So who is waiting in the wings to jump on the ship brfore she sales?

Wish Pat all the best with his health.

I thought he would run, and if he won and the Liberals lost he could get four more years of **big salaries** without the attendant work. Just sit on a back bench in opposition and let the world go by for four years.

In any event, the Liberals lost touch with the people, and don’t deserve to be in Government for a while.

We have major, major problems coming up, that can’t be solved with propaganda, and sleight of hand.

Problem is we are between a rock and a hard place. Liberals on the one hand, and NDP on the other.

Either way the people of BC loose.

Good Luck in the future Pat. Thank you for your service.

My Dad and my Father in Law have both lived over 10 years+ in their 80’s with aneurysms, and they have not changed their lifestyle in either case.

Most aneurysms are discovered just this way, when looking for something else. They are monitored for size changes and only operated on when they reach a certain size. Even today, my 81 year old Dad’s risk of death from a rupture is considered to be below 8% vs. his other health problems that are much more likely to be a much bigger problem.

Mr. Bell is bowing out for many reasons, only one of which is his aneurysm. He can live normally for decades with this particular health problem.

Let’s face it, Mr. Bell and Ms. Bond are walking a short plank at this point of the election cycle and he decided to jump before he was pushed….

I find it amazing that people do not understand the kind of high stress life that active politicians …. the non-back benchers …. lead. It is not a job for just anyone.

No matter which side of the right-left continuum one is on, the personal impact of the job is still the same.

Let us face it, any reasonable person who is intersted in maintaining their health and living a few years longer would try to remove stress from their life when discovering a medical hurdle. That is the time in one’s life that one has to make a decision, am I living for myself, or am I living for the masses.

“The globe is going through dramatic change, now is not the time for experimentation with unproven economic theories. It’s time to stick to the fundamentals that have served us well for the past 12 years” said Bell.
============================================

The “fundamanetals” that are now the cause of the “dramatic change” because they didn’t work any better than what was tried in the previous 10 years to that. So now that we’ve ‘proven’ what DOESN’T work, do we just repeat the same mistakes? Or do something more intelligently, and finally re-examine the “fundamentals” themselves?

Bang on gus. I would also think that aneurysms differ from person to person and from case to case.

Just because a person was able to do something in one case does not mean the same for another.

missing Poppa’s fathers have both lived in their 80s with aneurisms for some time and have not changed their lifestyles.

So, they kept on chopping a cord of wood a day behind the woodshed during their 70’s and 80’s? And they gambled a lot and won many lotteries? ;-)

Socredible, I guess you are forgetting that Canada has been coming through the recession smelling like roses up to now compared to other industrialized countries.

Who knows if the NDP ended up prevailing for another 12 years, and had prevailed nationally as well …. we could have ended up like Greece? Spain? Italy? France? Ireland? …… or would they have taken us in the direction of Germany? Norway? Danmark?

gus, Canada like Australia is a former colony of the the UK and rich in resources. If it wasn’t for the vast natural resources that we have in Canada, the situation would have been much worse than Greece, especially with the level of mismanagement in Canada.

If you open your mind, you will see that the BC liberals have been one of the most corrupt politicians in Canada in the past decade and they have lost the trust of the people in BC, Ontario and Quebec.

Liberal Party is now on life support and the government in Victoria can fall even before the next election.

Heaven’s to Betsy, Gus, of course my elderly fathers don’t chop wood these days – in fact they never did much of that when in their 50’s or 60’s. But they have not had to cease living a normal life because they have had an aneurysm diagnosed. They both have lived normal lives for their age and total health situation.

Typically aneurysms were only ‘discovered’ before the extensive use of imaging technology, when they did rupture. These days there are several surgical techniques that can be used to repair the arterial weakness and prevent sudden death.

So I repeat my point, having an aneurysm is not rare in itself, nor an automatic death sentence. Mr. Bell can, and most likely will, live a good quality life in his post-politics career with or without an aneurysm. I am confident he is getting good care for his health issues and will get treatment when the risks increase to a point they are considered life- threatening. But it sure does make a great opportunity to get off the roller coaster before it crashes.

Pat Bell, I wish you well and thank you for the awesome amount of hard work you’ve given on behalf of your constituents.
No time like the present to enjoy your life and you’re faced with life altering health problems.
No doubt you’ve got a lot of years still in you so go have some fun. You deserve it.

“the government in Victoria can fall even before the next election.”

Univ ….. I hope you are not associated with UNBC in any educational role, it would really affect my thinking about UNBC’s credibility.

Great man, did alot for Mackenzie when things fell..stay well.

I think we have Harper’s government to thank for our missing the worst effects of the global recession so far, gus. Not the BC Liberals. So far as governments can be praised, or blamed, for that.

And it might be remembered that Harper’s government actually did give us a MEANINGFUL tax cut when the GST was reduced from 7% to 5%. And introduced a Home Improvement Tax Credit, which gave a great psychological boost to Consumers to renovate their houses, greatly helping the domestic building supply industry when it needed it the most. They should have continued that for more than the year it was in, but what they did do was greatly appreciated ~ it really made a difference.

What did Campbell do? Impose a HST that took over $ 800 million MORE in purchasing power out of the pockets of BC consumers. Some help that was to any of us that depend on BC consumers for our bread and butter.

Univ is right. The Liberals would only need to have a few of their MLAs absent during a confidence vote, four I believe, and they could fall before the current session ends, which would trigger an earlier than mid-May election.

Socredible, according to reports, the Harper government, as oppposed to the Government of Canada, spent $5.9-billion bankrolling the shift to the HST in B.C. and Ontario.

So, please explain to me how you reconcile that $800million taken “from consumers pockets” with the money (a portion of the $5.9billion) taken from Canadian consumer pockets and given to the two provinces….

I mean, let’s look at the whole picture … PLEASE!!!!! Don’t act so innocent in trying to make a point.

Well said Gus, we don’t always agree but you are bang on!

A confidence vote? So early before the election …. 4 seats …. governments have ruled successfully with less than a 4 seat majority and you know it …..

Univ … you wrote: “If you open your mind, you will see that the BC liberals have been one of the most corrupt politicians in Canada in the past decade and they have lost the trust of the people in BC, Ontario and Quebec.”

I am now VERY confident you know squat about Canadian politics.

Please explain the connection of the BC Liberals to Ontario and Quebec.

Yes, governments have ruled with less than a 4 seat majority, BUT the current BC Liberal majority, as reported in a story in one of the sidebars on Opinion250 only a few days ago, has shrunk.

And if ~ I believe the number given in the story was 4, though I may be mistaken ~ that number of Liberal MLAs happened, for one reason or another, to be absent during a confidence vote, the combined Opposition now has enough votes to defeat them.

This was admitted in the story by Mike deJong, the current Finance Minister, and John Horgan of the NDP said his Party would attempt do just that if the opportunity arose.

It is highly unlikely the Liberals would allow enough of their flock to be absent for that to happen, but the possibility is there it could happen.

Hope all is well with his health, sometimes in life, we just have to bow out and take care of ourselves..Thanks for your service to us in the north…Be well

Socredible- Do you really think the NDP is ready for an election earlier than May?

So tell me, socredible, in the game of strategy, who would gain the most by precipitating a fall of the government prior to the legislated election date?

Both parties can play the game. To assume that the advantage would be the NDP’s is rather pretentious.

Who initiated the move to have BC adopt the HST, gus? The Harper government, or Campbell’s?

The Federal government, no matter whether it was Conservative or Liberal, has had an open invitation to EVERY Province to ‘harmonise’ their PST with the GST and have a HST, ever since we’ve had a GST. Which Brian Mulroney originally brought in way back when.

Only Quebec had enough sense to ‘harmonise’ their PST properly. Quebec, not the Feds, collects HST in Quebec, and they give the Federal government the GST portion of it. They’re not going to be reduced to beggers in their own Province, for money generated in Quebec in the first place. Not like we’ve become here.

It is to the Fed’s advantage to have a HST style sales tax, a ‘value-added’ tax with Input Tax Credits returning what was collected by one business after sales to another business, right through to charging the final consumer who’s stuck for the whole tax bill.

Rather than the former PST, which was a non-value added ‘one-way’ tax paid by both businesses and consumers. Because the Federal government collects the largest portion of Corporate Income Tax. BC collects some, too, but the rate is considerably lower than what the Feds take. And having BC adopt the HST removes the PST portion of Capital Cost Allowance (depreciation)that WAS a deduction from Corporate Income Tax.

Now a business can only claim the annual allowable amount of CCA on the cost of the Asset acquired alone. Not on the cost PLUS the PST, as before.

Same with PST formerly levied on operating costs. Now, as HST, they are Input Tax Credits, and no longer deductable as expenses against sales revenues.

So under HST the rate of profit reported by businesses RISES, and so does the Federal government’s (mostly, though BC gets some more, too) Income Tax take. That’s money that goes mostly to OTTAWA. Money that used to be collected as PST and ALL of it stayed here, in BC. To be spent here in BC.

And, the broadening of the tax base subject to HST increased the tax taken from the pockets of BC consumers by another $ 800 million a year to help make up for that. That’s
$ 800 million that DIDN’T get spent with BC businesses from consumer incomes.

We noticed a great difference in our business, which sells exclusively into the domestic market after HST came in. It fell off. So did our contractor customers. Their business volume fell off even more noticeably. You can’t take that much out of any economy and expect anything else.

But those businesses that export improved their profit margins, and they are larger businesses, for the most part. And for a one time bribe of $ 1.6 billion to Campbell, that much or more now flows eastwards ANNUALLY in increased Federal Income Taxes. Money that could have, and should have, remained in BC.

You’d have to ask the NDP that, gus. I’m not of that ilk, myself, though I gather from the news story they seem quite anxious to put Mrs. Christy’s government out of its misery at the earliest possible opportunity.

gus, my area of expertise is not politics, but based on what you wrote above, it seems you are out of touch with the recent developments in the Victoria. Christy’s government is hanging by a thread.

The BC liberals wish for an election in May, hoping that the possible April election of Justine Trudeau in the federal Liberals can rub to them and change their fortunes.

But they need to pack their bags. I wont be surprised if Christy, Yamamoto (who supported HST) and a majority of other Liberal MLAs loose their seats.

I have no idea how ready the NDP is, oldcoot. Obviously they must feel they are if one of their guiding lights, Horgan, seems prepared to bring the Liberals down early if the opportunity arises.

I don’t think it would make much difference to most people, they’ve already decided who they’re going to vote against.

Many that can’t countenance ever voting for the NDP, and are totally fed up with the Liberals, will vote Conservative ~ and many more would probably do that if they dumped Cummins as Leader, and ran leaderless.

They could always choose their Leader, maybe even the next Premier if they get enough votes, from amongst the Conservative MLAs elected afterwards. Worked for Social Credit in 1952 ~ WAC Bennett wasn’t leader when they started campaigning, he didn’t get the job til after the election. That turned out better than listening to more lies, or watching some fossilised Leader destroy any chances the bright eyed and bushy tailed new candidates might have.

I’ve heard it said that open line talk radio shows and open online forums are nothing more than a venue for the completely uninformed to inform the totally uninformed! Sometimes, I can’t help but think how about how true that statement seems to be!

Univ, I’ll echo Gus. What do the federal Liberals or political parties of that name have to do with the BC Liberals?
Regardless of a persons political bent, show some compassion. Mr. Bell has health issues that he is concerned about. End of story.

The problem is the “liberal brand” in Canada. The liberal brand is now in trouble because it is now associated with corrupt politicians who don’t care about people. Politicians who are drunk with power and “show no compassion”.

Christy and her party are reaping what they sow over the previous years. As a new face, she had all the opportunity to change course and bring the needed change and accountability to the government, but she didn’t even try. 岩間さん sounds familiar?

What is happening is that the ship is sinking now and the MLAs are “jumping the Costa British Columbia”.

“Abort the ship” … .

Abort the ship …

The BCLiberals are not a Liberal Party.

The current Federal Conservative Party is not the traditional Progressive Conservatory Party.

Politicians in the failed BC Social Credit Party and in the failed Federal Reform Party and the failed Alliance Party survived by taking over the bodies of other parties. In the case of BC, it was the “real” Liberal party of Gordon Wilson who managed to resurrect the Liberals in BC to 15 or so seats.

All parties are fighting for the centre in order to survive. If it means taking over the party in the centre or slightly to the right or slightly to the left, so be it. That is where we are in this country at this time in our history.

The Ontario Liberals are still traditional liberals. I am not too sure about Quebec, but I believe they are as well.

In BC they are not. The predominate roots are Social Credit.

I am not sure whether your statement makes you completely informed or totally informed about that, Hart Guy. ;-)

Univ wrote: “The BC liberals wish for an election in May, hoping that the possible April election of Justine Trudeau in the federal Liberals can rub to them and change their fortunes.”

What Trudeau has to do with the BCLiberals I have not the faintest clue. You have some very strange notions in your your head.
————————————

The current distribution of seats in the BC Legislature is

BCLibs = 45
BCNDP = 36
Independent = 4

Total = 85

Majority = 43

Given the roots of the independents, I doubt any of them would vote against the government at this stage in the game.

So, you and that fellow who thinks he is so credible are not all that credible. …. ;-)

Just my opinion of course, just as your opinions are just that … opinions.

I for one appreciate the job Pat has done. Don’t always agree with him but certainly have seen how much he cares about the people in his riding. Thank you Mr. Bell. You have left big shoes to fill. Hope you find someone who cares as much as you do.

Quit your bitching at one another about useless info that we all know goes on in gov.,,it gets very old on here,,,this is a story about Bell and his health so save it for fffa,,,,,shame on you

Remember, this is politics …. maybe we should move to religion and talk about the Pope resigning due to his health. We do have some Catholics in this community.

I mean, when the Pope puts the Church before him and wants to get a more able bodied person to move into the position, a minister of the provincial crown might have some similar thoughts.

Politics and religion …. ;-)

The Lieb”s are on the run too bad it is into a cement NDP wall.

This is the CBC News article 4 days ego:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2013/02/14/bc-liberals-horgan-majority.html

It reads:
“Due to a dwindling number of majority MLAs, the B.C. Liberal government could fall before the May provincial election.”

All this bickering (by xxx) started when I wrote “the government in Victoria can fall even before the next election.”

Remember this captain of the sinking ship who aborted the ship before the crew?
The ship is sinking and follow the Captain Gordie and “Jump ship ….”