Wow, tomorrow is the first day sitting in the legislature for our government since they were elected on May 14th.

Nine months later, thanks for finally showing up, supporting our democratic process, and institution, and just doing your jobs!

According to the legislative calendar, we will have an actual “sitting” government for just 45 days before they break for the summer. Must be nice being an elected politician!

http://www.leg.bc.ca/calendar.htm

According to your link they sat in October and November. I guess that adds up to nine months.

What’s Shirley bond been doing for us.. NOTHING.. As per usual.. Just like the rest of them.. Making $100,000 a year play other sitting bonuses etc. and when they are actually in legislature they only work for 7 hours a day… We pay for all their food while in session.

Have to be a criminal to want to hoodwink the public like that.. Then out and out lie to our faces saying they are ” working for us”. Unless us means them and their sweet pensions.

NoWay; thanks for setting us all straight, maybe someone else on here can explain the calendar to you?

How these clowns convince themselves that they represent the population is just delusional. Most get such a small percentage of the vote in real terms (actual votes per electoral riding size). It just doesn’t work anymore, every year they try and convince people to vote but a growing majority will not vote.
Leaders without integrity, fiscal managers who waste our contributed funds, project managers that commit to ridiculous projects. They are out of touch with the values of the people that they pretend to represent.
Don’t vote, it only encourages them.

The idea of them representing the population to any great degree has long gone by the boards.

They represent their Party, and the METHODS it has chosen to implement a Policy that ALL the current Parties universally subscribe to, TO the population.

That Policy can be broadly described as being one of “full employment”. Regardless of the method, or ‘means’, chosen to achieve their desired ‘end’, “full employment” will NEVER result in our modern world in “full emPAYment”.

Prices will always be found to be advancing faster than incomes, and the ongoing exponential growth of overall debt levels should be all the proof anyone needs of that.

So? Change things. Get elected. Start a revolution. Quit whining like a baby. Don’t know how? Just watch the news, the internet, and TV. I’m sure there is online info and yer local library with enough info to start yer own revolution with you and others with the same ideas. All ya need is ten men and a drum. The Mounties? Avoid them even on a good day. With their record for…..never mind. If I’m not there with you on the front lines it’s because I have to work. Sorry. Sure hope I don’t get arrested for what I just wrote.

Ya, yer right, Harb. Only I gotta work, too. Still. Too old to change now, and nobody in their right mind would want my business anyhow. No one with any dough, anyway. Politics is fer the politicians, revolutions fer revolvers. Never wanted to be a politician, and never could hit anything with a revolver. As fer the ‘ten men’, everybody would just say they all “…want something for nothing”. Bums with a drum. Ignore them. Maybe they’re right. Go with the flow, they must know. If they’re all happy with wanting “…nothing for something”, why rock the boat?

Going by past evidence the system was alright for any party that got elected and sat in Victoria in the elevated chambers.

My blessings to anyone who would come along now and honestly attempts to fix what needed fixing a long time ago!

It is not a recent problem. And if the status quo is acceptable to voters and they still come on voting day and cast their vote giving approval to it: nothing will change!

As for them taking a nine months break? If all they do is scream at each other while toeing the party line – perhaps it isn’t such a great loss!

I agree there should be more sittings but do you really believe if they are not sitting in the legislator they are just sitting at home in front of the tv?

Pretending that there is nothing that can be done to the present system of Government is a **cop out**

What we know for certain is that sitting on our asses and bitching and complaining will not solve the problem.

What do we know??? We know that we have two elected representatives to the legislature, ie; Bond, and Morris. PG Valemount and PG MacKenzie ridings. We also know that these two MLA’s are **supposed** to represent the people in the ridings.

Sooooo. When was the last time you talked to your MLA about any problems real or imagined in these ridings???

There is strength in numbers. Any person, or any group of persons can get an appointment with their MLA, and sit down and put the facts on the table.

What are the facts??? You and your group can determine what the facts are for you, however one of the facts seems to be that once an MLA is elected he no longer concerns himself with his riding, but just toes the line of the Party in power. So that should be the first order of business. Making it clear to the MLA’s that they represent the people, and perhaps have them put on a few public meetings per year to advise the voters on what they have accomplished, and what they hope to accomplish before their term is up.

They should know that their getting re-elected will depend on what they actually do for the riding, and for good Government as opposed to spending a few dollars in the riding prior to the next election.

Keep in mind that once an MLA is elected, they represent all people in the riding, not just the Liberals, and it would not hurt to bring this to their attention.

If we just sit on our ass and bitch, then we give them a free ride, which is exactly what they want.

Sooo. Make up your group, and your agenda, contact the local riding office, make an appointment, and start to make changes.

While your at it get some people who don’t vote, or who haven’t voted, to join you.

Have a nice day.

PS. We don’t need electoral reform. What we need is for our elected representatives to do their jobs and represent US.

I have tried to contact bond on numerous occasions with no result beside the typical form letter and no returned phone calls.

“PS. We don’t need electoral reform. What we need is for our elected representatives to do their jobs and represent US”

=================================

I think that would actually be a reform ;)

P Val. I have found that the best way to contact these people is to go to their office and make an appointment.

If they refuse to meet you, then they should be giving you a good reason, otherwise I would write a letter to the local paper, or a post on this site that your MLA refuses to talk to you.

Thomas Jefferson said **Governments yield to pressure and it is the responsibility of the electorate to apply the pressure**. So if we want things done, it is up to us to see that it gets done.

Little green boxes are in session and there are 12 in October and 12 in November right peeps? That link was for last years calendar right peeps? So someone needs to explain to you that November to February isn’t 9 months!

So what do those funny numbers mean at the top of the calendar ? 2 0 1 4 ?

NoWay;

http://www.allmystery.de/dateien/uh65410,1283268362,633894166941250845-Facepalm.jpg

Could be using a loon er calendar.

Here is the 2013 calendar:

http://bciconcoclast.blogspot.ca/2013/01/bc-legislative-calendar-for-2013.html

Here is the 2014 calendar as posted by People#1, once again for convenience.

http://www.leg.bc.ca/calendar.htm

Notice that the Parliamentary Secretary forgot about the election in 2013 ….. the legislature last day in session was March 14, I think.

It would have been nice to have a fall 2013 session, but that was not to be, and I doubt it would have been had there been a change in government since they would have to get all their ducks lined up in order to have a meaningful speech from the throne. In fact, the BCLiberals argued that they need the same amount of time especially after the situation with the by-election in Kelowna.

So, we have grown to see that the Parliamentary Secretary, or whoever is responsible for the accuracy of the legislative calendar needs a little bit more training in order to do the quality of job that I think we should be able to expect for public employees.

We have also grown to see that the government can make changes to the calendar whenever they deem it is necessary to do so.

So, all in all, the calendar is a guideline at best or a stab in the dark at worst.

I suppose we have to go to Hansard to see when the legislature actually sat. I think that is still a reasonably reliable source of accurate data. The rest I would just throw in the garbage. I definitely would not make any vacation plans around the calendar with the intention to see parliament in session.

Politics is too useless and redundant to discuss. We need to march on the Legislature and kick those trough slopping, greedy bums out. Power by the people – we don’t need politicians. They suck! Hard!

March to the legislature and kick the bums out? Not me pal. I kinda like my democracy. Such as it is. Sure don’t want my governments based on petitions and pitchfork torch toting mobs of brain dead lefty or righty yahoos with insane and unworkable agendas. Would you? Besides, our province doesn’t have it’s own money printing presses.

Anyone see any irony in the fact that everyone is sitting in their nice warm homes on their computers or ipads and whining about how bad things are? No? Carry on.

Comment Posted by: People#1 on February 10 2014 1:55 PM

Wow, tomorrow is the first day sitting in the legislature for our government since they were elected on May 14th.
*************************************

In fact the legislature sat for a few weeks in late June and July, primarily to debate the estimates and pass a budget. No fall sitting as per usual.

MLA’s and cabinet ministers do the majority of their work away from the legislature; whether we see value in their work or not, most of them work hard for their constituents, and cabinet ministers are on the job almost every waking hour.
I’d like to see a higher calibre of representative in the legislature but you get what you pay for. For a lot of them this is the best job they will ever have. Bunch of C students.
CL

I stand corrected CL, they did meet for a few weeks in the summer.

You stated; “I’d like to see a higher calibre of representative in the legislature but you get what you pay for.”

I like the irony in your comment given the Liberals have been giving themselves big fat pay raises.

blog/view/1190/14/liberals+give+themselves+a+pay+hike…shame!?id=&st=750

Yup, we get what we are willing to pay for.

Come on now People#1, you lack of objective comment continues to show.

Remember, as the article you linked to clearly states, ALL MLAs receive that increase.

Guess I shouldn’t have taken Ben’s opinion piece titled “Liberals give themselves a pay hike…shame!?” so literally.

Did you read the comments section of that 2005 opinion piece gus? Seems Palopu has been on here for at least nine years. How long has it been Palopu?

People#1 …. there is another lesson to learn, the published media take pride in coming up with eye-catching headlines, whereas with Council a headline will read “Council gives itself a pay raise”, with the provincial government the headline is BCLiberals or BC NDP, give themselves a pay raise rather than the BC Legislature gives itself a pay raise.

That stance, once one reads the body of the story, softens somewhat. In fact, you missed the point that the NDP had given “themselves” a pension increase before they left office, which the BCLiberals cut, and with the 2005 legislation raised again. There was, of course, no mention that there was at least a 4 or 5 year difference in the two pieces of legislation and inflation was slowly eating away at the levels of pensions which were being handed out.

If you really want to do some research, People#1, you should find out for all of us the relationship between the level of teacher salaries, pension levels and MLA compensation levels over say the years from 1995 to 2010. Spikes, up or down in a one year or even 5 year period are meaningless. Look at the historic levels and graph them on a chart, identifying who was in power at the time.

Most people, such as yourself, want to show how one party is worse than the other when they are in power. Well, one event does not cut it, in my mind, to do any proper research about that. One event catch simple people’s eyes and minds. Those who are objective and can swing their opinions with some well researched data do not fall for such tactics.

You, are supposedly a student. What the hell are profs and lecturer’s teaching you guys these days anyway? You should be taught how to do independent study and reach independent conclusions that you can defend with personal conviction of your examination of the relevant facts.

Chester
Since you singled out Palopu for the length of time he has been posting here, please do not think that he is the only one because he has not changed his name.

Here is you other challenge: look at all the names on that list and figure out how many are no longer here and how many are still here under different pen names.

Jeannie
Palopu
Tracy
Camoose
Chadermando
Acrider54
Rock
Mike
Death to Socialism
Myzz
Kozmo
Spider
diplomat

Enjoy!!!!! ;-)

Chadermando=eagleone?
Acrider54-still uses name on gas buddy?
diplomat=gus?

I did have another handle, but not diplomat …..

How about a c rider becoming b c rider …. ;-)

soon we will see ccrider ..

I said C., C. C. Rider
Oh see, what you have done
(Yea yea yea)

I said C. (C. C. Rider) C. C. Rider (C. C. Rider)
Oh see, (C. C. Rider) what you have done
(Yea yea yea)

Oh girl, you made me love you
Now, now, now, now your loving man has gone
C. C. Rider) Girl what’d I say (C. C. Rider)