Bang on Ben!

So who does one vote for, crooks on both sides?

Both the NDP and the Liberals have tried to Govern this Province and failed.

So what do we have left.

A. Some independents
B. Some Conservative candidates
C. Some Green candidates.

A vote for a,b,or c, would send a message to the Liberals and NDP to clean up their act, and start to represent the people, and if we were lucky we might end up with some sort of coalition Government.

The next Provincial election after this one will determine where we are headed.

As it now stands we have one hell of a mess on our hands in BC.

palopu: your assessment is correct .. it is times like this that the STV option makes so much sense .. maybe it is time to get that warhorse back out of the stables

STV was a dumb idea. As for Palopu’s assessment, I’m not sure why he thinks electing a,b, or c is a better option, other then having a desire to ‘stick it’ to the established parties.

A vote for a,b, or c is a wasted vote.

I agree voters are faced with a dilemma May 14th.
I am still undecided. There are a few key considerations I look at before deciding on who to vote for ….. Can both the party and the candidate be trusted, is the candidate an incumbent? How has he or she represented their constituents during their term in office? Is the candidate able to demonstrate fiscal responsibility when it comes to allocation of tax dollars? What is the party’s platform? Are platform promises based in reality and can they be fulfilled? Or is their platform talk just enough hoopla to get them elected …..or re-elected. You are absolutely right Ben about people being fed up with politicians at every level making decisions using our tax dollars to support policies, projects, plans, developments,etc., of their friends and campaign supporters.

As it now stands we have one hell of a mess on our hands in BC.
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Why is that Pal?

Hers an idea, 42% of the electorate voted in the last election. They then sit back and expect the politicians to govern our Province. The 42% of which the majority have a vested interest in government and they expect a reward and the government obliges to their wishes. What then happens the middle class are bled to feed the upper class.

Unless we get out and vote there will never be a change in our system. In Europe when the governments become to powerful the people are up in arms and protest for change.

The idea that a minority government will give us good government for me does not fly. All that happens is that we have chose within government when we should be out an the street.
Cheers

STV was a dumb idea
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why do you say that JB? .. the only reason I can think of to be against the STV would be the fear that your chosen party would have to be accountable on each and every issue every day while elected .. so is fear that motivates your assessment .. right now we get to choose between dictator A and dictator B every 4 years … as indicated in Retired 02’s post, the majority of voters cannot support either Dictator

Not to promote one candidate for the leadership of British Columbia over another, but at least John Cummins had the guts to stand up for an injustice against the people of Canada (aboriginal fishing on the Fraser River) even though he was an elected MP at the time.
metalman.

another: “why do you say that JB? .. the only reason I can think of to be against the STV would be the fear that your chosen party would have to be accountable on each and every issue every day while elected “

That’s how STV proponents tried to sell it, but they failed miserably.

“right now we get to choose between dictator A and dictator B every 4 years”

You seem to like to throw the terms ‘fear’ and ‘dictatorship’ around casually. It just tells me that you don’t have a firm grasp on the issues.

It blows my mind that the BC government or UNBC spends Millions of Dollars on buying a piece of land when UNBC has already a lot of land to build on it. If these Millions of Dollars came out of their own pockets, would they waste it too? How one can justify such a wrong financial decision when UNBC has been laying off staff and faculty members for financial difficulty?

Concerning the election, if we waste our vote on a candidate who has no chance to win then we have indirectly helped people like Shirley Bond to regain her seat. She wants to get to the parliament to cover up her scandals and the corruption cases she is implicated in.

Similarly for Pat Bell’s seat and his BC Liberal replacement who is competing with NDP Deepak who is a labour lawyer. Send a strong message to the BC Liberals in this election that they betrayed our trust badly and “don’t reward the bad behavior” of Shirley Bond by rewarding her another term. She will become “a big liability” and disadvantage for PG interests after May 15.

The election system in BC and Canada needs urgent reform but STV was too complicated for the ordinary Joe and Jane and did not get the support and it failed. We need an election system in BC where we vote half of the MLA’s in 2 years (for a 4 year term) and the other half in 2 years later (for a 4 year term) borrowing from US senate system who vote every 2 years for just 1/3 of senators who serve for 6 years.

This way we can keep the parties and governments in a tighter leash and throw them out if they become unhealthy.

The problem with that, univ, is that long term vision would get thrown out the window. Some would argue that there already is no long term vision.

In BC, we tend to vote parties out rather than vote them in. BC voters are way too flaky for 2 year terms to be effective.

That’s how STV proponents tried to sell it, but they failed miserably.
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Results of STV in 2005

While a simple majority of voters in 97% of the electoral districts (77 of 79) voted to support the adoption of the BC-STV system, in the province-wide popular vote 57.69% of the population voted to support BC-STV, falling just 2.3% short of the government-set requirement for the result to be binding.

Consequently, the results of the referendum were not binding on the government, and indeed the government did not take any steps to adopt the preferred system.

wikipedia
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JB …failed miserably is a little harsh .. agreed the results the second time around were not as strong (39.09% in favor) but this was after gov’t had about 3 more layers of confusion and a continued gag order on the campaign

both results would normally have resulted in a BC majority gov’t in most elections, so if I accept your “failed miserably” assessment then your favored party and their resulting dictatorships have also “failed miserably”.

grasp of the issues … hmmmph

as an aside, univ, I think the existing parties chose to make STV way too complicated for ordinary Joe and Jane out of fear of losing their traditional power base.

JB: “The problem with that, univ, is that long term vision would get thrown out the window. Some would argue that there already is no long term vision.”

In the 1/2 in 2 year system, for an MLA it doesn’t make much difference because his/her 4 year term doesn’t change from present system and s/he could have more independence from the party leader in the legislative aspect similar to the US senators. From the executive aspect, i.e. government we will have more accountability and more cooperation with other parties (which STV wanted to achieve) and less corruption.

The source of the problem and root of corruption is that following UK system, we don’t have the separation between the legislative and executive (and judicial) powers, like in the US and the Premiers here have absolute power and rule like monarchs for 4 years.

“POWER corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” [Lord Acton]

For the uninformed, STV sounded very close to a disease. ;-)

For the uninformed, STV is a disease. ;-)

StV = Systemic Testicular Vasculitis

I am not sure why the world’s political leaders don’t consult the comment section of these boards. There is so much untapped expertise here. ;-)

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[Darrell Hammond]

“If you were right, I’d agree with you” – [Robin Williams]

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