In this day and age of air tight security Our Premier managed to get that wrong too!

Premiers Office"We only had 1 day to check the guest list for known felons and murderers!"

The classic tradition of BC Liberal gaffes goes on and on.

In the latest embarrassment to the province and taxpayers,the Premiers office did not properly vet the guest list and allowed a gangster,terrorist,murderer ( your choice) to sit in the house and watch budget 2012.

Their excuse? They only had one day. ( Cue Frank Sinatra and Send in the Clowns)

Uh people,right at the top of the list in the A’s ATWAL that should jumped right out at ya!

I would imagine along with the rest of us, sitting BC Liberal MLA’s must be shaking their heads and asking what next?

What do you think Christy’s next goof up will be?

Family Day; It’s coming sooner than you think!

Family day: Phone calls from the Unemployment Line

This week,apart from the budget,all the talk has been about next years family day. The newspapers are full of interviews from ecstatic parents detailing how they can hardly wait to spend an extra day off with their families.

Turns out a lot of them might not have to wait until next February to achieve that goal.

It will cost a small business a small business with 5 employees $1135 if they stay open and pay those employees to work that day.( Time and a half on a statutory holiday accounts for that) .

If they close, the cost will vary dependent upon what those employees normally get paid but it is still a significant increase to the bottom line.

What is a business to do? Apparently a lot!

I have had several calls from clients in the last week advising their full-time hours have been cut back to part-time hours. Those same people advise at the same time their places of work have added new part-time employees.

I broached this topic at this weeks Chamber of Commerce meeting with several business owners I converse on a regular basis with and the consensus was that a lot of business are streamlining and doing just that.Changing full time jobs to part-time jobs and having employees work less regularly and in a lot of cases not qualifying for statutory holidays at all.

Increased turnover? Maybe? But there are a not many places to find a new job.

This is actually nothing new. if you can afford it,go to a restaurant of your choice 3 times in the next few weeks and see if you get the same waitress. Probably not and this trend would be why.

In 2009 The Ontario government shouted that their economy was strong enough to handle another holiday.

Three years and one Drummond report later their economy is in tatters.The job losses are staggering. Obviously they were wrong.

Bottom line is their provincial government introduced a frivolous way of getting your vote at a time when other costs are going up.

The B.C. Liberal government has now followed suit.

The end result, as in the Ontario example, is that this day will probably end up costing you more than you thought! Maybe even your job.

How does that make you feel?

As always your comments are appreciated!

Open,honest,accountable government in BC? Not now……

Gimme a break! Be open,honest and accountable? Why change whats worked for 11 years?

I hate to keep harping on the budget day tweet by the premier,but she had no reason to do that. She could have kept quiet and let Kevin Falcon present the budget and that part of the day would have been fine.

But she didn’t,she lied.

This from a Premier who ran her leadership campaign on open accountable honest government.

It’s not happening and as taxpayers you have a right to be choked.

There are lots of other hidden taxes other than the aforementioned MSP Lie.

Ethan Baron presents some of them in his excellent article today.

Why not come clean and tell the taxpayer what they are. Why do politicians think we are stupid?

50% of the people in BC didn’t vote last time,maybe they are fed up with their intelligence being insulted.

Maybe they want open,honest,accountable government. They are certainly not getting it now!

That’s the shame of it all.

What do you think?

Geoff Plant Speaks” If you grow it it should be legal”!

Hey Martha another day and these suckers will be ready for picking!

“I have always had a problem with the idea that the state should criminalize an act which is essentially no more complex than putting a couple of seeds in your back yard, waiting a while and then, when something grows, you put it in your pocket, you chew it or you smoke it,” Mr. Plant said.

So says Geoff Plant in a recent story in the Globe and Mail.

Problem with that quote is there are a lot of things easily grown.Opium is one. Pick it boil it and hammer back a cup of tea.

By former B.C. Attorney General Geoff Plant’s logic that should be legal too!

What do you think?

BC Liberals Continue trend,Throw Seniors under the bus!

BC Liberals:We are going to need a bigger bus!

The busiest person in the BC Liberal Party lately has been the Proverbial Bus Driver.

To Recap:

The Taxpayers were thrown under the bus with the sleazy introduction of the HST.

Then Finance Minister Kevin Falcon was tossed under the bus by the Premier over the resultant fallout from the aforementioned HST.

Christy Clark has thrown Gordon Campbell under the bus time and time again, when she blames his government for all the mistakes caused by the Liberals.( It’s a given that since Clark has had her fingerprints over a large part of what the Campbell government did,she threw herself under the bus too! She just doesn’t realize it)

Next on the list: New Minister of Justice Shirley Bond. She no sooner said the issue before the courts with the TV cameras was over, then Premier Clark promptly tossed her under the bus with a statement about soldiering on and finding a way to get them in there.

Now comes word, the BC Liberal Government for the last 11 years has collectively thrown the Senior population under that same bus. The BC Ombudsman put together a scathing 400 page report on the inadequacies of the system and presented it yesterday. Worse news is that the Liberals have had it in their hands for some time ( they have had part of the plan since 2009) and have done nothing with it.

Admittedly people like Clark,Campbell,Falcon and Bond belong where they were thrown. But the Taxpayers and Seniors?

It kinda makes you wonder who’s next,doesn’t it?

HST Transition Rules to be Rolled out Friday !

HST Transition-We will sneak that in Friday!

Finally we get good news that the transition rules regarding HST will be rolled out Friday.

We all wait with bated breath to see how long and what will happen with the transition.

Finance Minister Falcon says that we will find out Friday because they still have some last minutes negotiations to finish up.

Fridays are also known as bad news days in the government and the business world.Aptly named because most people don’t follow the news as much as other days and it is ripe for sneaking in bad news.

Did I say sneak in relation to news about the HST,that would be far to generous!

While the Premier dithers on,the court rules against her TV broadcasts!

Come On Caller,I might be doing a Faux Throne Speech,but call by-elections?

In a ruling that was not shocking,given the judges comments last week,Provincial Court Judge Malcolm MacLean tossed out the application to televise the riot trials today.

This following a morning of listening to the Premier on the radio telling the world she is going to review this and review that.

She has been on the job for 11 months and she is just getting around to reviewing the processes that most people have been complaining about for some time.

She had a great chance to show leadership on the issue of by-elections,but of course she didn’t. She said she would get around to calling them soon.

If you live in Chilliwack or Port Moody,the Premier just “Whatever’d ” you. How did that make you feel?

Nope, Her interview this morning was classic Paul Martin,lots of dithering,little substance.

Government Staff Appreciation Programs in Action !

I wish I could say I am shocked,but I am not.

I am not sure what is worse,the government having a 1.5 million dollar staff appreciation program or Linda Terras head of the B.C Public Service agency defending the program by saying it ONLY works out to $52 per employee.

This was uncovered in an excellent piece of reporting by Michael Smyth.

As John Cummins ,leader of the BC Conservatives , points out in the piece,there are a number of different ways the program can be abused.

This comes on the heels of Mr.Smyth’s excellent series on Bullying in the government.

It makes you wonder what else is going on and why the people we elected are doing nothing about it.

Mr and Mrs.Taxpayer" It's only $52 per employee,who cares"

UPDATE

There is only one trial the people want to see on TV Christy!

The people have no clue what is best for them!

The people want the Hockey riot trials to be over! They want the guilty charged and convicted.They don’t care whether they are on TV or not.

The only person in this province who does not get this is the Premier,Christy Clark.

Even Vancouver’s Dipper Mayor understands that!

In the name of safety,shame and fair hearings the judge that will rule on the application Monday thinks it’s a sham.

This is another in a long line of misjudgements and gaffes made by the Premier!

There is one trial, however, the people are anxious to see on TV. It will occur on election night in 2013.That day Christy Clark and her government will be judged by a jury of their peers.

That trial date can’t come soon enough!

It's bloody obvious isn't it! The people are not smart enough to connect with me!

B.C.Liberals to Chilliwack:We want to buy your vote,is it for sale?

My name is Naomi and I would like to buy your vote!

In another brazen demonstration of old school politics,the B.C.Liberals went to Chilliwack in an attempt to buy off the voters.

Ever since they have appointed their candidate for the yet to be called by-election they have had minister upon minister make an appearance here.

Are they running scared?

Yes; sources tell Political Insider that the B.C. Liberals own internal polling shows them losing this riding badly.

So much so that the Premier has not yet called this by-election.

We wonder when that will happen.This district wants to be represented in the legislature.

It’s only fair!

What do you think?