Vancouver Sun | Political Insider

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!

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?

Teachers instructed to only work bell to bell today!

We are working Bell to Bell today! This is entirely seamless and you won't notice anything ,given that's all we have been doing this year anyway!

This morning it was reported that the teachers were instructed to only work bell to bell today.

I wonder how that is different from what they have been doing all year?

Lets face it,they have been refusing those picky little administrative duties like report cards since day one.

Really, how can you take them seriously when they have not been doing their jobs since school started.

A recent Environics poll shows the province to be evenly split. It,is I think is important to note that the teachers commissioned the poll.

When you listen to the radio call in shows,about 90% of the callers want their teacher burned at the stake. Where were these people when Environics called.

I think,the teachers are in for a rude awakening if they vote for a general strike,so is the Labor Board.

The petition for approval for that strike goes before the labor board tonight.According to the Vancouver Sun, the board has already “signaled a strike lasting a few weeks is not a big distraction“.

Cue the Xfiles music in the elevators at the Labor Board.

Unbelievable; a general strike a few short weeks before spring break is no big deal.

Just what the kids need: a few weeks off followed by a few more weeks off!

The only people to benefit from that will be the liquor stores and pot dealers.

The fact that it got to this point is a black mark not only on the teachers but the BC Liberal government as well!

It should have been dealt with back in the fall.The legislature should have been called back to solve this. Any negotiations and legislation should have been done months ago!

Instead, we have been treated to photo-ops and faux throne speeches by the BC Liberal government.

We have had the usual round of ludicrous demands by the union.

Further proof that this government and frankly the teachers are stale and void of creative ideas.

What would you have done?

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!

Premier starts the day with a Twitter lie!

I am the Premier and I can fool all of the people all of the time!

The Premier Lied! She went on Twitter in the Morning and said there would be no new tax hikes in the budget and then increases your MSP Premiums. A Premium is another word for tax.

Finance Minister Falcon Shrugged it off by saying it’s only $5 per month ( $60 per year).

In the BC Liberal world it’s only $60,in ours it’s a LIE.

This is just another in a long line of gaffes By the B.C.Liberal Premier.

She promised to do politics different and she starts her budget day with a lie.What could be worse?

Kinda makes you think the Premier is in over her head,doesn’t it?

Kinda makes you wonder if you can believe this whole budget thing too ?

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?

Ontario’s Drummond report is a cautionary tale for B.C.voters

BC's Economic D-Day should be now,not after Election 2013

This week in Ontario Don Drummond,chair of commission on public service reform , released a 688 page report that should serve as a cautionary tale to voters here at home in B.C.

We have a little over a year until we have our own provincial election and we have plenty of time to ask those who are running what they are planning and what will it cost.

We should not have to wait for the writ to drop do know exactly where we stand fiscally and where the parties will take us.

All during the last election we heard that the deficit was in the area of 495 million only to be told right after that it was in the billions. The B.C. Liberals told us no HST and then brought it in right after the election.

Today,Adrian Dix and the NDP have a number of promises and plans so how much? What is your plan to get us to where you want the province to go.

Adrian says he doesn’t want to be in the limelight. Guess what Adrian ? You are applying for the top job in the province and a formal interview is in order!

Every politician should now and always be in the limelight.They want to spend your money!

An independent economist should be appointed and have to release a no B.S state of affairs. Both the opposition and government should have to read it and tell us well in advance of any election what they want to do and how much it will cost.( Not just now but before every election)

This report is not to be confused with the upcoming smoke and mirrors budget. This week the government will say and do anything to try and boost their standing in the polls.

Rather we need to know exactly where we stand financially right now. Ontario found out after their election,a little to late to do anything.

People held the government’s feet to the fire on the HST,why not on this?

People and politicians alike always say what they do now will help generations to come.

As the Drummond report shows nothing could be further than the truth.

If we don’t do this, we vote and will get more of the same and have nobody to blame but ourselves.

Why would you want to vote and place your trust in somebody who will not stand in front of you and tell you the truth,tell you their plan?

Do you want 4 more years of that?

Hasn’t this gone on long enough?

BC Liberals Continue trend,Throw Seniors under the 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.