shut down for 6 months while Fish & Game conducts a $100,000 survey to make sure the area is now free of dangerous animals.
The Premier spends $50,000 in Provincial funds implementing a “coyote awareness program” for residents of the area.
The Provincial Legislature spends $2 million to study how to better treat rabies and how to permanently eradicate the disease throughout the world.
The Premier’s security agent is fired for not stopping the attack.
The Province spends $150,000 to hire and train a new agent with additional special training re: the nature of coyotes.
PETA protests the coyote’s relocation and files a $5 million suit against the Province. ALBERTA
Premier Alison Redford is jogging with her dog along a nature trail. A Coyote jumps out and attacks the dog.
The Premier’s security agent shoots the coyote and keeps jogging. The Premier has spent $0.50 on a .45 ACP hollow point cartridge.
The Crows eat the dead coyote.
And that, my friends, is why ONTARIO is broke and ALBERTA is not.
Mr. Money and the Ethnic vote himself has stuck his foot in the mess that is the Quebec election.
Today, Mr.Parizeau, a racist and a bigot that Pauline Marois tried to one up beofre she went scurrying back to her hole, stepped into the limelight and endorsed Jean-Martin Aussant of the party Option Nationale.
Not only that but he put his money where his filthy mouth is and kicked in $200 to Aussant’s campaign.
Martyn Brown has a point and I will help him make it!
In the last provincial election according to both statistics and the mainstream media, 50% of the people did not vote.
I have said for a long time that is not true. I believe most people are voting when they don’t show up at the polls. I think they are voting in a way most people are not accustomed to. They are voting with their feet!
That means by not showing up at the polls and voting with a pencil they are voting in a different way saying that politics doesn’t matter because the way politicians and people in the backrooms conduct business and themselves is not relevant and is a waste of their time.
Martyn Browns new book reaffirms what I have felt for a while.
Brown’s excellent book, Towards a New Government in British Columbia, could just as easily be entitled Towards a New Government in any Province. To wit: just look at the gong show that is known as an election in Quebec.
There are no platforms revealed and it is basically 3 parties at war with each other while 1 of those parties is also taking on the country.
I am surprised the polls show anybody will vote.
In our province,BC, the Conservatives and the Liberals are at war with each other while the BC NDP hasn’t said much of anything other than they will have something to say when the election is on relative to their platform.
I am also surprised the polls show anybody will vote.
I have been involved in backroom discussion at municipal, provincial, federal and the board level. I can tell you the discussion revolves around 3 questions. They are: How do we get young people involved, how do we get women involved and how do we reach the 50% of the people who don’t vote.
I can also tell you from discussions with friends in all parties they are the same questions they all ask.
The answer, as Brown clearly says and he is right is this: If you keep going the way you are you can’t and won’t.
Why would they?
Elections and governments always go the same way. One side wins,hangs on for a few terms and gets booted out either by scandal or for not doing the few things they pledged to do during the election.
What about the favorite expression coined in the media around North America. That would be ” It’s the first year of their mandate, they are doing the hard things now so they don’t have to do them near election time” or some similar coined phrase.
What about politicians who run on this’ we are here to do politics differently’ and then they don’t.
We elect politicians and governments for 4 year terms and expect them to carry out the work for the whole four years not one and buy my vote for the other three.
I have argued for term limits on these pages and that would be a start but even with a limited term there would still be time for shenanigans.
We, the voting public, need to hold governments and wanna be governments to account.
It is no longer good enough to wait until the election to reveal a platform.
It is no longer good enough to vote for faux change.
We need term limits and tough recall laws.
What we need most, however, are politicians who are not afraid to lay it on the line. People who will talk out loud about what they will do,why they will do it and then stick to the course and not break our hearts.
We need the backrooms and the parties to stop going to war.
It’s no longer good enough to go to the polls and vote for more of the same.
Something drastic has to happen.
For until it does, this former backroom guy, will join the 50 % and vote with my feet.
I hope this expensive waste of time to score political points is going to be paid out of BCNDP funds because it duplicates the cost of the federal study already financed on the backs of the taxpayer.
One study, that’s fine and needed but two gimme a break.
Your federal cousin/brother Tom Mulcair already said this issue is dead in the water.
If that is so Mr.Dix why would you want to throw good money after bad?
This is no doubt the first in a series of increased taxes ( that’s what reviews are) that the NDP will announce in the run up to the election.
Question for Mr.Dix: Has this been costed and included as part of your platform?
If so what price tag do you put on this taxpayer funded review?
Jean Charest: Can he pull a rabbit out of the hat?
A Forum research poll just released shows Jean Charest’s Liberals making a dramatic comeback after the televised French leadership debate.
If this poll holds he would actually increase his seat numbers in the house.
Truthfully, he ate CAQ Leader Francois Legault alive in tonight’s English language debate so I would expect him to get even a larger bounce in the next poll.
What would BC look like if Gordon Campbell had been limited to two terms?
Elections are always a time of renewal.
The electorate whether its National, International,Provincial,Municipal or just at the riding or board level get a chance to review and evaluate the people carrying out the jobs they were elected to do.
This fall there are by-elections in Ontario ( which could lead to a provincial election depending upon the results) a provincial election in Quebec, several Annual General meetings and of course the U.S. Presidential election.
When I hear parties that get hammered at the ballot box say it’s time to take a deep look at ourselves and commit to a renewal program I just shake my head.
If there were term limits right down to the volunteer level, renewal would be a constant process.
As a rule there isn’t and as a consequence the same people tend to get elected to the positions over an over again.
Not only does this lead to what I call empire building and other assorted sleazy BS, but it stifles growth because people who would like to get involved don’t because they think their chances of getting elected are slim.
This is one of the things I like about U.S. politics who have term limits right up to the President.
From a voters point of view if you don’t get what you were promised short of recall, it provides at least a window of relief.
I have been an EDA president Federally with the Conservative Party of Canada and I left after two years because I think, although they have 3 year terms, two years was plenty.
Provincially same thing,although there are no term limits, I announced to the board in June I was not standing for a directors position and that I would serve out my term and get involved in other areas.
People going to an Annual General Meeting have the best chance to start the renewal process. instead of simply voting for the same people over and over listen to what the new folks have to say. Ask those that run year after year what exactly they have done to make the process better. This is your chance to hold those you voted for previously accountable. It is you chance to renew and revitalize your party from the ground up!
Think about Municipal elections, the same people run over and over again. How many new ideas get stifled because there aren’t enough new faces to inject something different into the discussion.How many good people don’t bother to run? How many newspapers tell you at election time that one spot opened up.( it’s an election; all spots should be open)
As far as MLA’s and MP’s go, two terms is sufficient for the reasons mentioned above plus the associated saving with the so-called gold-plated pensions. ( remember too some of these people have been MLA s a lot longer than 3 years because they started in opposition)
Imagine if you will that Gordon Campbell had been limited to two terms. How different might the last election have been under a new BC Liberal leader.Imagine again in 2009, new people in both the NDP and the BC Liberals running to be MLAs instead of the same old.
What would the political landscape in BC look-like today if that had taken place?
What do you think, would term limits be worth looking at in Canada?
The French language leadership debate happens tonight in Quebec and for Jean Charest there really is no tomorrow. If he is to make up ground and surpass the other three parties he must come out swinging and put the boots to Marios and her separatist platform.
The Coaltion Avenir Quebec leader, Francois Legault has to prove to the electorate that his party is a viable alternative to Charest’s Liberals.
He also has to send a message to those people considering parking their votes with knucklehead Marois and the PQ that there is a reasonable more sane place to vote that will include what Quebec wants and no threat of a referendum.
For the Quebec Solidaire and spokesman Francoise David they have to prove to separatists that they actually exist and that they are abetter alternative than the PQ. I believe they are a non-entity in this election.
Marois has to show the people that her party is not made up of Xenophobic racist separatists. For her this is no small order given that’s what her platform reeks of.
Who has the most to lose?
Charest and Marois.
The Coalition Avenir stands to gain the most if Charest and Marois flounder.
They win if Charest looks like he is trying to cover something up and they win if Marois looks like the racist old hag she is.
A good performance by Legault and the election is his to lose.
Sounding a bit like Kim Campbell, Pauline Marois refuses to divulge anything about her party’s platform until at least the leaders debate.
She is taking her lead in the polls and the voters for granted and not saying anything that might trip her up except: She is telling anybody who will listen that she has had a transition team in place for a few weeks.
And
She and her party have gone on record today saying they don’t care what the courts say, their religion plan is a go!
Add to that:
The threat of an expensive referendum and it begs the question:
Why would anybody in their right mind vote for them?
