Election Campaigning Well Underway
by Dermod Travis,
Splat. It would seem British Columbia’s 41st general election is well underway.
The uproar this week over news that someone may have hacked the B.C. Liberal party’s website is a harbinger of things to come, so fasten your seat belts.
Lost in the charges and counter-charges over the alleged hack is a characteristic most hackers share.
Any hacker worth their salt doesn’t want “the hackee” to know they’ve been hacked.
It’s a risk losing your hacking-license offense.
They certainly wouldn’t give it up for a list of 100 or so names.
When individuals tied to the Russian government allegedly hacked their way into the computers of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, they didn’t do a celebratory high-five and walk away, they stuck around.
The Liberal party attempted to muddy the waters even more this week by claiming that one of the computers that may have tried to hack its website is located somewhere in the legislature, at least according to its IP address.
Call it the fog of cyberspace.
IP addresses don’t always identify the computer that a hacker sat in front of while they were hacking a way, sometimes they only identify a computer hijacked by the hacker to hack.
More than 70,000 pages of the Liberal party’s website have been copied by at least one perpetrator, since 2000.
Most of the pages have since been deleted from the party’s site, but they all live on and are publicly available at the click of a mouse.
The San Francisco-based Wayback Machine – a digital Internet archive – routinely takes snapshots of websites, including the Liberal party’s and has done so 11 times since the beginning of December.
As they say, the Internet never forgets.
If the mudslinging has commenced, what else can we look forward to in the coming weeks? Newspeak, spinning and severe fact rationing.
It can seem like a cross between living in a parallel universe and the film Groundhog Day.
The 2017 Port Moody-Coquitlam provincial election blog has been tracking the government’s growing list of “number one” priorities.
In 2014, Premier Christy Clark tweeted that class composition in the province’s schools was the number one priority because “students’ needs come first.”
A year later “the top priority was and remains the development of LNG in B.C.,” according to a Clark quote in a B.C. Chamber of Commerce Public Affairs Update.
Last March after a clean energy conference, Clark said that “securing federal cash to upgrade the hydro grid between BC and Alberta was the number one priority of her government.”
A month later at the Council of Forest Industries’ Convention “achieving a softwood lumber agreement was the number one priority.”
It would seem number one priorities shift based on the audience.
Using the hashtag #bcfirst, the government also likes to boast about being number one, but never about B.C. being first in Canada for part time jobs, first for highest housing costs or MSP premiums.
Then there will be the defending the indefensible spin or it’s OK for our party, but not yours.
Case in point, this quote: “He was pretty young then. He’s probably matured over the last four years. He’s apologized unreservedly.”
Damage control over a back-dated memo or racists tweets?
It would be the words of Housing Minister Rich Coleman, co-chair of the B.C. Liberal election campaign, last year defending then-candidate Randy Rinaldo over a series of tweets in 2012 and 2013.
An apology was good enough for Coleman. Should all politicians be so forgiving.
White lies are being trotted out. The other day, Coleman erroneously claimed on CKNW that B.C. has the third lowest hydro rates in North America.
Not true, according to Coleman’s own source material.
Out of 11 Canadian cites, Vancouver has the 5th lowest rates in one model and seventh lowest in two others. In 2007, Vancouver was second lowest in all three.
As former New York senator, the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan, once said: “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not their own facts.”
So sit back and get ready for some good old-fashioned mudslinging not seen in these parts for some time, a strong dose of double-standards in the political spin department and a few guffaws over fact-checking.
Dermod Travis is the executive director of IntegrityBC. www.integritybc.ca
Comments
An $8.8-billion dam known as the Site C Clean Energy Project in northeastern B.C. has been described as a “white elephant” by a former hydro executive. Last month Moody’s warned that “BC Hydro posts some metrics that are among the weakest of Canadian provincial utilities.” The company’s debt is heading to $20 billion. Hydro, said Moody’s, has the “flexibility to increase utility rates to ensure that its own revenues will continue to support its operations and debt payments.”
Terence Corcoran: Canada’s green electricity bailouts make the Bombardier giveaway look like peanuts
http://business.financialpost.com/fp-comment/terence-corcoran-now-up-to-50-billion-canadas-green-electricity-bailouts-make-the-bombardier-giveaway-look-like-peanuts
Why doesn’t this story include all the information about the alleged hacking of the liberals website? It wasn’t hacked at all. Vicki Huntington came forward with what happened.
I don’t know dumbfounded. Like you I am at a loss to understand why most of the information has been left out.
After reading everything I could find about it I have concluded, rightly or wrongly, that a person in the Liberal offices put an unprotected file on their website. Why they would put a confidential file onto a computer hosting a website and place it into the directory system so it could be located is beyond me. Personally, I would have kept such a file on a separate computer which the computer with the website on it could not access. It smacks of either extreme carelessness or incompetence to me, since any IT person will be aware of how to limit access. Everyone knows that once something is placed on the internet it stays there forever, so there is no excuse for this kind of mistake. However, it is now absolutely clear that this was done by a legitimate worker for the Liberals, so the Liberals must take responsibility for this cavalier attitude towards donors. Obviously, if you are considering donating to them, be careful.
Somewhat more reprehensible was the official Liberal Party response, particularly that of the Premier, Christy Clarke, who fell back to the tired old Liberal ploy of “blame the NDP, no matter what happens.” This she did, but went too far and libelled her opposing party by accusing nthem, falsely, of illegal activity. That became clear when she hummed and hawed, and waffled and stuttered when challenged by the press to produce any shred of evidence. She had none, of course, so looked a fool.
Then, to rub salt in the wound, another MLA, Vicki Huntington, who is an independent, disclosed that it was her office which had located the file involved, not the NDP. The Premier, of course, had to admit she was wrong but initially refused to apologise. She only did so when the political damage from her refusal began to make her look malicious rather than just a fool.
That is basically where the situation now stands, although I fully expect some comments about it in the Legislature during the coming session. I think this really highlights the deplorable state of politics in BC, where the Liberals have for many years blamed everything negative on the NDP instead of owning their own mistakes. That is reflected on this site as well, since any criticism of the provincial Liberals is always met with attacks on anyone percieved as left of centre, whether they are or not. This is so much the case that we now have a situation where the last President of the USA is now referred to as a Bolshevik by one person posting here. That is gratuitously ludicrous, how else could it be described?
I don’t see it as ludicrous.
Obama’s father was a renowned communist leader in Kenya. His step father was a communist general for the Indonesian military that committed genocide on Christians in that country when they purged it of Christians in the 70’s… His mom and grandfather were both past members of the communist party.The Indonesian Christian genocide was why the leader of the Philippines didn’t trust him having lost family to those policies at the time. He is responsible for wars of genocide against Christians in the Midfle East destroying whole nations over ideological agendas siding with the likes of Saudi Arabia in their genocide of a Yemani child every ten minutes. The complete destruction of Syria and Lybia for his zionist masters, and a coup in the Ukraine to try and retake the Kazarian homeland of the bolshivik genus in the former Soviet Union. A guy that pushed war on Russia because the bolshivik oligarchs had been contained from further influence after they tried to snuff out Christianity in that country killing 60 million in the process. A guy who was a disciple of the reining bolshivik power in the world today following every open borders edict that came down from George Soros so as to erase national identities in Europe and America.
And then all the connections to the Clinton Foundation and its globalist donors and little doubt is left as to where Obama stood… Just watch him take command of the black lives matter anarchists from Washington in the weeks and months ahead. If he sides with, is funded by, and pursues the identity and globalist policies of a bolshivik world order, then call it what he is.
As I said, absolutely ludicrous!
Dermode Travis statement that BC leads Canada in part-time jobs is indeed factual. Not good news for those of you banging on the BC Liberal Government’s job creation drum; did you know in Statistics Canada’s employment numbers, a person working 10 hours per week in a casual job for minimum wage is “employed” the same as a person working 40 hours per week in a permanent, unionized job with a decent wage, benefits and pension. I have repeatedly stated on here in the past that; the new jobs being created are part-time, low wage, jobs that keep families dependent on food banks (in record numbers). Here is the proof!
Temporary jobs are replacing permanent jobs in BC. Since the 2008 recession, there has been a notable shift in the BC job market away from permanent jobs and toward temporary ones. Figure 7 shows that while the first year of recovery, 2010, saw relatively robust growth in permanent jobs, few permanent jobs have been created since. Overall, BC has fewer permanent jobs today than before the recession hit. ~ Center for Policy Alternatives; BC Jobs Plan Reality Check
Only 57 per cent of BC’s working-age population has a full-time job today, considerably less than the Canadian average of 59 per cent. In addition, the gap between the full-time employment rates of BC and Canada has widened significantly since the 2008-09 recession, and the introduction of the BC Jobs Plan does not seem to have helped us catch up to the rest of Canada. ~ Center for Policy Alternatives; BC Jobs Plan Reality Check
Only 57 per cent of BC’s working-age population has a full-time job today, considerably less than the Canadian average of 59 per cent?
Ok, so dig a little deeper please!
How many of BC’s working-age population are semi-retired or “young” retired people from both BC and other parts of Canada? I think that it’s fair to assume that those who are in a position to retire at a younger age often migrate to BC for our better climate! Many of our public sector employees are able to retire in their mid to late 50’s, still well within what is considered to be part of the working-age population. Consider a Federal Government retiree from Ottawa. Given the choice of retiring in Ottawa, what with it’s cold winter climate versus retiring in Parksville, Victoria, Kelowna or many other attractive BC locations, it is not at all inconceivable to see this Federal Government retiree relocated to BC!
Consider a successful Calgary business owner, able to sell and retire in beautiful BC, while still at an age to be considered part of the working-age population! How many now work in BC on only a part time basis, for something to do to fill a few hours each day or week?
I’m not so sure that I would hold much stock in anything that the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives puts out! They are, after all, extremely left-wing biased!
Seems like this story is left wing biased as well. No mention of NDP gaffes that I can see. I prefer a reporter to work both sides of politics as Ben used to do. I read a story either CBC or Vancouver Sun that NDP are having trouble getting donations from Unions or the Corporate sector, and where in the world are their candidates?
Dermod Travis forgot to mention the fact that Alberta and British Columbia were the only provinces for which the 2012 share of foreign workers in the labour force
was higher than the national average.
Pro-business Christy really likes cheap, inexpensive, Temporary Foreign Workers (TFW) and it shows with BC having one of the highest rates of TFW use in the country, based on 2012 figures. ~ Temporary Foreign Workers in Canada: A look at regions and occupational skill; From the Office of The Parliamentary Budget Officer.
And what does this do for Canada and B.C.? Brings in more immigrants seeking citizenship, a huge plus. Ain’t life wonderful.
You might want to stick to cheer-leading Griz. The word “Temporary” was your clue; Temporary Foreign Workers can only stay a maximum of four (4) years working in Canada, after that they must leave and are not eligible to re-apply for work in Canada’s TFW Program for another four (4) years.
The Temporary Foreign Worker Program has nothing to do with applying for immigrant status in Canada. The TFW Program is, more or less, a legalized form of slave labour! But why should we be surprised? This Christy Clark Government condones “child labour” so why would they have a problem with slave labour? The following “made in BC” news story is a totally disgusting example of TFW’s being treated like slaves!!!
ht tp://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/55-tree-planters-win-700k-over-slave-like-discrimination-in-b-c-1.2652622
“Temporary Foreign Workers can only stay a maximum of four (4) years working in Canada, after that they must leave and are not eligible to re-apply for work in Canada’s TFW Program for another four (4) years”
I gaurantee there is a list a mile long available to replace them every 4 years.
I have read news stories of TFW being here for over five years. the TFW program is broken and has to be fixed. The TFW should be given citizenship like my grandmothers were and I think one of them entered Canada illegality.
We wouldn’t need a TFW program if a decent living wage was paid to all workers
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