Oh There Are Lots Of People Eating Crow Today
Those people who thought the election was going to be a white wash for the NDP must be sharpening up their resumes today , because the woman that was supposedly hated by women, a poor campaigner, and facing the problems of the HST proved them all wrong.
Christy Clark gets to lead the Liberal party in this province for as long as she chooses given her work to turn a more than 20 point spread into a handsome win.
For all of those old Liberal guard who had been lurking around in the shadows hoping that she would fall on her face and they would be able to rush in and begin to pick up the pieces, Clark should have been smiling as she headed to bed from a long night.
We could go from name to name of those who wanted to see her gone and that in itself had been a problem for her as Premier.
She didn’t budge however, instead she met that challenge head on and in so doing, earns the right to be the leader of our province for a long time to come.
On the local front for some time I had predicted that both Bond and Morris would not be elected given the mood of the community, but something changed in recent weeks and there was that sense in the air that they had a fighting chance.
A fighting chance I say because , if you look at the results both Bond and Morris could have me standing in a parking lot downtown eating a rather large crow.
I have often said that Bond is the hardest working MLA in the province , I thought that when Pat Bell left the fold the support for the Liberals went with him. In a recent conversation Bell said "I think Mike is going to win and win big". Well he didn’t have the benefit of the polls just a gut reaction , that reaction was worth gold.
So Christy Clark is the comeback kid. Those who plan to seek office in the future will be heading to BC to try and learn how to do it, and they will find that she will be around for a long time to come.
I’m Meisner and that’s one man’s opinion.
Comments
yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.. I get to keep my job for another four year. My children have a future. What a relief!!
Yes the Dippers and the media will all be eating crow….couldn’t happen to nicer people!
Watch those feathers as it goes down…
Way to go Mike, Shirley, John & Coralea,,you showed ’em good!
The ndp did themselves in. They lost the election from party headquarters on down. The province was ready for change it just wasn’t ready to give the power to a party that couldn’t even run a straight campaign.
The ndp of the 90’s had the rat pack that always took the fight to the other party and always held the other parties to account for their fumbles. Mr Nice guy doesn’t win elections and doesn’t hold others to account for their own record.
The ndp was a big fail on election nite to lead the province, but they are an even bigger failure as an opposition party… because they take the easy road and have no backbone to hold the BC liberals to account for the BC liberal record.
What can one expect when its party headquarters that picks the candidates based on quota’s for affirmative action and not local poltics, and then muzzles the appointments from straying from a flawed campaign as handed down from the party brass.
This was an election based on party branding and not on real issues. The BC liberals win the branding war. The ndp needed to inform the public, 80% of which could care less about politics unless its in their face. The ndp ran a campaign assuming everyone was politically awarer and that the media would do the job of informing the public.
To win an election one needs to hold the other party to account and inform the electorate with a vision. That didn’t happen and this is the result IMHO.
They will also be doing an autopsy on the NDP on how not to run a campaign. It seems the whole thing was based on a “time for change” catchphrase with no meat and potatoes on what that would actually mean for the province. When Dix did speak he pandered to his base like saying the Kinder Morgan pipeline was a non starter without even hearing from both sides, people began to take notice.
The party took a page from the Mohammad Ali playbook and tried the ol’ Rope-a-Dope tactic….well they got the last part right:D
The NDP failed when they elected Dix as their leader. How can anyone trust a leader with a history like his.
They even lost 3 seats! OUCH!
Great job BC.
As I stated in a previous post, the NDP lost because they opened their mouths. They started to talk and the people listened to their BS. Today I am so proud of BC.
“The NDP failed when they elected Dix as their leader”
Let us see if Simpson is going to stay out of politics. He left the party because he did not like the leadership under James.
I think he is the fellow who is smart enough to lead the party. I see no one else around to do that.
The BCLiberals have worked with Simpson before on joint committees. They are not that far apart. To keep him from being a potential future threat, they may have a spot for him as deputy minister to keep him out of politics.
“Posted by: rattyboy on May 15 2013 7:36 AM
As I stated in a previous post, the NDP lost because they opened their mouths. They started to talk and the people listened to their BS. Today I am so proud of BC.”
Never truer words said.
The last 4 weeks of the old government and the first week of the campaign were all “momentum” for the NDP because they never said anything. Once they started talking, it was easy to see that they had really nothing to say.
I guess when people get sick they like to lay on stretchers in dirty hallways in the hospitals because some rooms had to be closed!
I think that the NDP took a calculated risk in trying to present their leader as one who has definitely transformed himself from an aggressive fighter type (anything goes?) to a thoughtful, relaxed non-aggressive gentle respectful type. It seemed to be somewhat artificial, somehow unbelievable and even a bit bizarre.
Nobody is perfect and everybody makes mistakes sooner or later. Obviously the party chose him as the leader and he did the best he could. If it didn`t work out it was a failure to connect with the people in a more straight forward way.
lonesome: “It seems the whole thing was based on a “time for change” catchphrase with no meat and potatoes on what that would actually mean for the province.”
Exactly.
Look at their slogan “Change for the better”. They might as well have said, “We’re not the Liberals”.
Having Adrian Dix as your leader certainly doesn’t help either.
Ben, you’re not the only one eating crow this morning. I suspect that all of the local NDP supporters who have been beating up on the Liberals on this site for weeks are all eating crow this morning as well!
I suspect that because very few of them are to be found on this site this morning. One of the nicest things about this election win is the resulting silence from Mattyc, Jim13135, Univ and others who were adamant that the NDP were going to take this election.
There’s a saying “Silence is golden”. How true today!
NDP under Dix made the same strategic mistake that NDP under James did 4 years ego, i.e. not coordinating with Green party in the election, thinking that it can win against BC Liberals without such a strategy due to early margin of 20% in the polls.
But the 20% disappeared after the federal conservatives came to the rescue of BC Liberals and BC conservative’s vote went down to single digit from earlier double digit. To a extent the BC Liberal election attack campaign was a copy of the Harper’s textbook also.
I think what hurt NDP most in the strategy level was its lack of action (i.e. with Greens) especially when the federal conservatives came into the picture. Although in tactical level, it also failed to translate 20%-40% of explicit support for the party to actual vote in the election.
“Christy Clark gets to lead the Liberal party in this province for as long as she chooses … “
Ben, you are aware that she failed to win her seat in the election?
A few days ago, this site had a post titled “Teachers Seek Dialogue Following Election”.
I wonder how poor little old Matt Pearce, the head of the Prince George and District Teachers Association is doing this morning? I wonder if he took a sick day to help get over his shock. I wonder how many other teachers called in sick today? I wonder how many Vancouver teachers have booked another free massage today to help relieve their stress.
We should all phone Matt’s office today to see how he is doing! Poor Matt!
Dix flip flopped to too much. From here on we shall call him “Floppy Dix..”
Univ.. You are aware that the liberals slaughtered the NDP..Right?? Even with all the bias media , biased Unions, Bully tactic used by NDP in the campaign..Thed deserved to get crushed.
Where have all the Dippers gone?
Long time passing..
Where have all the Dippers gone?
Since Tuesday night…
Where have all the Dippers gone?
Gone into hiding every one…
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?
To the tune of “Where have all the flowers gone”
Of course I had fun with this one
mattyc?
The Communist Broadcasting Corporation is very quiet this morning..
Do you hear that???
The constant whine from the socialists in Quebec is eclipsed by the whine from the socialists in BC this morning.
Isn’t it a nice sound….
Nononsense:”I guess when people get sick they like to lay on stretchers in dirty hallways in the hospitals because some rooms had to be closed”
We were looked after very well in the hospital here whenever we needed it. We thanked the caring staff and NEVER encountered any DIRTY hallways or rooms. Neither did any of our friends and acquaintances who were in need of care.
When you find yourself one day in the hospital because of an illness you will regret the facetious accusations you are making now because you are a very poor loser.
If the NDP party as a whole has the same take on this colossal defeat as you do univ the liberals will be in power for a long time. Point fingers of blame in every direction but your own, par for the course.
Give a little thought to the poor choice for leader, lack of a real platform and poor election strategy and you might be a little closer to the mark.
Have you started your next countdown yet?
BTW What is the lesson plan for today?
While I’m glad the NDP lost I don’t think they lost it all on their own; I think the media can take some of the blame for them. How many times was it reported that the NDP was going to win a huge majority this time? I lost count but I was getting sick of hearing it.
How many people opted not to vote since they didn’t need to? How many people said to themselves, “They’re going to win by such a huge margin me not voting won’t affect the outcome.”
I did intend to not comment and just let you Liberal supporters bask in the glory of winning. Good for you. That’s how politics is. I am not eating crow in any way. We ran our campaign and the voters chose. So be it. In four years there will be another opportunity. Do keep in mind that the votes between winning and losing is only a few percentage points, and a minor swing can make a difference.
I will say I am somewhat befuddled at the great disparity between the opinion poll results and the election results. They appear to not have any correlation at all. I suppose it does emphasize that public opinion polls are totally useless as a gauge of public sentiment. Perhaps they should be ignored altogether.
I’m sure there will be post mortems by the NDP, both provincially and in each constituency, to evaluate what worked and what did not. I have my opinions, of course, as do others, but there are other problems engaging with voters in modern society and these need some serious consideration as I’m sure all political parties are experiencing them if the low turnout once again is an indication.
Its too early to make definitive statements as to the cause of our failure, and I agree it was that, but I read all your opinions as to the problem. I have heard all of them from other people, and other opinions besides. I’m sure all will be debated at length.
We’ll re-engage in four years, then.
Univ I had a quick look at the riding by riding results and trying to pin the blame for the defeat on the Greens is a red(orange) herring.
The Greens got a lot of their votes on the Island where the NDP won the seat anyway so while it did cost them in percentage of the overall vote did not cost them seats.
Axman
Media to blame?
Media to credit?
Not!
You just needed to listen to Christy Clark.
It appears tome that you are trying to get around having your portion of crow pie.
Ammonra, your comment is very classy! I wish others would be as realistic and gracious as you are!
Unfortunately that is not the case. It’s hard to come down from such high expectations so it may take a few days.
Could it be possible that BC has finally figured out that the NDP are never a viable option? The country is littered with provincial train wrecks after the NDP were given power. Federally, Mulclair underscores how baked these people are. Look forward to Whitcombs column. This guy needs to eat a murder of crows for his tiring NDP cheerleading.
Ammonra?
“I will say I am somewhat befuddled at the great disparity between the opinion poll results and the election results.”
The polls did indicate a narrowing gap that was down to a couple of points a few days before the election. From where I sit the turn was made the day the election writ was dropped and Adrian Dix had to come out from where ever it was that he has been hiding since being elected leader. People got their first real look at him and did not like what they saw.
Strategy of riding the ghost of Gordo was clearly the wrong one given that Christy was not going down without a fight.
I’m content today. Proof positive that opinion polls are all crap.
I used to work directly with data sampeling and collection and if i had to give an opinion on the polls in realation to my past work experince.. I would say that the pollsters biased their sample to a particular region or segment of the province and did not take a wide enough sample population. They should have taken more intensive samples over as many reigions of the province as possible even the most distant/remote communties..
Alot of other media sources and organizations were also incredibly biased towards the NDP as well which also skewed public perception.
You also have to take into consideration who is doing th poll and what their motives and intetions are.. This would also reveal alot as well..
Cheers,
Well it’s time again the NDP elect another leader. Let’s hope the next one has not been previously severed from the party and did not receive $70,000 severence pay. DIX did nothing from the time he was elected leader other than critize and no answers for anything. When the election was called he turned down the opportunity for a one on one debate with Christy stating it was not fair to the other canidates. Since when would he concern himself about the others ? I believe she would have buried him right then and there. Right up to election time he still had not answered many questions. Could it be they had no answers.
OOOOO matty OOOOO Matty. Where are you?
So, everyone, from EITHER party-it’s over – pick up the signs!!! Cause, now they are just trash on the side of the roads!!!
Once again the silent majority has had the final say.
OMG dow7500, thanks for reminding me about Todd Whitcombe! Can’t help but wonder how much crow he must be eating today. Column after column promoting the NDP and beating up on the Liberals and all to no avail!
Sorry Todd, even though you might be a very intelligent and competent professor, the electorate is far smarter than you think we are!
..and ammonra, I’ll agree with PrinceGeorge about your comment being classy!!
Posted by: riskeone on May 15 2013 10:45 AM
Axman
Media to blame?
Media to credit?
Not!
You just needed to listen to Christy Clark.
It appears tome that you are trying to get around having your portion of crow pie.
——————
I have no idea what you’re saying.
This election has to be on of the most obvious examples of the idiom that **Bullshit baffles brains**
Once again we have a party who campaigned on a **no substance** platform winning the election. Their competition (or lack of) was the NDP, who should have easily won, if they had campaigned on all the things that the Liberals screwed up on, however they chose not to, and as a result they lost.
The amazing thing is that the Liberals expected to lose, the NDP expected to win, and the pollsters chose the NDP, and they were all wrong.
The most surprised of all, was the Liberals.
Not having voted for either of them, I can turn the page and sit back and watch what happens.
For those who supported the Liberals, take some time between now and the next election, to see if they actually do any of the grandiose things they campaigned on,. Somehow I doubt it.
This Province is now officially for sale, minerals, power, water, oil, etc;
It will just be a matter of time before Christy announce that the five conditions for the pipe line have been met, and it will go forward.
Have a nice day.
Palopu: “This election has to be on of the most obvious examples of the idiom that **BS baffles brains**”
That’s the same thought I had about the HST referendum!
“It will just be a matter of time before Christy announce that the five conditions for the pipe line have been met, and it will go forward.”
Whether they are met or not is irrelevant. The pipeline and the review process are Federal.
Saw this on the web this morning:
“Somewhere there’s a Leaf fan who’s an NDP supporter who really needs a hug”.
Palopu “Not having voted for either of them,”
Lets see if the Herbster says he didn’t vote for the NDP either.
Look, we voted in a majority Liberal party…I think it should be you that reflects on what the good things this party has done over the next 4 years.
Suck it up buttercup – you lost!!!
Axman correct me if I am wrong but when you say “the media are too blame”, are you not admitting you are an NDPer.
Dow7500 – thanks for bringing up Mr Whitcombe… makes me wonder, could Whitcombe = univ? :-o
Oh and I do have to agree with others, very classy post Ammonra :)
“bullshit Baffles brains”……a break through for Palpou…finally admiting he is baffled. This is the first step in the healing process.
Some people just won’t let up ay? Some people are just mean.
About 44% of the approximate 50% of eligible voters who actually went and voted put an âxâ beside a liberal candidate. About 22% of the eligible voting public decided (for some reason of their own) to go with their liberal candidate or the liberal party. Take that number and estimate the factor that some people voted for their candidate because of who they are as the best representative rather than which party they belong to and the number shrinks again.
Judging by the reduced numbers of votes for independents and less than stellar support for conservatives or the greens it would seem that the results would point to a few more people voting a party line instead of a candidate on their own merits. My guess is that somewhere around 15% to 18% of the eligible voters of this province deliberately chose the liberal party under Christy Clarkâs leadership as being better/less bad than an NDP government lead by Adrian Dix. So translate that to about 1 person in 5 to 1 person in 7 who deliberately chose to go and vote for the liberal party under Christy Clarkâs leadership.
What exactly was that 1 person in 5 thinking when they voted? What was that one person in five using as a basis for voting for one representative or one party or the âplatformâ of one party leader.
It is fair to say that election promises are known to be lofty estimates or concepts that are embellished with whatever fluffy stuff can be sold to voters that is seldom very accurate or actually the doings of any political party or party leader being in power. They are often completed twisted or falsely created portrayals of things which do nothing but mislead/deceive people and most of us know that. Most people do not believe what any government states as the conditions of their constituents finances as this doesnât even deserve proper scrutiny anymore because it is a hopeless pursuit of the truth. Balancing the budget is claimed to be the end all be all measure but nobody measures the consequences of selling the farm with our provincial assets to do that magic bookkeepingcooking.
So it isnât facts that we are provided that we can accurately weigh as to who we should vote for.
One person out of five eligible voters just elected a party and majority government that has done many mistakes, over another party who has a reputation for also making mistakes and we all know that every once in a while they get caught improperly covering them up. Both of the leaders of both parties wear that label of being involved with wrongdoings and cover ups and yet we put great stock and trust in their personal qualifications to govern our province properly, legally, ethically and in a transparent manner. Its hard to make sense of why some of us do that but harder yet that we actually put so much trust in leaders who we actually do not select as qualified or reputable options of who can be premier of this province. From a few hundred party delegates it is decided that only two people in this province should be allowed to be candidates for being the premier and the millions have nothing to do with that choice.
So in this political desert of meaningless promises and deception about half of the voters just sit down and accept their fate regardless what that might be. The other half of the voters look to the right and the left only to see mirages, some will go as a duty and some will see the most fantastic things, some see dragons and others see mountains of gold. Hearing voices that flutter with nothing more than a feeling in their stomach, they go to vote.
The two things we do know as a result of the election is that one in five of them turned and walked to the right and about one in six turned and walked to the left. The important thing we should know is that when this happens in BC we end up with a majority governing party who will do whatever it takes to repeat this process for as long as we take it.
Posted by: riskeone on May 15 2013 1:27 PM
Axman correct me if I am wrong but when you say “the media are too blame”, are you not admitting you are an NDPer.
———————–
The first sentence of my original post starts with, “While I’m glad the NDP lost…”
firesight … lots of words … lots of assumptions … lots of accusations ….
in the end, some people won and some people lost under an age old, traditonal system which everyone says their grandfathers and sometimes their grandmothers fought to the death over due to their belief it is the superior system.
Can you find another system which you can convince everyone today to defend to the death?
How long before we get lieberal HST type surprises from Christy. Same old gang for the next 4 years.
Palopu wrote: “This Province is now officially for sale, minerals, power, water, oil, etc;”
And you are just realizing that now?
Everyone knows that this province is built on its resources, not on the brains of its people. That is left one or two other provinces in Canada.
The province was opened up by the fur traders, the gold diggers, the railroad builders and the hydro electric developers, and in between the loggers.
We are hewers of wood and drawers of waters. We are not craftsmen, most definitelynot in the interior of the province. We typically do not manufacture rails, wagons, engines, harvesters, ore excavators, etc. Our tools are tuypically provided by craftsmen in other parts of the country and more often than not in other parts of the world.
It is our legacy, it is our wealth, and it is all we have shown we can do.
So, if you want to say that we are selling off our resources, you are bang on!!
Neither the BCLiberals, the BCNDP, the BC Conservatives, BCGreens or the BCPurples have any plans to take us out of that rut. :-(
“In 12 ridings across the province, Liberal candidates won with fewer votes than the Green and NDP votes added together.”
[Greens not to blame for NDP loss, says leader,Vancouver Sun]
I hope BC NDP and Green both realize their mistakes in helping BC Liberals to win a majority (in the past 8 years) and start talking with each other to come up with a tactical candidacy/voting arrangement to urge their supporters to help and not hurt each other. E.g. textbook of Labour and Liberal Democrats in the UK.
In at least one of the above 12 ridings, the Green candidate was even asked by his colleagues to not split the vote and run in a less sensitive constituency which Green was not running, but he didn’t.
univ, I’m sure that you’ve had to eat your share of crow today, but I was wondering if you have also considered what would have happened if the Conservative votes were added to the Liberal votes. How would that compare to your combined NDP/Green votes?
I had a quick look at the local area numbers and the Liberals would still have had a huge lead. Perhaps you have more accurate data that what my quick look provided??
I had a piece of cake for NDP David Eby win against Clark. You want some?
I only presented some data to support my previous post to ruffle the feathers of your sparrow which raised doubt about the possibility of Green “vote splitting” in this election (see above comments).
I am sure you know that federal former conservative minister Stockwell Day was in town urging people not vote BC conservative?! The BC conservative leader with his erratic behavior greatly was helpful in saving Liberals. Confusing?
In the absence of Green/NDP tactical voting strategy, a change of name from BC NDP to BC Liberal Democrats may help BC NDP …
Nice to see that you have taken this loss with grace and integrity…NDPers have a knack for that.
This is a great celebration day for B.C. Liberals…any party crashers need to shut their cake hole.
Well gus it seems that you miss the point. It isnât so much that the system is wrong, it is the abuse of this system by our two major parties that is the problem.
With only 50% of eligible voters actually coming out to vote it is not only me that thinks there is something wrong.
I as many others of the 50% of the people who did vote held their nose knowing that at best their vote was the lesser of two evils and at worst end up being an endorsement of electing another arrogant dictatorship that does the opposite of what they said they would. That is what BC is famous for when a political party wins a majority and then claims to have a mandate to do whatever they like in any fashion they think they can get away with.
Yes indeed our forefathers fought for our freedoms and democratic process but they would be angry and ashamed of how those noble sacrifices have been wasted and transformed into the election politics of today.
Once again, about 1 in 5 eligible voters in this province elected a majority government and they did that having to base their decisions on nothing but guessing which elusive fact less platform might be delivered. So obvious why the predictions were wrong as there was no substance and no faith as to which leader would deliver whatever they didnât want to explain to the voters.
Foresight.
Can you show me that the result would be any different if we had a system like Australia where all eligible voters have to vote and they have more than 95% turnout?
I say it would not make one iota of a difference.
In fact, it would be an interesting bit of insight to compare the success of the BCLiberals versus the BCNDP in “getting the vote out”.
Please do not use the lack of interest in voting as an excuse. Look elsewhere to “make change for the better.”
Do you think we would have gotten a different set of people on City Council if 95% of elligible voters voted? I don’t.
Australia could run such a test. Ask people who would not come out to vote if they were not forced to to put their ballots in one box, and the other into another box. Count them separately and look at the result.
My theory is that they would be virtually indentical.
“how those noble sacrifices have been wasted and transformed into the election politics of today”
I doubt they are any diofferent from 50 years ago or even 100 years ago.
What has changed is communication, record keeping, etc. Far more communication … I mean there are TV stations which have nothing but news on and media from all over the place searching stories from all over the place, with reporters seeking to get a breaking story or a differnt twist to things, those who look for conspiracies everywhere and adding their own twists to them ….
We, as users of that information can gravitate to whatever we want and with that all those quirks of the human mind come out.
This is a different era. One cannot compare 2013 to 1913 or even 1953 or 1963.
We are living in a different world, so recognize that and move forward with it. It is not possible to go back to what was.
“base their decisions on nothing but guessing which elusive fact less platform might be delivered”
One cannot vote in a government based on policies made just prior to the election and expect those policies to hold for an entire 4 years. Conditions change. New information becomes available. Other provinces vote in new governments which mean they change policies. The same for the feds.
We need to know that we have some people at the helm who will LIKELY make the kind of decisions we think we would make down the road based on some basic principles of âconservativeâ philosophy versus âliberalâ philosophy versus âsocialistâ philosophy and even âenvironmentalâ philosophy and âlibertarianâ philosophy. And I mean those terms not in relation to the names of parties but the pure meaning of the words.
So, when we look at that, we have already gathered 5 basic principles which each and every one of us, as voters, will be looking for. Some will rise to the top and be the one, or two or even three dominant ones and votes will be split almost evenly by the three with a few going to the lesser favourite ones.
So let us take an emerging issue â pipelines, off shore transportation of oil, off shore drilling. Over the next 4 years those will be major issues facing us in this province, at least that is how I feel. Did anyone say how they will deal with them. Not that I heard. Did I want to hear about how they will be dealt with? Nope, because all the info is not yet in. I want someone who will make a reasonable decision based on the facts at hand at the time. I cannot expect more. To do so, would be totally irrational in my mind.
When it comes to system change. We do not poll the people enough given the communication technology we have today. THAT is where every single one of the people sitting in the legislation and standing in front of us trying to get our vote are failing big time. Again, not that it will likely change anything, but to do that would be a BIG step towards participatory democracy.
Look to Switzerland as an example of a country which has attempted to do that for many decades.
gus: “One cannot vote in a government based on policies made just prior to the election and expect those policies to hold for an entire 4 years. Conditions change. New information becomes available. Other provinces vote in new governments which mean they change policies. The same for the feds.”
Hallelujah gus! At least someone gets it. Most people look at shifts in policy as ‘lying’, which isn’t the case. Information changes. Governments need to be flexible to deal with changing conditions rather than holding onto a policy that made sense six months or a year ago but doesn’t now.
Well there gus you are pretty wordy yourself not to mention making arguments that go in a complete circle. You speak that the only clue as to what a voter should expect is that the government âLIKELYâ acts in a fashion that relates to the party label but that voter shouldnât assume the label be correct. You speak that once a government is elected that it is entirely up to them to decide whatever policies they see fit. Then your story turns to how you will wait to see how you determine the pros and cons of upcoming pipelines in BC, eluding to some upcoming role you have in this decision. If you live by what you say applies then you should simply accept that a duly elected federal government has already decided that it will not be the JRP or a provincial decision or a bunch of guses but it will be the Harper government that will decide. It has essentially already been decided that the JRP is nothing but a showboat exercise and Christy Clarkes 5 points will be squashed like bugs if necessary. Christy did all she could within her political world but everyone knows the direction from the federal government with Alberta and the oil powered giants behind them, is that this will proceed (regardless and deliberately circumventing conventional processes) at least to the point of being approved. Gus is going to be disappointed and feel cheated living by his philosophies and it is a long time until the next election. To me this is using improper means to an improper end as this federal government has no mandated right to be deciding to liquidate our national energy assets at this scale and consequence to our future. I donât agree with your opinion that this acceptance of this lowest common denominator thinking as âthe way it is and get used to itâ or that âwe are nothing but hewers of wood and drawers of waterâ and therefore we only deserve to be foreign owned corporate slaves who should plunder our resources as quickly as possible.
The HST and the sale of BC rail are two examples that should make you question how our BC system has been working. The forest revitalisation act is another âliberalâ move that few know and understand as is the role of the BC oil and gas commission. Be it the financial crisis and the now admitted liberal government panic that caused the HST to be introduced. Be it the liberal decision to liquidate a crown asset such as BCR and claim it wasnât sold it was just leased for 999 years. Those are all very big deals/issues to the people of this province. None of that was delivered to the people of this province or any of the stakeholders directly effected by those decisions with any real transparency or justifications in any discussion. This is a two way street where the trust and functions between government and the people matter. The HST sewered our previous premier and numerous liberal MLAs and none of that was necesary. Saying one day we wonât sell BC rail and the next telling us they sold it in the weirdest way possible doesnât help anyone in this province. I call that lying.
The first question is whether THAT government had the mandate to do such things. To me and I would guess most others in BC regardless of who they voted for would agree that they had no such right. The liberals knew that they had no such right and that was where the problems really started. Proceeding without having the right to (otherwise known as dictatorship) seems to involve either having to mislead people or having to go underground and hope you donât get caught. I do not like to be lied to and I donât appreciate being mislead and there is a threshold of standards which our government should be held to. Without the accountability to those standards of proper legal and transparent government we have nothing and no future. We work towards improving those standards or we resign to defeat by not voting or voting in the dark as to what it is we are actually voting for.
If the majority of people in BC election voted to be ruled by a bunch of crooks and corrupt politicians, it is their choice and they deserve no better government. The same can be said of the corrupt governments in other banana republics.
But if the majority of a constituency rejected Christy Clark as their MLA then she should respect the election results and allow another person to become premier. Last time she became premier assuming she will get her mandate in a by-election. This time the majority didn’t give her a mandate to be premier and she should respect the results.
Talking of her eating crow …
univ: “But if the majority of a constituency rejected Christy Clark as their MLA…”
…Thanks to your brilliant NDP buddies who spent way too much energy doing so, while forgetting there was a campaign to run. Yeah, good one.
Funny story, where my daughter works so far four mining companies have renewed their contracts since the election…the ink is barely dry on the election ballots, that itself should tell you something
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