political blogs | Political Insider

BC Conservatives: Not Spoilers; Here for BC!

As the signs flew out the door and Premier Christy Clark said the BC Conservatives were here to play the spoiler role, I couldn’t help but laugh!

In 2009 when I was on the campaign team of Mary Polak in the role of Fundraising chair, I had occasion to go to the nomination meeting of Gordon Campbell.

Mr.Campbell came out on the stage and in the beginning of his speech waxed eloquent about wanting to be Premier because he owed it to British Columbia to get the province economically sound enough so that his grandchildren could live here, graduate here and get a good job here.

The problem with that speech was that he gave nearly the same one in the late ’90s in Vernon British Columbia. The only difference in the two speeches was that night in Vernon he said he wanted to be Premier so that his Children could live here, graduate here and get a good job here.

As you can see,the only thing that changed in the whole time that Campbell was Premier was that his kids grew up , had kids and the place still wasn’t good enough for them.

Ship ahead to 2011 and say Hello to Christy Clark and her families first agenda. Still the same old,I want to do good for families speech without anything ever happening.

Premier Clark has undertaken to review almost everything, a roll and task that should have been done when she first was a minister back in the early 2000’s.

The B.C Liberals have worn out their welcome with me and a lot of people. Like me those folks went through the motions in the last election because they did not want the NDP to form government.

We have suffered the nineties ( Known as the decade of destruction) under the NDP and continued the suffering in the 2000’S ( known as the decade of deceit) under the BC Liberals.

With the calling of the By-election today we begin ( for some of us continue) the process of restoring our illustrious province to one of respect and dignity. We want to return British Columbia to all those families who have been taxed and gauged over the last 20 years.

It’s time for real change in British Columbia, it’s time to correct the problems that the true spoilers of the wealth in BC Have caused, it’s time for the BC Conservatives !

Potentially on the eve before the by-elections are called the Globe and Mail reminds us how stupid Premier Clark is!

The uniform of choice for anybody that runs on the Premier's record!

Potentially as the CBC is reporting, Premier Christy Clark will finally get around to it and call the by-elections tomorrow..

At the same time Robert Matas writes an excellent piece in the Globe and Mail relating to the mess that Christy Clark caused over the building of the Evergreen Line.

Without rehashing all the furor the Premier caused over her incompetence on this file, it is astounding that the B.C.Liberal Party and in particular our stunned Premier would turn around and publish a flyer listing her goof up as an accomplishment.

Even more incredible is the fact that The B.C. Liberal candidate is proud to run on her record.

While I go out for a barf bag,could somebody run out and grab a couple of straight jackets for the Premier and her prospective underling.

Anybody that runs on her record should be locked away and committed.

Should the by-elections be called tomorrow, this will be the first opportunity for British Columbians in any riding to show the Premier that she is not the right person for the job.

Do the right thing, vote, tell the Premier we get it , and start the process of giving her the boot.

Your family will be glad you did!

Craig Scott wins Toronto Danforth in the battle of the Socialists

Jack Layton must be looking down proud tonight as dipper comrade Craig Scott soundly trounced fellow socialist in the Brawl for it all in Toronto Danforth.

It was an exciting day what with Olivia Chow getting booted out of a voting station and Bob Rae aka Marijuana Bob finally admitting what the rest of us know:” All I am is the leader of a third party!

I suspect the real big winner tonight will be Thomas Mulcair as he prepares to become Dipper in charge this weekend.

First on his agenda: Devour the Liberal Party of Canada.

Big Loser: Marijuana Bob; he just made a bad day worse and conceded on behalf of his candidate.

Premier Christy Clark’s promises mean nothing;London Ontario makes riot arrests; Clark’s team pulls a Rip Van Winkle!

So whatever happened to all those people who were going to be charged,arrested and made examples of in the great Vancouver Hockey riots?

Remember Premier Christy Clark on her post riot Photo Op soapbox?

She made a promise.She promised to expose these people as the cretins that they are.

What has Christy Clark accomplished? More or less nothing.

Almost a year later, 1 guy is doing hard time. What about the rest ?

Over in London Ontario where they had a riot this past weekend ( Not a football game,just St.Paddy’s day) 13 knuckleheads have been arrested and countless others have been suspended from school.

So rather than refer to our Premier Christy Clark as the Iron Lady , you should ask yourself what the real Iron Lady would have done.

More than likely she would have rounded them up and sent them to some quaint outpost like the Falkland Islands.

Our Premier ,on the other hand,is as Preston Manning said she was, A Snowbird.

We would all be better off if she did what most Snowbirds do; go south and retire!

Do not believe the B.C.Liberals claim to be good economic managers!

Question to either of you: What is more substantial $20 million or $40 million?

Think back to 2008 when the economy started to deteriorate and governments around the world started to put plans in place to survive economic recessions.

Think a little further ahead to May of 2009 when the provincial election was on and then Premier Gordon Campbell tried to make you believe in light of the turmoil his party was the only one to lead you through tough economic times.

He told you that his government managed to hold the deficit to 495 million and that alone should be enough to garner your support.

Then a few short months after the election the same Party with a reelected Premier told you that no; the budget had ballooned to $2.8 million but that it could be kept under control by a 1.6 billion payment from the Federal government if we implemented a thing called the HST.

Remember the feeling you had as you thought through all of this and wondered to yourself ” I am not an economic manager, I am just a regular person sitting at home who knew they economy was worse than they said, why didn’t the B.C.Liberals know this and be more on top of it than they were?”

I mean after all,they are the ones with the Finance department who is paid to research these kind of things,not you or me.

Remember you also asked yourself ” Why on earth did I vote for these people?”

I throw this out there because as I read Vaughn Palmer’s excellent column in the Vancouver Sun today, I was reminded of the Liberals economic mismanagement.

In particular a couple of quotes stood out: in 2011 Minister Pat Bell said that 20 million dollars was a substantial sum of money for the naming rights to BC Place.Then one year later the same Minister said 40 million was not good value for the taxpayers for the same rights.

Without discussing all the cost overruns and deficits in the BC Place project,one thing is abundantly clear: if a Minister in the BC Liberal Government thinks $20 million is substantial and $40 million is not, how can they lay claim to being good economic managers for the province?

They can’t and never will be able to again.

Don’t you agree?

You have been hosed Part 2

Premier Christy Clark:You don't invite me to you job announcement,I cancel your deal.

I had planned for this to be about the government hosing of the taxpayer during the teacher lockout out.

You know,Minister Abbott says we will not speed up the process the bill needs to be discussed hosing while the Premier says “Teachers get back to school your little strike won’t make a difference anyways.”

This is a hosing on a grand government scheme because the Premier could care less whether the teachers work or your kids go back to school.

This is all about optics and the longer the teachers stay out the more the government thinks they will recover a bit in the polls.This is true especially if the BCTF screws up again and pickets in front of government buildings.

This is what today’s blog was supposed to be about but this hosing was interrupted to allow the government to hose you again.

How? Cancelling the Telus arena name deal.

This no doubt happened because the premier had her shorts in a knot over being snubbed by Telus and not getting an invite to last weeks Telus announcement.( Who can blame them,Telus is a family friendly company,she on the other hand has budget speeches read in front of gangsters.)

The government now has to make up $40 million dollars they had counted on and you the taxpayer will undoubtedly be asked to pony up.

You can add that to all the other times you have been hosed by Christy,Kevin and George in the last month alone.( Think MSP,ICBC,BC Hydro and gas and carbon taxes)

So the question I leave you with today is this: Got a spare $40 million we can borrow?

Clark to teachers: It’s important the children don’t miss a day during this dispute. Important to who Christy?

Christy Clark: closer to the point of no return!

In another move that reeks of more flagrant self serving BS, the Premier asked the teachers not to strike.

She said it is most important that the children not miss a single day during the dispute.

Important for who Madam Premier?

Surely not for the children because if you really felt that way you could do something about it.

You could keep the legislature open for business over the weekend and get the bill through the house earlier.

You could also invoke closure.This would get the bill through the house even faster

No Madam premier what you mean is it’s important for you that the kids don’t miss any school.

Important for you because if they do,you and your government will be blamed for how you handled this.

Your poll results will continue to slide as will your tenuous grasp of your unelected Premiership.

So now that that’s on the table, What are you going to do?

87% of Teachers vote to get sucked into the governments plan to recover in the polls.

Premier Christy Clark: I swear I didn't create this whole mess to recover in the polls!

Coming on the heels of their original list of stupid demands, teachers have voted 87% in favor of striking on Monday.

If you have a small business or any business for that matter, expect a call from a parent asking to reschedule or for time off. Have your kids in day care? Expect them to be more overcrowded than usual.

Can’t find anywhere to put your children? The teachers union doesn’t care,they are off for 3 days beginning Monday.

Are you a pot dealer? Stock up it’s going to be a busy week!

This action is in response to bill 22 introduced yesterday by Education Minister Abbott.

The bill is far from flawless and it’s release holds the government complicit in this whole mess.

If the Education Minister believes strongly in this bill,then he should order the legislature in session over the weekend so that proceedings can be hurried along and the strike prevented.( Before anybody argues cost,consider what it will cost in late August to recall the legislature to prevent a full on strike)

Working over the weekend would be counter to the governments plan to use this as a stepping stone to recover in the polls.

What will happen?

Well it’s only 10am on Thursday,plenty of time for Premier Christy Clark to come out, contradict and throw the Education Minister under the bus.

The result? The government will come out looking just as stupid as the original demands made by the teachers and nothing will be solved.

Their standing on the polls? Worse than it is now!

BC liberals are the new branch office of the Libranos.

Christy once you get in you can never get out!

According to fellow blogger Akex G. Tsakumis,the B.C. Liberal Bus and driver are hard at work once again.

This time,tossed under the front wheels; Tariq Ghuman . This in an attempt to covers the Premiers ass on the big fumble inviting known gangster,hit-man ,murder,terrorist and Federal Liberal Bag-man,Jaspar Atwal to the annual budget shindig.

Who knows maybe the Liberals brought him in for training,a potential mediator appointee in the teacher’s strike talks.

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!