Bond Not Taking Re-election for Granted
Prince George, B.C. – The provincial election is still more than three and a half months away but that hasn’t prevented Shirley Bond from busily preparing.
The Prince George-Valemount MLA is seeking her fifth consecutive term in office.
“My team’s been working for months, knocking on doors, out in the community talking to people and as far as I’m concerned, this is a four-year job,” says Bond. “You should be engaged in your community every single day that you are elected and you should never take anything for granted.”
She sees economic growth and job creation as the biggest issues.
“We’ve had a plan we’ve laid out and I certainly recognize that in some parts of the province we need to do more work to the keep the momentum building,” says Bond.
“But I believe in getting to yes, making sure that we can have investment, that we can create jobs for families in this province and I think you can only do that – we can only provide the services that people want like better health care, more teachers, more police officers – if we have a strong economic plan. That’s my goal and that’s what northern British Columbians want to hear not just from our party, but from anyone else that wants to be elected.”
As a long-time cabinet minister, she says voters in her riding also “want a strong voice in Victoria.”
“People may not always agree with the policies and decisions that we’ve made, but very few people can argue with my work ethic. I work hard every single day and I think that’s what people expect of us.”
So far Bond is the only candidate to officially declare her candidacy in the riding. In the 2013 election, she captured 57 per cent of the vote. Her closes competitor was Sherry Ogasawara of the NDP. She garnered 36 per cent.
Voters go to the polls May 9.
Comments
Lets see if people remember what has happened to our Province.
Increase in in natural gas 80%, ICBC rates increase, hydro increase, carbon tax.
Premier Christy Clark receives an annual “commission-like payout” from the B.C. Liberal party, which puts her in a conflict of interest involving party donors, an Opposition MLA alleges in a complaint filed Wednesday with the conflict commissioner.
http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/canadian-politics/b-c-premiers-50000-stipend-from-liberal-party-puts-her-in-conflict-of-interest-involving-party-donors-mla
Her money is growing while ours is getting smaller.
doneright wrote:-“Lets see if people remember what has happened to our Province.Increase in in natural gas 80%, ICBC rates increase, hydro increase, carbon tax.”
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Yes, people DO remember all those things, doneright. But they also remember that NONE of the BC Liberal’s opponents have suggested any ways of reversing them. In effect telling us that no matter who gets in we can expect more of the same. So then it comes down to which Party is going to give us MUCH more of the same, or just more of the same. And they wonder why there’s ‘voter apathy’.
“People may not always agree with the policies and decisions that we’ve made, but very few people can argue with my work ethic. I work hard every single day and I think that’s what people expect of us.”
No, people expect you to represent them and what the riding wants, not what the BC Libs want. I realize it’s pointless to say it but stop towing the party line on every single issue/item and maybe represent your constituents once in a while.
What planet are you living on? Shirley Bond has always put her constituents first and foremost. You’re confusing “what the riding wants” with “what I want”.
Well said! What does the riding (the constituents) want? To find out what they want elections are the best method! If their wants have been looked after they will re-elect the incumbent.
“Towing the party line” is an accusation of little value. All politicians of every party represent the party’s platform, agenda and ideology which has been made public to potential members and voters.
Nothing new or too complicated to grasp. Informed citizens are aware of this.
Really? Do you think the majority of her constituents want her to support the continued bankrupting of BC Ed?
Ax, Right On!
And if folks don’t believe it go have a sit down with her.
And if you haven’t, you have no reason to complain.
I beg to differ. I went to her because I was having problems with a government agency and she refused to help…so no, I would say she doesn’t have her contituents first, she has her [party and herself first and second.
Give a photo op however and you will find no one getting there before her.
Maybe you were being unreasonable? Maybe this government agency already did everything for you they were supposed to and there was nothing else to do?
I don’t think asking for information is being unreasonable
That would depend on the agency and the information. You can’t expect an educated response from anyone on the basis of that information do you?
Asking for information may have privacy implications. We can’t really give an informed opinion since we don’t have the details.
Asking for information may have privacy issues??? You mean like when the NDP, through the Access to Information Act, made a request for information on the Highway of Tears, which was then “triple deleted” by the Christy Clark Liberals? The RCMP was brought in and charges were laid. Yup… nothing like an open, honest, transparent, government!
ht tp://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/privacy-commissioner-alerts-rcmp-after-scathing-report/article26926616/
No, it’s not like that at all.
Perhaps she would like to go into detail as to what their economic growth and job creation plans are. At the moment I would suggest that for this area it does not exist. Perhaps we are the part of the Province where they need to do more work and keep the momentum going.
Better health care, more teachers, and police officers, hmmmm, have I heard this song before.?
Of course working hard every day is what people expect, that’s the job.
Go talk to her instead of crying on a blog site, sheesh people….
Dont assume that people don’t talk to her. I have on a few occasions, have you.??
You asked her what the economic growth and job creation plans are? What did she reply?
Are you kidding? Can’t miss out on the whine and cheese party, sheesh! LOL
What you have to consider is that people need someone to vote for. The Green’s are not a formidable opposition to Shirley and the NDP can’t find anyone to run.
I am not a fan of the corruption that has become the norm in BC politics, especially with the liberal party but overall Shirley has done lots for the region and if the NDP think they can wait till the writ is dropped and then actually put forward a candidate who in three months can get their name / face out there, they are under estimating the opponent.
After 16 years,what has happened just in the North? forestry jobs lost over 1800 just in manufacturing, every user fee gone up. I get pissed when the Libs talk about Forestry being number one if so change the Forest Act back to 2001 and hold these companies accountable to workers and communities. Industry closes a Mill and don’t even have to contact the Government, no effort to try and prevent the closure just move along.
If you want to blame politicians for mills closing then you better blame politicians in the United States for failing to act on the sub-prime mortgage crisis..If anything Pat Bell helped the industry from completely failing.
There have been some 71 mills shut down in BC since the Liberals took office. In addition throw in a few pulp mills, plywood plants, coal mines, canneries, railways, etc; etc; and you are looking at a loss of some 20,000 jobs more or less.
You cant necessarily blame the Government for all jobs losses, however allowing mills to process logs anywhere in the Province certainly had an impact. So did the selling of BC Rail.
These jobs will never be replaced, so we need to re-invent the wheel and try to figure out what we can do going forward. This is where the present Government has failed us. They have no plans what so ever for North Central BC except for a long shot on LNG, and an ill fated, hugely expensive Site C project. LNG in Prince Rupert, and Site C will have very little impact on the Northern Interior.
If the NDP were in power for the past 16 years and we lost 20,000 plus jobs, you would hear the screaming all the way to Newfoundland.
We in the interior will have problems regardless of who is elected, however I think that the Liberals need to take a vacation from Government for a few years.
Having said that I am not prepared to vote for either party.
Me too. As far as ‘creating jobs’ goes, the only thing that ever really creates meaningful jobs is Consumer demand that can be made fully effective, i.e., people have enough money to pay the price a business must obtain for whatever they need or want. Into that price goes ALL the costs involved in obtaining that product. But in our modern world Consumer incomes from wages and salaries are only a PART of those costs. The rest is made up from debt. Which increases faster overall with every advance of technology that displaces labor, and incomes derived from labor. This debt in its totality is unrepayable. It can be shifted around, like Paul Martin did when he reduced the National Debt. By downloading it onto the provinces, who downloaded it further onto municipalities, etc. But in the final analysis there’s still only one payer ~ US. And we can’t pay something we’ve never been given the money to pay. Especially when we have governments taking more and more of it off us.
Most BC Rail employees became employed by CN, they were not “lost”. They were no longer employed by one of the only crown owned railroads in the country.
Dow. Don’t kid yourself, all the intermodal employee’s lost their jobs, so did most of the office staff, management, and general workers. My guess is that they got rid of at least 1500 jobs.
I know quite a few BCR employees and non of them lost their jobs. Some retired and are contracting to CN, some just retired. I am sure there were jobs that were lost as in any takeover/merger. One thing that was consistent is non of them were pro-sale to CN. Change is hard for most people.
I worked for both companies. 1500 jobs lost? Where in the world did you get that number?
Palopu is pretty damn close on his job loss estimates, it was 1,223 BC Rail jobs lost to be more exact!
Pine beetle devastation, global warming, 2008 worst recession, changing global markets, foreign competition in the energy field, manufacturing shifting big time to low cost countries, job losses to robots, decreased demand for our resources….all in all we are still doing relatively well as we are rated best province in Canada. No need to experiment with something lesser.
Prince George. The usual line of BS to cover Government mismanagement, and the machinations of BC business.
We are rated as the best Province in Canada for creating a bunch of part time retail jobs, and one of the lowest minimum wage’s. If they kept stats on the Province that lost the most full time high paying jobs in Canada, we would certainly be first in that category.
The Liberals are like a banana that has been left on the counter to long. Over ripe and starting to rot, and stink.
Time to change them out.
Now there is a line of BS, read the CANSIM tables and BC job growth has increased in full and part time positions, even seasonally adjusted
Any economics think tank, any professor of economics, will tell you what you already know. B.C. is doing very well.
Worst mining disaster in the history of Canada (Mt. Polley). Worst unsecured environmental liability for mine site clean-up costs in Canada. Longest waiting times in Canada for MRI imaging tests, according to a Fraser Institute study. B.C. experienced the worst income growth — in fact, incomes declined — of any province in Canada during the 2006-12 period. BC has the lowest student funding in the Country. Dismal government record in courts, stringing up loss, after loss, after loss, throwing away millions in legal fees towards lost causes. Housing Crisis. Fentanyl Overdose Crisis. Record high number of British Columbians in food bank lines. Province with the most cities among the highest crime rates in Canada, and if all this were not enough; “British Columbia is the worst place to be in Canada if you’re a child, and it has been for all but one of the past 13 years. The latest numbers released by Statistics Canada indicate that in 2011, British Columbia once again slipped into last place among the provinces, tied at the bottom with Manitoba.”
B.C. resource development remains ‘unknown and unmanaged,’ warns Forest Practices Board!!! Etc. etc. etc.
I could list more, but I think we all get the picture, it’s time for a change!!!
Just gotta say your “research” is false, has been proven in previous articles but you still cling to them. A true dipper at heart
Maybe, but not to one that’s not going to be any better. And probably a good deal worse. But don’t take my word for it, BH, you just go and try to get the NDP elected, and if you’re successful, we’ll see what miracles they can perform.
We are a province that relies on natural resource development as its main economic engine, and when you have a Forest Practices Board saying B.C. resource development remains “unknown and unmanaged”, how can any government do worse???
www .vancouversun.com/business/resource+development+remains+unknown+unmanaged+warns+Forest+Practices+Board/7993065/story.html
Here is a miracle: The NDP taking the province from #1 in Canada to #10 and Have-Not status in two terms! I remember it well. The excuse: B.C. was the only province in Canada that became a victim of an Asian Flu, all the others did extremely well. Some people actually believed that story, which is another miracle!
PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT #2: BC’s credit rating remained stable throughout the 1990s under the NDP. In 1990, BC’s credit rating was AA a rating that remained in place right through to 1999, when it dropped to AA- under circumstances beyond the provincial government’s control; namely the Asian Market collapse.
ht tp://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/reality-check-b-c-s-credit-rating-1.1400605
As for the Asian Market collapse affect BC more than the other provinces, isn’t BC referred to as the gateway to the Orient – Asian markets?
PrinceGeorge, thankyou for the reminder.
BCs credit rating before and after the NDP was AA+, hard to make excuses for them when the rating was downgraded at least 3 times during their reign of terror
Under the BC Lib-Con’s incompetent hands; Moody’s Investment Services has downgraded BC’s outlook to “Negative” from Stable… thanks a lot Christy and Company!!!
ht tps://www.moodys.com/research/Moodys-Revises-British-Columbias-Outlook-to-Negative-from-Stable-on–PR_261569
You do remember it was an NDP government that signed off on the Mt. Polley tailings pond.
You do remember it was an NDP government that chose not to log the park where the pine beetle infestation started to manifest itself.
You do remember it was an NDP government that built Fastcat ferries without considering the environmental damage they’d do to all the shorelines in environmentally sensitive areas.
You do remember it was an NDP government that created ICBC and socialized insurance so good drivers are forced to pay for bad drivers. Private insurance can refuse a bad driver, ICBC has to take all comers.
You do remember in 1974 it was an NDP government that rejected provincial involvement in land claims.
You do remember it was an NDP government whose health record was so dismal that 7000 people packed the multi-plex to protest how dismal northern health care was.
Not saying the Liberals are perfect, but the NDP for the short amount of time they govern manage to do damage that takes decades to recover from.
And for the North, the NDP has been particularly bad preferring to grab the taxes from resource exploration and spending it in the South where their power base is. At least Gordon Campbell knew where Prince George was, and Christy Clark has seen it on a map.
Those who do not remember do so out of political convenience! Voluntary amnesia.
Harcourt promised P.G. a cancer clinic during the election campaign, after winning they put it in Kelowna! Gordon Campbell kept his word, that is why we have it here now!
Christy Clark has been a frequent visitor in P.G. on many important occasions.
Thanks for pointing to the NDP failure to deal decisively with the mountain pine beetle infestation by refusing to do any logging in a park. Alberta did the right thing by exterminating them by logging and burning them in place!
Speaking of Fast Ferries… Fast Ferry size cost overrun for the Port Mann Bridge costing an additional $423 Million dollars… but that is nothing compared to the BC Place Stadium Roof with an original cost estimate of $100 Million, but came in at five (5) times over that amount totaling $515 Million dollars. Yup this BC Liberal Government has at least a couple of Fast Ferry sized cash give-aways!
ht tp://bc.ctvnews.ca/fast-ferries-sized-cost-overrun-for-port-mann-construction-watchdog-1.2902374
ht tps://www.biv.com/article/2013/1/exclusive-bc-place-renovation-final-costs-were-fiv/
Then there is the $182 million dollar computer system the Liberals purchased that just won’t work… go figure! I could go, on-and-on-and-on but will release it all gradually over the next 4 months… why? Because people need to hear the truth and see the facts for themselves before they vote!
SO BH is going to release more pro NDP spam over the next 4 months. Anybody still doubt if he is a paid NDP proxy troll?
@Dow7501
No less than we know you are a paid Con troll spreading right wing propaganda around.
Bottom line, they are all politicians, period! They will take on issues that generate less work and more publicity for themselves, the parties they represent, and their gold plated astronomical pensions! I worked 35.6 years for a pension that won’t even be in the same division as theirs, is it still 5 years. Sorry, I have no use for them and their views on stroking the province of BC’s populace! ALL parties!
ski51 and Prince George–You are both so out of touch on the pine beetle issue that it is laughable. Maybe do a little research before you spread the BS. How did the beetle even get to Alberta if it could have been stopped? Take a look when you go through Alberta and look at all the dead standing beetle trees now. They still have a beetle problem.
So I did that research. Experts say at best, logging Tweedsmuir might have slowed it a bit. They also say, that the federal Liberals and provincial NDP both dropped the ball and failed miserably to recognize the threat and allocate resources to deal with it. Though, chances are the provincial liberals wouldn’t have done any better.
But I don’t believe I said it would have stopped the infestation. I said they wouldn’t log the park where the beetle manifested itself. Many RPF”s that I know, despite other expert opinion, still feel that was a tremendous blunder. The NDP were at the steering wheel when that ball really got rolling.
Good point oldman1; “Several times in the 2000s, beetles from the massive epidemic in central British Columbia were carried on upper atmospheric winds across the biogeoclimatic barrier posed by the Rocky Mountains. The insects were deposited in northeastern British Columbia and northwestern Alberta. These long-distance dispersal events resulted in a significant increase in the distribution of the mountain pine beetle in Canada.”
ht tp://www.nrcan.gc.ca/forests/fire-insects-disturbances/top-insects/13397
When mountain pine beetles get carried on the wind, over the Rocky Mountains and deposited in Alberta how is this the NDP’s fault? How about the fact the mountain pine beetle population exploded because of warmer winters, just one of many indicators of Global Warming… how is that the NDP’s fault?
You are quite correct. As a retired NDP MLA told me years ago, “We screwed up”
“How did the beetle even get to Alberta if it could have been stopped?” simple – it wasn’t
Lets not forget the $450 Million dollar Sea to Sky Highway, that was ostensibly for the the Olympics, but was really for the Whistler area, and those who own property there. If they put a toll on this highway the people using the highway and living in that area would be paying tolls for 100 years or more.
So what the Liberals did was build the highway as a 3P project. The contractor built the highway, and we the taxpayers of BC will pay for it to the tune of $450 Million over a 40 year period.
The term used for this type of BS is **Shadow Tolling**. Look it up.
The Liberals need a long rest, something in the area of four years,.
I think it ran closer to 700 million. But, there’s about 100 less crashes per year, and about 5 less deaths. So think of all the money ICBC saved that the government was able to take as a dividend.
But you’re definitely right, they like their mega projects and they like them down south, and they’re rarely on budget.
And yet, here we are, in province so badly run, that people just keep coming here to live and invest.
I just wish the NDP would get a leader that was more middle of the road and actually gave solutions rather than just slinging mud and saying Liberals stupid, NDP smart – yeah, smart – so tell us what you’re actually going to do other than say, we’ll fund everything.
How about the massive overrun (on the level of the fast ferries) on the Vancouver convention centre expansion? Funny how the “left wing” media went on and on about the Fast Cat fiasco, while completely ignoring the financial boondoggle that is the convention centre. That is just one of the projects that the “fiscally competent” “Liberals” went massively over budget on.
The Mt.Polley mine disaster could have been prevented with stricter government regulation instead of letting the fox guard the chicken house and let us not forget the people who lost their life and were injured in the two mill fires. IMO this should never have happened and could have been prevented with proper regulation.
Sorry, it was doomed the day it was built. Now, to be honest, the Liberals would have approved it too. Someone screwed up along time ago, and the Liberals just happened to be at the wheel when the bad thing happened. But BH likes to throw out the blame like it could have been prevented. The only government that even had a chance to prevent it, was an NDP government. I doubt it’s really their fault, but it isn’t the Liberals either. There will always be risk in resource extraction.
“On 18 August, the BC government with support of the Soda Creek Indian Band and Williams Lake Indian Band ordered an independent engineering investigation into the pond breach, and a third-party review of all 2014 dam safety inspections for every permitted mine’s tailings pond in the province. The panel reviewing this breach was composed of Norbert Morgenstern, P.Eng., Dirk van Zyl, P.Eng., and Steven Vick. Their final report was published January 31, 2015.[12] The investigation covered many factors including the question of whether the piezometers measuring the water pressure on the dam had been located correctly. The last readings, 2 August 2014, did not show any changes in the water pressure.[2] On 1 February 2015, the Globe and Mail reported a principal finding of the panel determined the tailings dam collapsed because of its construction on underlying earth containing a layer of glacial till that had been unaccounted for by the company’s original engineering contractor.[17]”
Talk about trying to obfuscate such a simple straight forward situation! The simple reason why the tailings pond dam failed is because Imperial Metals continued to increase the size of that mine’s tailings pond, well beyond what was originally designed. In other words it went from being a small tailings pond to a 2km sized lake of toxic sludge!
“The original engineering done by Knight Piésold Ltd. accommodated a significantly lower water volume than the tailings storage facility reportedly held at the time of the breach,” the company said in a statement posted Friday to its website.
‘The embankments and overall tailings impoundment are getting large and it is extremely important that they be monitored, constructed and operated properly to prevent problems in the future.’- Knight Piésold letter to Imperial Metals
ht tp://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/mount-polley-mine-ex-engineers-warned-tailings-pond-getting-large-1.2732314
Bottom line: Mount Polley Mine’s tailings pond grew so massively large under the BC Liberal Government’s watch, that it eventually failed!!!
Talk about not understanding what you read. The pond did not get a larger footprint as you seem to think somehow. The pond was built wrong to begin with, engineers missed it, either that or ignored cores.
On Jan. 30, 2015, an expert panel established to review the collapse of the dam, owned by Imperial Metals, published its findings. It suggested the disaster was a preventable accident made worse by repeatedly raising the dam to hold more tailings without the addition of proper supports.
More BS. They kept building the walls higher and higher without properly supporting the walls until the water pressure was to great and something had to give.
LOL, oldman1 we posted the same facts 1 minute apart, the truth needs to come out and the facts need to be told… no more Lieberal LIES!!!!
Lies from the Libs?? 16 years people and what dothey have to show for it increased costs on everything and failed LNG dream… the list is so long and painful.
In 2003, the Liberals had a great idea of lowering the legal working age to 12 years old. On May 9, 2013, First Call released an eye-opening report on B.C.’s child labour laws, showing staggering statistics such as:
-43 per cent of youth workers have reported injuries on the job, including a 12 year old who sustained burns all down the front of his body from battery acid.
-A handful of children now on permanent disability
-WorkSafe paying out1.1 million in disability claims to children
-A high number of children dropping out of school due to work schedules.
BC being the worst place in Canada for children indeed! Anyone who associates themselves with this ethically bankrupt political party, should hang their heads in SHAME!
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