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Will the Summer Sun Set on Adrian Dix? #bcpoli #canpoli

Adrian Dix and I Clowning Around before Coast Guard Speeches.
Adrian Dix and I Clowning Around before Coast Guard Speeches.

So as the summer of 2013 races by and fall encroaches on our good times,what will become of Adrian Dix?

Will he stay,will he go or will he be pushed out?

Who Knows? For one thing the BCNDP has a habit of cannibalizing their own, just ask Carol James.

Already there are sounds he will be pushed out.

I spent a bit of time with Adrian when the BC Conservatives were working on the Coast Guard file back last spring.

I left with the impression he was too nice a guy for the role that was before him.

The election itself bore that out.

They should have attacked the BC Liberals rotten record of government and scandals.

They didn’t and it cost them an election they should have won.

My take: If they want to get anywhere four years hence they need to move swiftly to change their leadership without a public head-chopping.

Dix should do the right thing and go of his own free will.. This will keep the party united and allow them to change leaders quickly.

Another head chopping ala James will be nasty and I think mortally wound the party.

Why the short time frame for a change?

1) Four years goes by fast and they need to rebuild more than just the political leadership. Their executive must go as well.

2) The Greens will not sit idly by while the NDP drags their feet and will pick up support on the left.

3) The federal riding changes will be announced in a few short months and if you believe as I do that the BCNDP are merely the West-coast wing of the Federal NDP than you have to know that the next two years will preoccupy them with federal nomination battles. This will eat into their provincial rebuilding in a big way.

4) The provincial party could lose potential leadership candidates to those aforementioned nomination battles.

Failure to act now means they will limp into the 2017 BC Provincial election with nothing new to offer.

They would open their flank to the Greens and the BC Conservatives, with the possibility that not only would they lose the 2017 election but might not even form the opposition.

This would be a disaster they would probably not recover from.

Updated:John Cummins Calls It A Day! #bcpoli

Could hHe be Stepping Down?

According to reports on News1130 John Cummins is calling it a day.

Who can blame him.

He has put in a lot of hours and taken a lot of crap over the last couple of years.

With the result of the recent provincial election and the fact that the party needs to renew and fund raise, if true Cummins resigning will allow that process to get started sooner than later.

I know from participating in the growth of the party since 2009, that 4 years has away of zipping on by.

Should the report be true ( It says the party will have an official announcement tonight) than I for one wish John all the best.

I have already heard rumblings that there are a number of people are interested in running for the leadership should the rumor be true.

But that’s a post for another day.

Today, should the announcement come is John’s day.

Thoughts?

UPDATE: It’s Official

Stick Up At the Gas Pump! #gasprices #bcpoli

As I got out of the car I swore….

As I got out of the car this morning I swore I heard a voice coming from the gas pump asking me to raise my hands and keep them where I could see them.

They finally snuck the price over $1.50 per litre. ( Langley BC if you are curious)

The next target will be $1.60 .

As I pumped ( it was either that or push ) I looked around the station .

The looks on peoples faces said it all.

I looked at the guy across from me and both of us said the 7 words you used to not be able to say on TV.

In fact I found myself hankering for the good old days, you know,last week, when they were giving the stuff away for $1.28.

I shouldn’t have been shocked,after all I have read Jeff Rubin’s excellent series of books wherein he says it won’t be long before gas is up over $2.00. ( perhaps a little longer than even Mr. Rubin thought but still inevitable).

What got me even more choked was that an hour later I passed that same station selling the stuff for $1.38.

Don’t tell me earthly tragedies caused the gas price to rise for an hour, that’s a load of crap.

Plain , pure and simple consumer gouging is what it is.

It’s enough to make even a guy like me who wraps himself in the Canadian flag start carrying his passport for the 15 minute trip to the US to save some money.

How about you?

The BC Liberals: One of the First Things they should do! #bcpoli #canpoli #@christyclark

Official Party Status?

Now that the numbers are settling in and the future looks fixed for the next 4.5 years with a BC Liberal majority (I say looks because this is BC and things can change in a heartbeat) what should the BC Liberals do?

They should run out and find a safe BC Liberal seat for their leader to run and try to regain entry into the legislature with right?

Not necessarily because there is no guarantee that she would win or that a new MLA in a safe seat would want to step down. (Do you really think Andrew Wilkinson or Gordon Hogg would want to fall on their sword for Clark?)

I think one of the first things they should do, now that the Green party of BC has won a seat, is to grant them official party status. It’s within the rules of the house to do that and would be the nice thing to do right?

Yes but they should do it but not because it’s nice or right, right. The BC Liberals should grant official party status because it would all but guarantee them election victory in 2017.

How?

If you believe as a lot of people do that the Green vote split caused the NDP to lose a number of seats they should have won, then granting them that status will allow them to get even stronger and split the vote in even more seats in the future.

It would allow Premier Clark to further distance herself from Gordon Campbell who refused the BCNDP Official party status after they were thrashed in the polls and reduced to 2 seats in 2001.( This staement assumes that Clark does not get 801’d by her own party even though she won an election)

Thirdly and just as important; is that this election was one the NDP should have won, not just because of the polls but because of all the scandals and mayhem caused by the Liberal party. It was BCNDP’s to lose and lose they did.

Furthermore, with the rise of the Green party, this election was probably the NDP’s best and last chance to win an election in this province.

Granting first party status to the Greens would make the turmoil that was seen in the NDP with the beheading of Carol James seem like a walk in the park.

That turmoil, if you believe the BCNDP is a provincial arm of their Federal party, would also extend itself into the next federal election in 2015.

That would benefit either of the forces in the BC Liberals, Conservative or Liberal.

Extending an olive branch to the Greens and granting them first party status would be a win win for a party who likes quick wins.

Carol Berner: Put This Women in Jail Please! #bcpoli #canpoli #britishcolumbia #madd

Carol is a Criminal;She belongs in Jail!

This is not my usual political column but I have had enough!

Carol Berner got drunk,lost control of her car and killed a little girl.

Enough with the appeals and bs, send her to jail.

Enough of the silliness, Carol is a criminal who killed a little girl and only got 2.5 years.

That sentence in itself is a mere pittance compared to Alexa’s life and the sentence her parents will serve without her.

It is an insult to all concerned that she is outside on bail.

It is time for this nonsense to stop not just in this case but in other similar cases.

Carol should be in jail and if by some chance the key to that cell was lost after she was locked in, the world would be better for it!

Alexa is an Angel, she should be alive but Carol took that from her!

Bill Bennett : Social Media Faux Pas Election 2013 #bcpoli #webelieveinbc #canpoli

Bill Bennett: Follow me I am a Role Model!

Through out Election 2013 I will bring you bloopers from the wonderful world of social media. I will discuss their impact, if any, on the campaign. After the campaign is over I will compile a list and you the reader can vote on which one was the worst or best. ( depending on which side of the tweet you sit)

Kevin Krueger’s recent email to the Conservative party and it’s members will be ruled ineligible because it would probably win and heck email is not what everybody thinks of when they think of social media.

Twitter on the other hand is a social media vehicle widely used, perfected by Obama ( yes I gave credit to a Liberal) that will most likely land a number of users in hot water.

I read the tweet from Minister Bennett during a caucus gathering last night and could not believe he would say that the NDP were turds, election hutzpah or not .

This is wrong on more than one front.

Firstly, to refer to anybody as a turd on twitter is a basic Politics social media 101 faux pas that not even a backbencher would dare do that let alone somebody who is a Minister and party Campaign Manager.

The Campaign Manager part is important in that it is the role model that 85 other Today’s BC Liberal campaign managers will look up to.

With Bennett filling that role look for a fairly exciting campaign with lots of faux pas blogs from me and other bloggers.

Secondly and even more telling on the tweet to me was the phrase ” strange that everyone is getting along” because this statement in itself confirms what blogger Alex Tsakumis and others have been saying all along, namely that there is dissension in the Today’s BC Liberal Caucus.

With one tweet we now know that is true. ( Remember Bennett said he was joking about the turds not the dissension).

With a little over a month to go before the writ is dropped to kick off election 2013 the faux pas contest is off to a flying start!

Who will be next?

Stay tuned!

Updated:The Globe and Mail Alienates Their Readers Once Again! #bcpoli #webelieveinbc #election2013

More Shoddy Journalism from Canada’s National Newspaper.

29% of Liberal Voters have had enough of their own party so says today’s release of an Angus Reid Poll.

The Angus Reid poll says that if an election were held today 47% would vote for the BCNDP and 31% would vote for the BC Liberals.It goes on to say that the Conservatives and Greens polled?

It doesn’t..

In a slap in the face to those voters and readers who might vote Green or Conservative the Globe doesn’t even bother to tell you what they polled.

Writer Hume says that the poll is based on decided voters. So just what percentage of voters polled were decided? undecided?

Who knows ( other than Angus Reid) because the Globe certainly didn’t share that fact.

Nope the Globe doesn’t think those numbers are important enough to share with it’s readers.

The Globe used to live and die by it’s mantra “Well Written,Well Read”

Not Anymore.

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Updated: The Poll

Christy Clark and the Throne Speech that Prepares You for the Death Of Her Government!

This government started it’s road to defeat here!

I sat in the Speakers Gallery watching the Throne speech this past Tuesday and I was blown away by the lack of enthusiasm by any of the people present ( Lana Popham excluded).

I have seen and heard plenty of throne speeches in my time and this was by far the worst.

Lets get Harry Lali’s opinion: ZZZZZZZZZZZZ

That’s right Harry was sound asleep through part of it and if it wasn’t for sidekick Popham poking him and waking him up we would have heard him snoring.

Worse than that were all the BC Liberals shaking hands before the start of the speech welcoming each other back (Except Kevin Falcon he wasn’t there). This implies that these folks didn’t get together before the speech which makes you wonder how cohesive that caucus is.

Wonder no more as Clark has tried and evidently* failed to bring back the ousted Independent John Slater back to support her budget.

You might be thinking she has a majority why would she need him?

To answer that question is to contradict a famous line uttered by former Manitoba Premier Gary Filmon ” a majority is a majority is a majority”.

A majority is not a majority when your own caucus will not support your budget. Thus the reason Clark likely went begging Slater to come back.

Will the government fall? That’s one scenario.

Will Clark fall? That’s another scenario?

If the budget flunks the test of the house will Clark go begging to the Lieutenant Governor for more time?

Are there other scenarios?

Once again lets ask Harry? ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

* I use the word evidently because after all this the John Slater, Christy Clark and the BC Liberals we are talking about.

Miss Congeniality Once Again Pleads Guilty for Her Actions at the Hockey Riots.

There is nothing to rate her Miss Congeniality after her performance at the Vancouver Hockey Riots!

First she plead guilty, then she changed her mind. Now Sophie Laboissonniere is now back to pleading guilty for her actions during the hockey riots in Vancouver.

Apart from the terrible example she set for young people looking up to her, she has abused the court system with her flip-flopping on whether she is guilty or not.

The judge should set an example in this case and give her some time.

After all she has wasted enough of ours hasn’t she?