Blah, blah, blah!! These politicians make me sick. If we had an inquiry into everything that was suggested nothing would ever get accomplished. All pigs at the trough. What a sorry state the BC political scene is. The next pigs are waiting in the wings to feed off our tax dollars. The NDP will be worse and full of scandal again.

“The NDP will be worse”!? The way the Fiberals have screwed over and lied to the taxpayers of this once proud province; it would take 50 years of screw ups by any party to accomplish what the Liberals have done in a decade! Even the rats are jumping off the Clark/Campbell garbage scow!

A lot of people I’ve talked to feel the same way as I do: we don’t have any confidence in either party. Methinks low voter turnout will show this in May.

Denaljo…..

We have seen how fast the NDP can screw up this province…in fact on two occasions…one under Barrett and the other under Harcourt, Clark, and Dosanj…..all involved up to their ears in mismanagement and scandal. And who suffered?..the taxpayers of BC. And we will again if the NDP get in. Whatever the Liberals have done to this Province will pale by comparison after the NDP have a go at it.

I’m betting on only 4 years of screw ups to top the Liberal.

And here’s a prediction for ya….Public sector jobs to increase by 30% or more during that time, and handouts to those who don’t want to work for a living will increase two-fold.

Mark this down!

tax payer funded and we have to pay for the maintance of this puppy viewing the over all plan would be nice,no tax from this building for sure. Oh well I am sure there will be billions of new projects in the coming weeks. Elections so much fun promise the world, funny

Here are some facts.
Adrien Dix was charged at one time for breaking the law.
Christy Clark was not.
Pat Bell was not.
Most ndp voters dont understand you need to collect taxes if you want all the services. Most ndp voter have no business experience.
Most ndp votors think small businesses make lots of money like the evil corporations.
Most ndp voters have been unsuccessful in there lives due to decisions they had made
Yup we are in big trouble if ndp gets in.
But only for 4 years. And yup, a lot of people move away from B.C.

Make an outrageous claim often enough and boldly enough, someone will believe it. In this case, those who are diehard Liberal shills.

Most NDP voters …”blah, blah, blah. The fact is that “Most NDP voters” are just ordinary British Columbians who are no different than anyone else. Of course ordinary British Columbians understand about the need for taxes to provide services, which is why less money was borrowed to pay for services under the NDP than under the Liberals. The Liberals have doubled the provincial debt because of their incompetent “borrow and spend” tax policies.

“Most NDP voters” think the small businessman is the driver behind the provincial economy, providing more jobs per company than large businesses. At least, that’s what the NDP has said in previous campaigns. That’s the record.

“Most NDP voters” are as successful in their lefe’s endeavors as anyone else. This accusation is one of the shill poster’s more stupid claims. Really, what nonsense.

By the way, we still make money from one of the NDPs classic innovations well in the past. At any rate, the Liberals have stuck their sticky little hands into its pot to filch everything they can from it. I’m referring to ICBC, of course, which continues to make money while providing BCers with secure and rock steady protection for their vehicles.

Nobody could be as bad for this province as the present Liberals, the most incompetent bunch ever to be in power in this province, whose main aim appears tyo be to transfer as much of the province’s wealth to their friends as possible, if BC Rail and BC Hydro are anything to go by.

The fact is that this election is already over, apart from announcing the NDP government.

oneman…. how about some insight into the type of people that vote Green, Conservative or for an independent. Just for kicks and giggles.

ammonra: “I’m referring to ICBC, of course, which continues to make money while providing BCers with secure and rock steady protection for their vehicles.”

You’re kidding, right? Oh, you’re an NDP supporter so you’re probably serious.

ICBC is a monopoly that ‘makes money’ by gouging drivers, and pays legions of managers to push paper around. A completely inefficient organziation if there ever was one. If you shop around, you can almost always get a better deal and better protection privately.

Was Adrian Dix ever CONVICTED for breaking the law in a properly conducted trial in a Court of Law?

Why did Christy Clarks’s marriage break up? Did it have anything to do with the BC Rail deal and the possible connection of her then husband to it? And the ‘political liability’ he’d become to a girl whose long stated goal in life was to be a ‘professional politician’?

Most voters, of whatever Party they support, do not understand that the Government BORROWS, then SPENDS, then TAXES to provide us with its services.

Why, if government is to be run on a ‘business-like’ basis, do we not see what this “borrowing” was actually funding? What it IS, what it COST, and HOW it ‘benefits’ US?

In a private business we would see the Assets, (what the borrowing bought), not only the Liabilities (the ‘debt’ itself). And those Assets that last many years into the future would be properly ‘capitalised’. And their cost would be recovered by the ‘benefits’ to the business they’ve enabled.

BC Liberal voters, who always play up the vast business acumen and experience of their leaders, (even if the previous one was a second-rate land-pimp, to whom higher prices are synonomous with prosperity, and the current one has never run a business of her own, so far as I’m aware), make a big issue about “small business being the cornerstone of the economy” ~ while they’ve done just about everything possible to destroy small business in favour of big business.

Most BC Liberal activists have been unsuccessful in their lives in making an honest dollar playing by the rules, and want to change the rules to favour themselves. Nothing wrong in that if they’re still trying to make an honest dollar. Something very much wrong when greed takes over, and honesty is forotten.

We’re going to be screwed no matter who gets in. The POLICY of BOTH Parties is EXACTLY THE SAME. And that’s what needs to change. Not just the METHOD it’ll be imposed on us. Far better for BC if voter turnout is minimal, well below 50%. Then neither can ‘honestly’ say they’ve got a mandate to govern.

JohnnyBelt, If what you say is true, that ICBC “gouges” its customers, then you should hold the Liberal government responsible for that. They have controlled ICBC for over a decade and have directed its financial policies so they can benefit from this “gouging” as you put it.

I suggest you compare insurance rates across the country and not just knee jerk accusations at ICBC. I remember just a few years ago an almost doubling of private insurance rates in Eastern Canada, making ICBC look fantastic in comparison.

The anti-NDP rhetoric is tiresome.
Nothing…and I mean nothing, could be worse than the B.C.Liberals over the last 3 terms.
These self-serving carpetbaggers couldn’t manage a fart in a bucket.
One scandle and one financial disaster after another.
Look at the debt this province is carrying.
Look at the millions apon millions wasted by sheer stupidity.
30 million for Boss Mining because of incompedence?
6 million for Basi and Virk’s lawyers,plus the cost of the B.C.Rail inquiry that the B.C.Liberals shutdown when it got too close to cabinet ministers testifying?
The cost of the HST setup/removal,not to mention the financial rip off for the time delay in removing it?
Using the Premier’s office and taxpayers money to promote Clark and the B.C.Liberals?
And the lies??
How about we discuss how all those screw-ups were good for the province?
On and on it would go…we could be here all day just listing the faux-pas.
So, save the anti-NDP paranoid babble…too late now.
Nobody is buying it, other than B.C. Liberal diehards who will always overlook the bad…even when it is still happening, as it is.
People will decide for themselves based on what they know and how they feel…pro-Liberal rhetoric won’t make one bit of difference.
They ARE done!

ammonra: “JohnnyBelt, If what you say is true, that ICBC “gouges” its customers, then you should hold the Liberal government responsible for that. They have controlled ICBC for over a decade and have directed its financial policies so they can benefit from this “gouging” as you put it.”

ICBC has existed since the 70’s and should be shut down, but no government has had the cajones to do it, and the NDP certainly won’t. It’s a dinosaur that everyone has to pay for.

And thanks to Andyfreeze for his pro-NDP rhetoric. Not all of us are fooled.

In them years before ICBC the overhead of an private vehical insurance provider the overhead was 42% the overhead for ICBC is 6%. It has now become a cash cow for the liberals. And I have to agree with ammonra,”compare insurance rates across the country”.
Cheers

“I suggest you compare insurance rates across the country and not just knee jerk accusations at ICBC.”

I have. ICBC makes money by over charging the majority of good drivers and not charging bad drivers enough.

Ammonra:”In this case, those who are diehard Liberal shills.”

As a diehard (or neverdie) shill of the other party it too is easy to overlook past historic evidence, such as undeniable facts. What is scorned and resented when one party does it is excused and accepted without hesitation when done by the party one believes to be above all the others.

A political philosophy can become a semi-religious infatuation to some, unfortunately with often unwelcomed results for those who become the unwilling victims of such folly.

Ohhh, Gimme a Conservative candidate that is worth her/his salt and is worthy of support —- Puhleeze! Somewhere in this PG/Valemount riding there should be at least one!?!

How about a “benevolant ayatolla”? That would be nice.

You could reword the announcement this way. “The NDP want the government to take money away from health care and education and use it to hire some retired judge and his entourage to find out if two Prince George businessmen were ripped off by an MLA who is not running again – and would never be charged with anything, even if anything could be proven. There already has been a review process that found the bid process fair, but the NDP says we need to spend more money to be really sure it was fair. So one school in B.C. will close next year and three hip replacements delayed to pay for it.”

My rant isn’t NDP specific. I am sick of these expensive inquiries no matter who calls for them that rarely ever get to the truth, and even when they do, no one ever pays for what they did, except us.

Anyone have any idea how many police could have been hired for the cost of the “closure” the missing women inquiry cost. We knew the RCMP and VPD screwed up – the dead women were all the evidence we needed. But instead of spending money on going forward to make them safer by increasing police resources, we blew it on an inquiry so the victims families could have closure.

I suggest that the next time onemansthoughts is in the hospital or has a loved one their,that he may want to ask how they voted in the election prior to administering any treatment.If they voted for the NDP they might be one of those loser,screwups that he describes in his post and he may want to request someone who voted for another party.

“Make an outrageous claim often enough and boldly enough, someone will believe it”

I think that is exactly the kind of sentiment the NDP is betting on. ;-)

See headline:
“NDP Continue Calls For Investigation Into WIDC”

Why are they doing this? Easy. The PG seats are hotly contested. We must not forget that. The NDP needs to win them in order to win the province.

The question I have is what are the issues in some other parts of the province that are potential swing seats?

Does any polling company do any polls on a riding by riding basis for public consumption?

The anti-BCLiberals rhetoric is tiresome.
Nothing…and I mean nothing, could be worse than the NDP over their past terms in office.

Easy to say, isn’t it, Andyfreeze? Just change some words, and it is done. It has achieved its effect of putting one more anti BCLiberals post on a blog at election time.

Anyone with half a brain and a butt, knows that the Liberals have done us in, in BC for the past 10 years. As a Government they have been a disaster. How the hell they could take a majority Government and screw things up so royally is beyond comprehension. All they had to do was Govern. No big deal. Instead everything they touched turned brown.

As far as ICBC goes, I agree that they need to be looked at, however I also know that they have transferred over $700 Million dollars in the past three years to the BC Government, so it is not only ICBC that is gouging us, but the Government also.

Neither party will get my vote this time around,. Any third party with any indication of credibility will get preference.

Palopu, you’re getting very repetitive. Anyone with a brain and a butt can see that.

Politics in BC has been screwy for a long time ! Always vote crappy politicians out ! Liberals are bad, NDP are worse ! We need a strong Independent candidate…….anyone ……please !

As for ICBC…..a 50 year old accident free driver in BC pays twice as much as Ontario ! Double !

What did John Furlong do when outrageous allegations about him became public??

What are Pat Bell and Shirley Bond doing about the serious allegations being made public about their actions…..

Enough said.

There is no point in “Casting pearls before the Fiberal swine!” It is biblical!

“however I also know that they have transferred over $700 Million dollars in the past three years to the BC Government”

Not any different from the NDP raiding the profits from Crown Corporations and saddling them with debt, the funds disappearing into general revenue. That’s how BCRail ended up with a 600 million dollar debt collar around its neck and we all know what that led to.

At least with the NDP a lot of BC people got jobs with that ICBC money, with the Liberals only a half dozen top execs collect outrageous salaries and severance packages.

“a strong Independent candidate”

Nobody is independent.

In fact, anyone who wants to represent a riding, no matter what party or no party, should be telling us first how they, as our representative … and that is what they are and that is why they are NOT independent …. will be communicating with us to find out what the community wants and tell us what the issues are and let us know how they will determine how they will vote on issues as they arise based on what they hear and read from their constituents.

Remeber how the City Council screws that up bigtime, time after time after time. Also remember that they are all independent, other than that some of the community feed some money incentives every now and then.

Independent? Tell me another fairy tale.

people that have financial sense, vote liberal (old social credit/conservative ) and people that have no financial sense vote NDP.

Gus, I have never voted NDP in my life.
Was a card carrying B.C. Liberal until 2006, but Gordon Campbell fixed that for me.
That is a whole ‘nother story.
None of what the B.C.Liberals have become suprises me one bit…seen it coming.
Obviously, my logic is different than other peoples,but try as I might, I can’t justify a vote for them knowing what we do…why would we do that?
For more of the same?…maybe even worse?
I can only be lied to so many times and this is party of dishonest, baldfaced liars.
Not sure where my vote will go this time…somebody is going to have to earn it.
Not sure that is even possible at this stage of the game.
I will however, watch the demise of the B.C. Liberals with glee and glass of good single malt scotch.
Cheers!

It sure is comforting to know the NDP is going to make right all those things they said the liberals did wrong as soon as they get control of the Province again.

Adrian — where are you? You’ve been very elusive lately !! Be a man, and come out and tell it like it is, so we can sleep a little easier, while we wait for you to rise up and save us.

people that have financial sense, vote liberal (old social credit/conservative )
===========================================

Hahaha…a comedian is born!!! I guess you missed the part about cost over runs, deficit budgets, back room dealings, and patronage appointments???

We cannot predict for sure how the NDP are going to perform if they get a majority, but you can be pretty dang sure they cannot do any worse than the BC Liberals.

One good thing about the Liberals they know how to spin out Ministers titles…..

Interesting…very interesting…and if it is true as I assume it is,I wouldn’t be at all suprised and neither would a lot of other people cry foul.
I doubt anyone is dumb to say or print this if it isfabricated…cetainly not Opinion 250.
That could get someones a** sued off in a hurry!
Now we wait and see where this goes?
Christy?…you got the floor.

Removed.
Not surprised.

ICBC was cooked up under the NDP banner when Dave Barrett was Premier.
I remember the promo ads well that told us how the government vehicles at the time were all insured for around twenty dollars a year, and that we the people would enjoy similar HUGE savings if we’d kick all those greedy private insurers out of the Province and go with a government monopoly.
Unfortunately, I bought the song myself at the time and thought it would be a good thing.
What a huge mistake that turned out to be !!

I think the original idea behind ICBC was ok, but it has morphed into a political cash cow over which taxpayers have no control.
We all bought into it at the time, but in the end these government controlled entities are all the same…a place to scoop money.
And no accurate paper trail.
The original concept was to create fair and competitive pricing for insurance, but there will never be fair pricing if there is no competition.
It has also become a place to reward B.C. Liberal “friends” with a highly paid “managers” job and fat bonuses.
It is a monopoly…nothing less, and let’s face it…if there wasn’t something lucrative for the government in it…they would be doing it.
ICBC needs a total redo and a house cleaning or it needs to be gone.

Should read “wouldn’t be doing it”.

ICBC should be turned into a ‘mutual’ insurance company where the policy holders are the shareholders in the Company, not through the ‘government’, but directly.

If ICBC makes a profit over and above what it needs to prudently cover anticipated losses, pay it out as a dividend to the policy holders. It’s OUR money, not the government’s.

It’s ‘monopoly’ on writing public liability and property damage auto insurance should be viewed in light of what was taking place before we had ICBC.

Private auto insurance carriers were extremely reluctant to insure young drivers ~ in most instances, where they would even deign to write a policy for a new driver, the cost was extortionate.

Most new drivers had to be insured under their parent’s auto insurance, and even then the cost of adding their name to the insured was expensive.

My parents didn’t own a car, my dad drove a company vehicle, and I had to get my first auto insurance, at age 18, under my own name. I wouldn’t likely have stood a chance at 16, and even then it cost more than my first vehicle! The insurance agent told me at the time that he was sticking his neck out writing this policy, the Ontario based Company he represented was generally unwilling to take ANY new young drivers. And God help any young driver that had an accident in a situation like that.

The original idea behind ICBC was sound enough, but Barrett botched the details in his big rush to ‘get things done’. It was laughingly termed “Mutual of Moscow”, since Davy boy and his band of wooly headed thinkers were very much infected with the doctrinaire ‘socialist’ disease in those days. It fitted right in with buying up distressed pulp mills, and some less than distressed sawmills. And putting vast stretches of real estate so unfitted for growing anything remotely agricultural ~ even a pot crop, in some cases, wouldn’t have taken root on some of this land ~ into the Agricultural Land Reserve. Which only succeeded in increasing the property prices of all lands excluded from the ALR, and the government’s tax take therefrom. A “Soil;s Preservation Act”

The original idea behind ICBC was sound enough, but Barrett botched the details in his big rush to ‘get things done’. The administration of it was ham-handed to say the least. We went from one extreme, where private insurers were ‘gouging’ the public by refusing to ‘pool and share’ risks ~ which is what insurance is supposed to be all about ~ to a set up so screwed up the government was renting vacant buildings all over BC to store ‘unadjusted’ wrecks in. Ones it had already made payouts on, to keep the voting public believing government auto insurance was ‘better’. It was laughingly termed “Mutual of Moscow”, since Davy boy and his band of wooly headed thinkers were very much infected with the doctrinaire ‘socialist’ disease in those days. Wine and cheese parties to celebrate the fall of Saigon to the North Vietnamese ‘Liberation’ Army, and all.

It fitted right in with buying up distressed pulp mills, and some less than distressed sawmills. And putting vast stretches of real estate so unfitted for growing anything remotely agricultural ~ even a pot crop, in some cases, wouldn’t have taken root on some of this land ~ into the Agricultural Land Reserve.

Which only succeeded in increasing the property prices of all lands excluded from the ALR, and the government’s tax take therefrom. A “Soils Preservation Act” would’ve been more appropriate, but that wouldn’t have brought in the tax revenues creating an artificial shortage of development land the ALR did.

But that was then, and this is now. And Gordon Campbell topped the ineptitude of Dave Barrett’s three years in office in the first three months of his tenure. And it only got worse.

socredible..turning ICBC in to a “mutual”
insurance company would be an excellent idea.
Unfortutunately, the B.C.Liberals would lose their favorite cash cow and it isn’t going to happen.
Easier to get rid of the B.C. Liberals than it is to fix the ICBC mess!
I would love to see accurate figures on how much is scooped and when and where it all really goes.
Someone once said that if you move a pile of money around long enough and far enough, it eventually disappears into the ozone with no paper tail.
Describes the B.C. Liberals style of financial management perfectly!

Speaking of ICBC, I remember back in 2001 just before the NDP were decimated that they made ICBC provide ‘rebate’ cheques to every BC’er. And some people on here talk about ‘vote buying’! Lol.

I think I got a cheque for $100 if memory serves. All of this didn’t save them of course and the rest is history.

I would just like Adrian Dix to pay back the $70,000 he took in severence when he was caught being underhanded when with the Clark NDP. I thought that once you took severence pay that you have no intensions or could not return to the place where your wrong doings occured. I guess with the NDP it does not matter how decietful you are. This would not occur in the private sector. Permitted to come back and now increase he pension for the next time he leaves. Well I guess someone has to pay his Translink fare in case he forgets.

With regards to the inquiry the NDP wants I guess they are not satisifed that it will go to court re the lawsuit by Commonwealth but they will spend millions in doing so. Not sure where they will get this money from. Same trough i guess where they are getting it from for everything else. We the tax payers. Dix return the $70,000.

Well, at least we got a ‘rebate’, Johnny. And something is better than nothing. I’m still waiting for my cheque from the sale of my ‘share’ in BC Rail.

First of all we should find out what the B.C. Liberals did with the money, socredible!
Maybe they are holding it in a high interest account for us?

It sure is a big surprise that a couple of BC Cabinet Ministers would be slandered in public, in print, on the media…and they don’t sue??

An inquiry isn’t was is required…an investigation by the serious crimes unit should be underway…..

socred: “Well, at least we got a ‘rebate’, Johnny. And something is better than nothing.”

That’s a surprising comment coming from you.

socred: “I’m still waiting for my cheque from the sale of my ‘share’ in BC Rail. “

Your share went into funding roads, hospitals, education, and the many social programs that BC has to offer.

There is a rumour that papers are being filed in court today regarding the wooden horse?
Anyone know if this is true?