Friday Free For All – May 5th, 2017
Friday, May 5, 2017 @ 12:00 AM
The week is nearly over, as is the election campaign.
This is your opportunity to speak up on issues that struck a chord with you over the past week.
The rules are simple, but anyone breaking those rules will have their comments edited, or removed, and may be stripped of the privilege of posting on this site.
Keep it clean
Keep it legal
No bullying. While we want you to engage in discussion and debate, resorting to name calling will not be tolerated.
Comments
Wow it’s quiet where are all the whiners and complainers usually someone has posted something by now
Have a good day all
looks like someone did
I have a lot of thoughts for the week… to many to write down in the limited time I have available lol.
First off I think our democracy sucks. Totally ineffective in addressing the issues of the day; and more and more just two extremes warring it out with half truth memes and identity politics.
Worse yet our democracy does not have the capacity to deal with regional population disparities and more and more we find the province under the control of just one region that is looking to make a quick buck selling their property to foreigners and indifferent to the fantanyl laced heroin sold to locals.
Provincial issues seem to be about infrastructure to prop up real estate interests in the GVRD; and ignorance of free enterprise principles and the northern resource economy.
I honestly don’t think we have a good choice at all. I struggle to find a reason to even vote, thus endorsing any candidate. I wish we had a fair ballot that would ensure a democracy through transferable ballot that gives the middle class majority a voice and the option to run independents in the election.
I think the only solution for Northern BC is as an independent province when only a few square blocks in the Lower Mainland have a greater vote than entire regions in the North. I think there should be some sort of inverse of population to land base rule to limit the democracy displacement brought about be mass population concentration in one small region of the province… maybe based on the mean density of the province as a whole factored against the super concentration of riding’s in large urban centers?
More and more technology and globalization displace free enterprise and the economy of the middle class for the greater wealth of the elite monopoly capitalist class. One company alone (Apple) has more cash reserves than the entire central banks of Great Britain and Canada combined.
Lots of talk lately of the big five American technology companies that control nearly everything on the internet and make up most of the gains in the stock markets these days. At this pace we will become a world run and owned by these few players in the tech world as part of a globalist world in servitude to tech monopoly capital.
Our politicians tell us all is fine as they sleep walk their constituents into an economic death spiral for the middle class. More and more the free enterprise of a local bricks and mortar store are being displaced by technology that neither has to compete with the costs of maintaining a store front, nor the cost of employing many people… all of which become arbitrage profits for the monopoly capitalists in the tech sector.
I think we need to hold up the integrity of society through the taxation of the displacement technology in more innovative ways. Maybe an online transaction tax that displaces property taxation for local governments would be one such solution.
I would make the tax a $1 per online transaction tax that goes up by $1 for every $100 after a $200 purchase. Have it policed by Canada Post and other shipping companies that process the shipping for online orders. If the package does not have a certification indicating the tax was paid it gets sent back to sender. Easy to police with audited online purchases.
To make this new control over the value chain of displacement technology work we would require new technology ourselves as society through a certification process for legal online commerce, so as to make the transaction process seamless. A Facebook like registry of individuals and their contact information (ie postal code for taxation remittance to local governments) for making online purchases, or signing in to sensitive web locations that require active certification as to who the individual truly is… such as for political comments on constituency related topics.
Time Will Tell
I think the displacement of low tiered workers (ie: you and me) in the millions by technology is going to be the death knell of modern society. Some say that a universal basic income is the key but then you give up your freedom. It smacks of high communism and subject to massive corruption as most things are.
Agreed, that’s why something needs to be done about it sooner rather than later. Five years from now might be too late to save democracy and the middle class. It should be the number one issue in a modern election… how to deal with the displacement of the modern economy by the online economy… and thus save our democracy in the process.
Eagleone:-“One company alone (Apple) has more cash reserves than the entire central banks of Great Britain and Canada combined. ”
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Any central bank has unlimited cash reserves, Eagle. The Bank of Canada, for instance, (as with the Bank of England, or the US Federal Reserve Bank, etc.), has an unlimited overdraft account with itself. We have assigned these entities the right to actually create our money. They are truly self-financing. The only thing that limits them is the capacity of a country to actually ‘produce’. If they create more money than there is capacity to produce, we get inflation. The price of everything that has been, or is being, or will be produced rises.
Apple doesn’t have that right. It, successful in accumulating money as it has been, can still only GET that money from those who buy its products, or lend to it the money which has been created by the banking system.
Every time ANY bank lends or spends for any purpose it is creating entirely new money. The system is CREDITARY. Loans create deposits, not the other way around. It’s purely bookkeeping ~ there is no such thing as ‘money’ in nature. Banks do NOT lend the money brought into them by their depositors. That money constitutes their RESERVES, some of which will be on deposit at the central bank and used for cheque clearing purposes amongst themselves.
with a majority government there is no such thing as democracy. At that point it becomes a dictatorship.
It may look like dictatorship but in reality it is not. The elected ones are still subject to existing laws. A dictatorship is not accountable to anyone except itself.
all parties move to the center in a two party race so only center people are represented.
I would have liked to vote for a free enterprise party if we had one. I was of the thought that maybe the green party through their sustainability doctrine could be a party of free enterprise… but it obviously is not with its policy of proportional representation.
The politics of identity politics is a vindictive democracy killer by the elite globalists IMO. The proportional representation (proposed by the greens and ndp) is about ‘elites’ securing a guaranteed list for appointed candidates by the party that give the party insiders a voice to aid in king making through coalition governments.
To get their 5% threshold under proportional representation they will divide populations with identity politics and hyperbole that incites useful idiots on fluff issues, but carries a Trojan horse of policies no one intended to vote for. This is the hidden secret behind proportional representation… it is a do around of the middle class majority for rule by the smaller elite class.
In the case of the greens it seems more about restricting the public resources for the lower and middle class for the exclusive use of the upper class; but selling this policy as sustainable environmentalism as the wedge.
In the case of the NDP it is about wealth redistribution from free enterprise to the elites in government and union leadership; but selling it as socialism for its members.
I the case of the BC liberals its about globalist corpocracy and the whims of monopoly capital resource companies and real estate arbitrage of public assets; but selling it as the party of free enterprise and lower taxes.
In all cases our politicians of established political parties sell false hope while enriching their own self interests. They are akin to a cop that runs a protection racket, or a priest that uses a position of moral trust to get sexual advantage. In each case its the dishonest ability to uphold a fiduciary duty the position requires and the actions of a psychopath mentality. The kind of stuff party politics thrives on IMHO.
And you’ll never change that by changing the voting system. Why not look at WHY what you say happens REALLY does? It’s not that hard to trace it through. In any ‘free enterprise’ system, for it to succeed, businesses have to be able to FULLY recover their costs in prices. They can’t do that if the incomes they distribute, which pay those prices, are only a PART, (and with technological advancement an ever declining part, even with wage increases), of ALL the costs that go to make up those prices. The OTHER PART comes increasingly from debt, which, in its totality can NEVER be repaid. It grows exponentially, year after year. Even if this debt were completely interest free, it would still do that. And when the debt increasingly can’t be repaid? The holder of that debt has CONTROL over the indebted. And that, Eagle, is what’s happening. The holder of that debt is mostly the private banking system. Bad as that may be, it would be even worse if it were all held by the government. You can’t cure the worst features of any monopoly by making that monopoly even more absolute. For if it were the government that held this debt, we wouldn’t control it, it would control us. Absolutely. The answer? Make it so debt CAN be repaid in its totality. Not that hard to do.
No matter which party gets in, we will be paying for the party of today
Democracy is the worst form of governments, except for all the others…
Get out and vote
It gets to be a bit much listening to the ever smiling CC about her low taxes and hating taxes when in fact the user fees, carbon tax, and now even the changes to the way alcohol is tax have done nothing more than empty the pockets of the consumer into the coffers of the Liberal gov’t.
CC has said she will add a carbon tax to coal shipments through BC in response to the lumber tariff. Pretty sure that is nothing but a political election ploy to garner votes and will disappear after the election.
Our local reps in Bond and Morris do a pretty good job for the region but it is hard to vote Liberal when you have to listen to the never ending BS exiting the lips of CC.
We’ll be better off without the anger issues the other one’s got.
Anger issues? Pffft whatever.
Isn’t that typical of any NDP leader. Look at the federal NDP!
With Trump killing health care down there, where is he going to find healthy people to go fight his wars for him?? Sure glad we live in Beautiful Canada
Those Airlines in the States certainly behaving like Trump by the way they evict passengers. It’s good Congress going to step in.. Those airlines need to be reigned in
Trump isn’t killing health care, he’s killing Obamacare which is what was killing health care down there. He is in favour of universal health care and what he’s doing is trying to replace it with something better.
Which he has failed miserably. He lies are amassing and he is in a downward spiral to impeachment.
Failed miserably? It’s still in the process.
Impeachment? That requires he break some law. What has he done that would result in impeachment?
If we cannot generate enough interest to participate in Regional, Municipal, or School Board, elections, then how are we going to make any impact on Provincial, or Federal politics.
People (myself included from time to time) seem to think that if they make an (x) on a piece of paper once every four years they have done their duty. They vote for candidates for all the wrong reasons, and then sit back and expect exemplary results.
Knowing the constitution and principles of a political party, or knowing what they stand for would go a long way to getting better representation.
Voting for someone because they are pretty, or have long hair and take selfies, is probably not the way to go. Nor is voting for someone who kisses babies, puts on a hard hat, sits in a truck and pretends that they know something about construction, logging, transit, etc;
Joining a political party and being involved to selecting the candidate that will run for that party certainly helps, however very few people actually do this.
Writing long articles about the ills of the system (like I’m doing now) does nothing to solve any problems unless I am willing to take some action, and do something.
Lets not forget the impact voter apathy has on our system.
Get a kick out of the statement “never ending BS from CC!” And the NDP party and the other party is straight honest goods??? I still maintain that Hoagie reminds me of a snake oil salesman peddling his wares from a mule driven cart and granting everything he can about what he will bring to get votes! There, that is all I have to say on politics at this time, already voted and have a it sure wasn’t NDP and the Green Party, take it from there. I am not embarrassed and secretive about who I voted for. Have a good weekend folks!
Lien, I agree. Not too keen on the leader, but our two local MLA’s work hard, they listen and they git er dun! I appreciate their integrity.
I think that you just described Christy Clark to a T. Seems like (by the way you voted) you were conned by her flim flam.
Yep, I voted for Clark there Palopu,you got the balls to say who you voted for! I have no problem saying this! As for flim flam, you gonna go for a snakeoil salesman? To each their own, they all have their pitches.
In 1789 Alexander MacKenzie wintered at Old Establishment. (Fort Mac Murray today). He stayed with a man called Peter Pond. One day they discussed where in the world they were. Both men guessed well for North and South, but when Alexander used his star sighting equipment it read at least 500 miles too far east. He checked his sighting the next night and got the same reading. Then he realized that there was an incredibly large land that no outsider guessed was there. 500 miles x 1000 miles – wow! It would be more than 5 years before he would prove his claim. When he and his men returned to Fort Chippewayan they would tell and retell the stories of the trip.
During the next 8 years the North West Fur Co. developed a business plan using the information gained from the stories. It was very apparent that both the Carriers and the Chilcotins were good at surprise attacks but not good at pitch battles or defence. So the N.W.F. Co. decided on a strategy of The Four Forts Of Peace. Macleod Lake, Stuart Lake, Fraser Lake and Fort George last. When the last was built it stopped all surprise attacks. The Carrier people could go to sleep and know that the Chilcotin war parties weren’t sneaking up to surround the village and murder every one there. For the first time in their history the Carrier people had military security. This is probably the most successful peace keeping mission in Canadian history. About forty men controlled and kept peace in a land 6 times the size of England! What is this peace of mind worth? When is the last time you heard a Carrier spokes person express gratitude for 200 years of peace?
The Forts Of Peace are only a small part of the benefits that the carrier people have received from Canada. In1912 the salmon run failed on the Fraser river, beavers were hunted until they were scarce and so were bears. If it had not been for the availability of farm and ranch food and the means to distribute it, the Fort George band would have starved.
It’s time to stop accusing Canadians of wrong doing.
Disinformation: Two gold miners from Bahamas were the first non aboriginals in the area, led by a Lheidli T’enneh guide along the Giscome Portage trail. (page 9, 2017 Official Visitors Guide Prince George).
Misinformation: Lheidli T’enneh was a village at the confluence of the Nechako and Fraser Rivers.
Guilt Tripping: Historical Wrongs. If an incident happened in the past name that incident so it can be dealt with. The vague statement Historical Wrongs is guilt tripping.
Shame mongering: When truth is mentioned we need the truth from all sides. Above are two examples of right doing that are never mentioned.
: When atonement is mentioned we are alleged to have committed wrong that happened either before we were born or by others that we are not connected to. I am not responsible for the actions of Attila the Hun.
This guy….I like this guy.
No new taxes doesn’t mean no new tax increases. Something the libs are famous for.
Paint the road lines, lanes etc with the long lasting paint.. not having lines painted causes accidents..the amount of oil etc that ends up on the roads etc from these accidents .. probably equals out the savings to the environment..
You are gambling with our safety….
I can’t remember where I read it, but there was a study done by I think UNBC that showed the amount of pollution emitted by painting lines every 3 years vs every year exceeds the environmental benefit of non oil based paint.
And then there’s the cost of the destroyed vehicles, destroyed lives etc. This is another one of those appearance is more important than fact scenarios.
I doubt that oil paint on highways actually has any detrimental effect on the environment. Just more nonsense from the environuts who think all oil is bad.
On the story about motorcycles someone commented that in the majority of accidents involving cars and motorcycles, the car is most often at fault – and that’s another reason why I quit riding motorcycles.
I’m the guy who obeyed the rules of the road, drove defensively, wore safety gear, bright colours, and more times than not I would have a close call because of something a vehicle did.
Fact is, if it was reversed, and most accidents were the motorcycle’s fault, I could take comfort in knowing if I rode responsibly I could improve my chances of survival. But I can’t control what cars do, which means the inherent risk of riding a motorcycle is quite high – even if you do everything you’re suppose to do, because you can’t control the behavior of vehicles.
I like motorcycles, but will not ride. When I ride in a car, it’s like having armour plating. Riding a bike (motorized or pedal) means I am the plating, and I don’t stand up well to road rash.
I hear you. But I find pedal bike safer than motorcycles. Most of the time you don’t share the road with the cars. Ironically, in one study done in Waterloo Ont. 71% of car/bike accidents, the bicycle was at fault. In fact, another study only 11% of cycling accidents involve cars, the rest are pile ups when cyclists are drafting and when they just don’t pay attention and ride into stuff.
So I’m way more comfortable riding a bicycle on Chief Lake Rd. than a motorcycle because I have a lot of control. I can use my mirror and move to the shoulder when cars are coming. It’s actually incredibly rare for a cyclist to be hit from behind, especially when they are visible.
But I feel most safest in my truck :) I just can’t get any exercise that way and pedaling on a trainer drives me crazy.
ski51, as a motorcyclist and as one who has logged hundreds of thousands of kilometres on two wheels, I have always found that my two very best riding buddies are my own situational awareness and my own defensive riding. Those two have managed to keep me from becoming a hood ornament on more than a few occasions!
Did anyone win the Spruce Kings Show Home?
Yeah, a couple of women. Can’t remember where I read it.
Yawn.
Not much action here today.
So just for laughs:
The People’s Climate March rally in Colorado Springs, scheduled for April 29th, was postponed due to heavy snowfall and treacherous conditions.
ht tps://wattsupwiththat.com/2017/05/01/colorado-climate-march-postponed-due-to-heavy-snow/
Just for chits and giggles
Colorado Springs-elevation 6,035 feet- 1,839 meters, over one mile or 1.6 km above sea level
ht tps://whatsupdoc?.com/2017/05/01/maybe-wrong-place-for-march/
You sure that link is good? Doesn’t work for me.
lol…
Heads of lettuce this week were priced at $3.50 a head at Super Store. I would guess the reason for lettuce to be so expensive is the fact the drought in California is now over.
With Trudeau in charge and our continuously dropping dollar the cost of grocery items will have nowhere to go but up. No wonder CC wants to bring back the HST. She sees a cash cow ready for plucking.
As for global warming, May 5th marks the first day of the year the furnace has not operated to warm the house in the morning.
Our dollar is a petro dollar . The price of oil is falling again and so is our dollar . Get the picture ?
With the lumber tariff, the dollar fell further.
Exxon doubled their profits last quarter with falling oil prices….
Geezzz thought PG was a Fiberal stronghold.. Guess they are worried, soo they bringing crusty back into town this evening for a pit stop..
Seen it On My PG
Why would she waste her time in PG . Todds PTSD private members bill is going to help his half of PG to no end . It should put an end to his ridings rising unemployment rate right smartly . Otherwise why would he care ? His plan is to have the victims ride horses till they’re all better .
Pundits say it’s a toss up in PG-MacKenzie, Morris may well lose.
Crusty and her circus are coming to town.. the only thing is her circus never stops and we keep paying to keep it moving…
I’d like to ask her . How is it that Collin Wilson came to be CEO of AdavantageBC and why do we have to have people involved with it not paying a dime in taxes ? How is that an advantage for bc ? And why is it every day one has to read about more BC government corruption ? And does that blue hard hat of hers prevent the truth from seeping into that little brain of hers ?
According to you she has a “little” brain. A Big Brain made a comment like this but did not use it to become Premier of British Columbia. Puzzling to say the least!
The neocon voters and machine made her premier because they knew how handy she was at giving away our province , A La our once profitable BCR . That’s what made her the shoe in and they are at it again . Her circle is full to the brim with ex harperettes/wildrose/reform jerks . The only thing missing is fat actress but she’s busy messing in Nova Scotias election . I’d love to see her roll into PG , literally .
Ataloss, you are downgrading and trivializing the role that voters have in an election by indirectly suggesting that it would be better if voters stayed home and would not bother to vote since, as you maintain, those power cabals and manipulators are at work to make sure that an election turns out the way they planned it!
Neocon voters? Do you have information about all voters as to their political convictions? How about what you call the “machine”?
Besides, it is the party delegates who at a leadership convention choose the leader, i.e. the premier!
Thanks for the reminder, will definitely be there.
New Democrats urge Greens to their side. Weaver says this smacks of voter suppression. Who can work with Horgans anger issues?
It’s not called voter suppression . It’s called strategic voting . That how we ended the harper government . I hope they choose Maxime Bernier this time . He’s got more baggage than an A380 and that’s just what’s at the surface .
Yup, hells angels, lost govt files……
Nah. Harper government was defeated by the rock-star Liberal leader. Charisma wins over substance every time.
Anger issues?
Just a request .
Starting wednesday can we stop talking about political parties and elections ?
Just for a week .. maybe even a day …. 24 hours ,come on people we are all burned out from this garbage.
It’s a nice thought.
Dream on.
They’re still ranting and raving about Trudeau and that’s been over a year now.
We’re just trying to balance out the many years of ranting and raving about Harper!
Sounds fair, right? After all, the lefties bitched about Harper for years! Are your feelings hurt or are you offended that us righties now get to bitch about that idiot Trudeau?
i love how the liberals are bragging about the money they are putting into the education system.. they have to by law, they lost again in court.. they will also say they created a bunch of teachers jobs.again ordered by the courts..
What won’t they lie about?
How is that lying?
It’s called lying by omission . Like taking credit for picking up garbage that a policeman told you to do . It’s a Donald thing imported by premier Pixie Dust .
So what you’re saying is, it’s not actually lying.
“Apparently it takes 79 people to create the same energy through solar as one person does through coal. (And that would be cheaper, how? )”
ht tp://joannenova.com.au/2017/05/one-coal-worker-or-79-solar-ones-same-electricity/
2016 the USA produced almost 20% or one fifth of its energy consumption from renewables . That’s like a hundred siteCs . Do you see the trend yet ?
fastest growing energy portfolio in BC ? vrec.ca
Renewables, like hydro.
I think that the majority of Canadian citizen who really give a hoot about Canada or their province as a whole, do get out and vote. The recent stats of the federal election and history of most provincial elections for voter turnout is pathetic. I firmly believe that a lot of the whiners and bellyachers in our country, do NOT vote, yet always want to point that accusing finger. The outcome of our past elections and the one coming up, could well be of a different outcome than that of which nay sayers foresee, if everyone would just get out and vote. i don’t care which party you believe in, but if you like your area representative and you believe they will fight for you, then get out and vote for them.
The US is in the turmoil they are in today because 1/3 of the US eligible votes chose to NOT vote. You snooze you loose. Get out and vote please.
Thank you
I would like to say that I don’t agree on the fact that all comments are closed for anything to do with this election. I don’t comment often but I do like to read other people’s thoughts and ideas. Does it sway my vote either way? Not likely. But I think this site was created for the people of PG to express their opinions on important issues – regardless of whether the owner of this site agrees or not.
Thoughts and ideas are one thing, name calling and other childish behaviour is a completely different beast.
Unfortunately, some do not know where to draw the line with their opinions and therefor have forced the moderators to shut down specific stories to comments.
Comments for this article are closed.