Let them stay on strike. We can pay off our debt in a few years! I will do my part by homeschooling if needed!

I think far more than a few years will be needed to pay of the debt this liberal money mismanagers has brought about. They’ve tripled the debt since they took office, and their record deficits are disgrace for a party that touts itself as the financial savior of the universe.

Tell me too, who will be preparing the materials you will use to teach your children, who will answer the difficult questions children ask, who will set the exams? How will you socialise your children if they are at home every day with limited or no contact with other children? When they fail, who will you blame?

Incidentally, obiwan, if home schooling is so fantastic, why aren’t you doing it already? Why do it only “if needed”, why not by choice, right now?

Some good points ammonra! Just imagine the debt we would be in right now if we had an NDP Gov running the show! oh my!
I do agree the Liberals have not lived up to the fiscal responsibility they have always beat their chest to, but thank god the NDP are not in power.

Homeschooling? Good luck teaching math, chemistry, biology, physics and more.

More liberal trolling balogna

Actually, I could do lesson plans, etc. I have home schooled before and the reason we didn’t this year is convenience! We are lucky to have our kids in a decent school, but I personally think a number of teachers are way overpaid and underworked. There needs to be a system in place to get rid of the crappy teachers. As for socialization, our kids get out a lot, so social skills are something they are learning. If you only think school can teach social skills, I feel sorry for your kids

Just have to say I agree with you Northway.

And ammonra, I dont believe in making excuses for anyone! I answer the difficult questions with my kids. I dont believe that a 23 year old out of school has anywhere near the life experience to teach about the real issues in life, such as ethics and morals. Anyone can teach math and science!

Just have to say I agree with you Northway.

Well I guess you don’t have long o wait northway.

Don’t feel sorry for my kids, obiwan. One has a Ph.D., one a Master’s degree and one is a pharmacist. All went through the public school system in College Heights and benefitted greatly from the very competent and responsible teschers at College Heights high school.

As to anyone teaching math and science, I wold suggest that first the teacher has to understand it, and many parents do not, or have forgotten them. Could you discuss quadratic equations with your children, or calculus, or the various trigonometry thereoms? Could you discuss the rationale behind the Table of Elements, the difference between atomic number and atomic weight, a molar solution compared to a normal solution, the basic structure of DNA and how it can repl;icate itself? Those are all pretty simple concepts in modern science teaching?

With regards to the comment that we should be glad the NDP is not in power because the Liberals screwed up the provinces finances so badly. The conclusion is ridiculous. The Liberals have increase the provincial debt far faster and more efficiently than the NDP ever did. The Liberals have increased the provincial debt threefold starting at the level the NDP left, which included two years of balanced budgets. True, the total debt doubled under the NDP, but that just shows how badly the Liberals have done. They tripled the amount the NDP left. That is, the incompetent Liberals increased the debt FIVE times the amount the NDP did. So, in what universe does that make the Liberals more efficient money managers and preferable to the NDP. Remember too, despite going deeper into debt by a factor of FIVE compared to the NDP, the Liberal economic performance during their decade has been worse than the NDP decade, by abut a third (NDP=3%, Liberals=2%). The truth of the matter is that this province would be much better off if the pseudo-Liberals had lost the elections in the last 10 years, and the NDP had been running the province. We would still have BC Rail too (and $6,000,000).

Yes ammonra you are correct. We would be better of with more, higher paid government workers and an unemployment rate double or triple where we are at now. That would make a lot more sense! I am looking forward to an NDP government now. All those nasty corporations can flee the province and when we get the federal transfer dollars for being a “have not” province again we will be rolling in dough!

How disgusting that labour action is needed to fund our public education system. I considered a career in teaching but quickly realized that a four or five year undergrad coupled with two years of teach training resulting in six possibly seven years lost wages in addition to education costs…all to top out at a whopping 65 or 70 grand in ten years or so if lucky, to put up with parents, shaky political system and be treated like a glorified babysitter…well, thank goodness I dodged that bullet.

Teachers have been partners in my three kids’ education and I now have two in post sec and one in trades and believe me they would not have made it without the support of our family AND their teachers/administration.

THANK YOU TEACHERS the majority of us appreciate your investment in our kids and realize that while you do care for our kids, they are ultimately PARENTS responsibility and you deserve a good wage and fair treatment.

Well, interceptor, since the number of jobs depends on the economy and since the NDP’s economic performance in their decade was 50% better than the Liberals’ in their decade, it must be self evident that there would be more jobs under the NDP than there are under the Liberals. Of course, I base that on a degree of logic, you may differ.

As to high incomes with overpaid, bloated incomes, look no further than the Liberal authorised pig-trough incomes paid to people like BC Ferries Hahn, and many others in the Liberal controlled public sector management side. Bloated management salaries are an absolute scandal in this province, thanks to Campbell, Clark, Hansen and their ilk.

“Let them stay on strike. We can pay off our debt in a few years! I will do my part by homeschooling if needed!”

LOL Obiwan. Someone has to mark you kid’s home schooling work. So who do you think does that?

“Bloated management salaries are an absolute scandal in this province”

Of course none of the other provinces in Canada suffer from this …. nor any of the states in the USA … or any of th3e countries in Europe … of China for that matter.

Ammonra … I wwould have thought you were smarter than that and less parochial ….

Hey NoWay, I could contract out the marking to a teacher in Alberta for way less:)

Instead of making an assumption about the relative trough feeding levels in BC compared to other jurisdictions, gus, why not actually read some factual information. Go here: http://northerninsights.blogspot.ca/2012/03/things-that-make-you-go-hmmm.html

Interesting reading…thanks for sharing!!

Well gus, ammonra provided some info to back up his post.

Info that seems to support his statement “bloated management salaries are an absolute scandal in this province”.

What have you got gus, besides hot air?

That link comparing US salaries to Canadian isn’t comparing apples to apples. The folks in the US pay waaaaay less income tax than we do. They also get to deduct the interest on their mortgage on their income tax return. Compare those salaries to net after taxes and they will be alot closer.

I’m sure your boss could find a contractor to do your job for less too Obiwan.

Anyone who lived through the 90’s in BC can tell you which government was the better manager. I suspect dippers like ammonra will roll out all sorts of ammo suggesting we were better off in the “have not” days. I would expect nothing different. It will be hard to convince non-public service taxpayers however.

Really NoWay, most of the salaries posted were double and triple that of the Washington examples that ammonra posted.

If you pay $1000/month mortgage that you get to right off thats $12000. of which you will recieve about 1/3 back in taxes, so $4000.
Way less income tax, like how much NoWay 25%…..if you pay $40,000 income tax in Canada and your taxes are 25% less in the USA thats $10,000 less. So the toatal difference is $14,000, mortgage right off and income tax saving.

Kinda looks like the salaries the BC Liberals have handed their management friends are an absolute scandal in BC just like ammonra said. No matter what kind of jurisdiction they are compared to.

Ammonra, I don’t know which Province or state (of mind) you were living in when the NDP singlehandidly sunk our economy.
Have you forgotten the rally at CN Centre over their health care mismanagement? Have you forgotten the thousands of forestry jobs that evaporated under their dismal
stewardship over our forests? Have you forgotten how mining & exploration in B.C.
was almost extinct under the Glenn Clark regime?
I’m not too crazy about the Liberals right now, but at their worst they are head & shoulders above what the NDP did to us. I voted NDP back then…Never again.

I was living in Prince George, BC, working at what was, then, PGRH.

The problems with the economy in BC were not exclusively due to NDP policy, although they made mistakes. There was also an Asian recession. I know the right wing shills denied that at the time and a few still do, but history says different. That Asian recession had a severe negative impact on BC’s economy, but despite that at no time did BC’s economy enter a depression (2 quarters of a declining economy). Is that true of the Liberal experience in the last decade?

A couple of years ago we had an economic recession due to greedy and incompetent banking procedures in that country where lending money below the cost of interest (sub-prime loans) was considered a desirable practice. Were the provincial Liberals responsible for that? Should they be held responsible for the effects of a recession in another country? Honestly, probably not. Similarly, the NDP was not responsible for the consequences of a recession in one of our major trading partners (Japan).

To your specifics, yes I do remember the health care rally. I have worked in health care all my life until I retired. Let me tell you that as restrictive as the NDP were from a lack of funds, never were they vindictive to workers in health care. They discussed matters with them respectfully and worked out a compromise. I do recall that Gordon Campbell then blasted the NDP because they didn’t fire 1400 hospital employees. Apparently firing people is the Liberal way. Fortunately, the NDP worked through attrition. I clearly remember the layoffs at PGRH under Mr. Cleaver and how the Liberals supported that, although I fought it tooth and nail.

I also remember that it was the NDP that started post-graduate medical education in Prince George with the Family Practice Residency Program at the suggestion of Dr. Galt Wilson. That influenced other medical education leading to the local medical school, indirectly not directly, of course. Let me also remind you that the University was built and extended under the NDP.

As for the forests, yes there was a decline, but I would remind you that mills were still employing people in and around PG. Since the Liberals took over and the Conservatives reasched an “agreement” with the US on lumber tariffs, the lumber industry has tanked. That has been under the Liberals, remember, not the NDP. Even at its worst, no NDP Minister ever found it necessary to recommend that workers in Mackenzie fly up to Alberta oil fields to get a job and fly back again. That was one of PG’s local MLAs wasn’t it? Things were never that bad under the NDP, only under the Liberals.

I am not too knowledgeable about mining, but I understood that Tumbler Ridge has suffered during the Liberal era. Is that true, did coal mines close while they were in power? I do know that the high profile mining projects currently being considered basically rely on killing off a productive lakes with poisonous tailings. I am most definitely opposed to that, and I do not apologise in the least for believing that our environment is more important than a few million (or billion) dollars for some investers.

Despite all of that and taking all of it into account, still the NDP improved the economy in their 10 years more than the Liberals have in theirs. That is a measurable fact, like it or not. It is also a measurable fact that the biggest deficits were under the money mismanageing Liberals, with the province’s two largest deficits ever. The NDP left the province with over a billion dollar surplus according to the economic committee set up by Gordon Campbell immediately after the election in which he won power.

However, the most shameful part of the Liberal record is the deceit of the voters in order to grab and retain power at any cost. It started with a promise not to privatise BC rail and continued on a decade later with a promise that the HST was not being considered. Both were lies. BC Rail was sold, leasehold, for 990 years at a cost of a billion dollars, supposedly. It included massive tax breaks, so the billion should be reduced by the value of the tax breaks. How much were they, 500 million? 300 million? You tell me, then tag another 6 million onto it, at least for the Basi-Virk costs. Then tag another bunch of millions onto it for the prosecution costs, which must match at least the defence costs and likely a multiple of that.

I could go on for many more paragraphs with the vindictive approach the Liberalsa have used, most of which cost the taxpayer pots of money. That is the reason Campbell was driven from office, and is also the reason that Christy Clark is in a tailspin. Nobody wants them anymore. Call an election and get it over with, for god’s sake!

Are you for real? From what I remember
Dr. Wilson had to do alot more than suggest to get a residency program.
The forest industry tanking was the Liberals fault??? I repeat, what Province,
Country or alternate universe have you been in for the last 5 years. Are you aware
that the world has been in & is still suffering from the worst recession since the Great Depression? The perfect storm of sub prime mortgage scandal,pine beetle infestation & general overall greed of major lending institutions world wide is what did in the forest industry. I do remember it was the NDP who had it within their power to mitigate the Pine Beetle & chose to do nothing.
The Japanese recession was in full swing long before the NDP took power & their impact on the forest industry was nowhere
near as devastating as the American melt down.
TumblerRidge became vibrant again under the Liberal watch, as did oil, gas
& mining exploration.
As for the NDP having a better economic record, well when your #1 trading partner is having the greatest economic expansion in their history, it’s pretty hard to miss out. Yet the NDP almost did. They took our Provinces’ #1 industry & drove it straight into the dirt. They pushed & scared away
alot of big investors & opportunity. We went from a have status to have not.On the flip side the Liberals actually did not too badly considering the economic state our world was/is in.
I also could go on for paragraphs at the misuse of public funds, the arrogance that
power gave to the NDP (remember Andrew
Petter..”We’re the Government, we can do what we want.”) Fast Ferries anyone?

Oh one more thing…Who was Glenn Clarks right hand man when the NDP imploded & almost went extinct, 2 sitting MLA’s I recall…? What was that guys name…?
I know I’ve heard it recently… Oh yeeeaaahh…ADRIAN DIX!!! Seriously,
you’re going to trust a Government that has him & Chairman Moe back in power?

bang on detoe43. The world underwent one of the biggest expansions in history in the 90’s with a notable drop in Asia in 98. We went from first to last in Canada. We had a top marginal tax rate of 54%!!! No government deserves more of a taxpayers dollar than the tax payer. Remember the luxuray vehicle tax that kicked in at $34,000. Head offices moves east. The ability of the Dippers to to re write history is mind blowing. The world is headed and is in very dangerous economic times. We can’t let Dix get control of this province.

As I posted earlier. The only ones who thought the 90’s were good were public sector employees (ammonra). The rest of us paid for it dearly.

Yes, Dr. Wilson did more than just suggest it, but the point is that the NDP DID respond and DID set up the program. That is a fact.

Yes, I am aware that there is a world recession. As I pointed out, it was due to the unmitigated greed of US banks. I asked if the Liberals should be held responsible, then answered it “Honestly, probably not”. Try actually reading with some comprehension. Your responses will make more sense then, and you won’t be in the position of putting words in someone else’s mouth.

I’m glad you admitted there was an Asian recession. Usually Liberal supporters deny it happened at all. Thankyou for reading that correctly, at least.

Regardless of who did what and what trading partners were or were not doing, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and this pudding had the NDP with an average 3% economic increase and the Liberals with an average 2% increase, maybe less since the recession hit since then. Most people believe 3% is more than 2%, so the NDP were more successful economically than the liberals, like it or not.

I think the #1 industry has declined significantly since the Liberals took over. As I said, the NDP made mistakes, but they were not in power when the industry tanked. The Liberals were. How many Mills have closed during the Liberal’s tenure compared to the NDP? How many raw logs, at BC worker’s expense, are now being shipped out of BC? Are you going to say that is the NDP’s fault as well? How typical of a Liberal supporter to blame anybody and everybody, but especially the NDP for the results of Liberal policy in forestry, and almost everything else. We’ve had ten years of blaming the NDP and its getting really old. After more than ten years of Liberal screwup and corruption surely its time for the Liberal government to take responsibility for the consequences of their actions. fat chance of that, though, eh?

If, by your use of the term “Chairman Moe” you are making a parallel between Chairman Mao of the People’s Republic of China and Moe Sihota, I can only say that you are an ignorant man, sir. I do, however, note that those who don’t have a leg to stand on invariably resort to invective and insult. Congratulations!

Ah Ammonra, you accuse me of miscomprehension, yet in your own words you contradict your own argument.
“I do, however, note that those who don’t have a leg to stand on invariably resort to invective and insult.” Interesting, as you go on to insult me
more than once in your reply.
“Regardless of who did what and what trading partners were or were not doing,”
Come on, the Asian contraction had nowhere near the economic impact of this recession.
Only a complete & utter fool would deny that. No your argument doesn’t hold air
much less substance.

“As I pointed out, it was due to the unmitigated greed of US banks. I asked if the Liberals should be held responsible, then answered it “Honestly, probably not”.”
Your words. “I think the #1 industry has declined significantly since the Liberals took over. As I said, the NDP made mistakes, but they were not in power when the industry tanked. The Liberals were. How many Mills have closed during the Liberal’s tenure compared to the NDP?”
Again, your words, I don’t even have to try here. Does the NDP believe in the simple economic reality of supply & demand? If your #1 market goes in the gutter & has no need for your product,
how long do you think that industry will be able to compete & show profitability?
How would the NDP have done things different if they were in office when the Recession hit? Oh yeah, they were in office when there was no recession & thousands of forestry jobs disappeared & yes mills did shut down or took extended downtime. The NDP rode on the coat tails of the US expansion & almost screwed that up.
You really don’t want to start with the corruption angle, as I recall 2 sitting NDP
Premiers were forced out of office due to scandalous behavior. Who was/is the most despised political figure ever to represent the PG area? Does the name Paul Ramsey ring a bell?
“Try actually reading with some comprehension. Your responses will make more sense then, and you won’t be in the position of putting words in someone else’s mouth.” Your words.”How typical of a Liberal supporter to blame anybody and everybody,”. Your words. “I’m not too crazy about the Liberals right now,”. My words.”I voted NDP back then…Never again.” Also my words. As you can see I really am not a big L liberal supporter,
but I am very much against the NDP & don’t really have a whole lot of options in B.C.
Ten years of blaming the NDP, you bet. They
messed things up so badly last time it is absolutely frightening to think they actually have a real chance of forming our next government.