Provincial Results

good good...now please take your signs down....

Good.

Congrats on win to Shirley and Pat

Congratulations to John, Shirley and Pat.
The good work started continues!
Keep up the fight for the North in Victoria.

Another 4 years of a criminal running amok ad doing pretty much as he pleases...like the last 8 years?????...lovely!!!!!

The thing that sucks here is he gets less than 50% of the total vote and he still wins, well tighten up your belts BC because we just gave this man total control to raise the taxes across the board, and continue to sell us out to the highest bidder. All of that lovely money going to his party..you ever notice he takes from the poor and gives to the rich?
it almost makes me want to move out of BC, and I've lives here all my life, but to see it ruined under this man is almost to much to bear.

Perhaps the last 8 years were better than the 8 years prior to that.
The people of the province must think so because that is how they voted.
As for STV vote, good that it was voted down. If we are going to spend alot of time and money to change the system - it needs to be better than the one presented.
I think the citizen's assembly worked hard, but they should go back the the drawing board and reconsider other options.

BCRacer: "Another 4 years of a criminal running amok ad doing pretty much as he pleases...like the last 8 years?????...lovely!!!!!"

A criminal running amok???

Are you a member of the NDP or a NDP supporter?

If you are, boy I am ever glad that I am not and that I never did support the NDP because I would feel completely out of place in a party whose members or supporters agree with utterly ridiculous vicious attacks of this nature.

The man made a mistake (like most other human beings on this Earth, including you do soemtimes) and paid the price. His hosts who failed to take his keys away from him when they knew they should have are at least as much to blame as he himself. He apologized and was re-elected twice.

That's it.

Let's go B.C. now is the time to move ahead !!!

Diplomat the speeder did the right thing and stepped down, Gordo just smiled for the camera. The man has no morals or guilt.

Bert... you can't move ahead when you're stuck in the past and there is no culture stuck in the past more than Canada....errr.... OK, maybe the Taliban.... but Canada is right up there. A culture that still thinks it's 1880 in soooo many ways: rampant clear cut logging; clubbing seals over the head; strip mining that kills entire rivers and lakes; sending animal species toward extinction... all for money worship. Sorry.... but Canadians are hillbillies just like the Americans.

We, humans, are heading full speed ahead into great planetary crisis and I for one can't wait as we surely deserve it. A species so vile, so greedy, so un-concerned about those that come after us is not worthy of consideration or mercy. The official mantra of the human family should be: "Meeee.... Meeee.... Meeee...."

This election is just more proof that God's coming vengence upon humanity (see the book of Revelation) will be justice fulfilled.

This story, and the subsequent posts are the biggest reason that I like this site.

I get to see virtually EVERY opinion that exists out there, whereas people in person are very reluctant to speak out of the context of the current flavor of the discussion.

I get to see far left, far right, middle of the road (that would be me), and far outer space.

Who would have thought there would be so many vastly differing opinions out there ?
You never hear them in public, in person.

Who would have thought the NDP would garner such a large percentage of the vote ? I was surprised. I am even more surprised by how other people perceive this.

In any case, I feel it gives you a much more clever edge in understanding how people think and how they relate things to each other, and makes a person much more able to understand and deal with such vastly different range of opinions.

Many people are still learning, but a site like this is actually training us how to deal with each other's different opinions and talk it out rather than kill each other.

The olympic financial fiasco will be his Legacy...Keeping BC in the red for many years.

All this left wing psycho-babble is exactly what stops reasonable people from voting NDP. Grow up & you might stand a chance. Luckily, that will never happen.

Amen to that Imorge!

BTW - it was the NDP that started this whole Olympic business.
Keep up the BS, it's working so well for you.

Seamutt: "Diplomat the speeder did the right thing and stepped down, Gordo just smiled for the camera. The man has no morals or guilt."


Both of them left it up to the judgment of the voters: they were both re-elected.

------------------------------------------

The Olympics are not a fiasco yet inspite of some negative propaganda.

However, I can think of more than a few people who are fervently hoping that Canada's Winter Olympics WILL turn into some kind of fiasco once they get underway.

Perhaps they are jealous, envious, or politically motivated for having mischief at any price.

such ardent expressions of derision for the victorious and the defeated.
It is time to move on folks.
Yes, our premier is known to have a drink and then to drive. Dumb move by anyone let alone a political leader. Bitch, whine and complain about our economy, our forest management and our Olympic commitment all you like. The fact of the matter is that it does not take a majority vote to take office. What one needs is simply more votes than the other person. We are also in a party system, so the party with the most elected representatives gets to run the show. The liberals not only did that, but did so with a bigger margin than last time.

If we do a post election analysis, what we see is the only party not engaging in negative campaigning tactics and had proposed solutions to our woes won handily.

I personally would like to see the greens get some MLA's into office just to ensure that voice can be heard.

The NDP needs a much stronger leader than this soft one. It's pretty hard to buy into someone that cannot express their own personal opinion. They are for the people, just like unions are and that is great. My question for that is; how do they intend to pay for all the social programs if business goes down? Less business, fewer jobs, less taxes.

If you want to slam the liberals, they have had a stronger election result each time. As to the liberal economic policy, BC has had the least impact on our local economy than almost very other region of Canada. One cannot blame a local government for a global event.

Just "what", exactly, has Premier Campbell and the BC Liberals actually done FOR us?

My property taxes have risen each year he's been in office. Both for my residence, and for my business property. Where, in the latter case, this year they will probably exceed by twice what I originally paid for that property!

Just think about that. To get to say I "own" that piece of land I now have to pay twice what I originally paid for it ~ in property tax each year. And pass that cost on to my customers, if I can, if I want to stay in business.

Hydro rates? Just received a notice that the BC Utilities Commission was rolling back last year's 6.5% increase. But had allowed a BIGGER increase this year!

Gordo once made a lot of political hay out of his endless chanting that, "Tax cuts work." I fully agree, they certainly do. But aside from enough of a reduction in my income tax to afford a six-pack of beer each week granted at the beginning of his term of office, where have there been any further 'tax cuts' that 'work'?

MSP premiums? Up. And services once covered, like optometry, for instance, no longer covered. The BC Sales Tax is still at 7%. It was, and could well be again 7.5%. Stephen Harper, like him or not, has got the GST down to 5%, and that's less by far than what the rate used to be on many things like building materials (11%) decades ago. But we're burdened with a BC Sales tax that's still higher than it was all the years WAC Bennett was in office. This is progress?

And then there's that screwball, ever rising 'carbon tax'. That makes everything more expensive, and ensures that if we want to maintain the status quo, or improve our standard of living at all, we'll have to pollute "MORE" in order to pay it. Brilliant!

Fees for everything from driver's licences to ferry fares? All up!

Water rates? Look at how the municipalities and Regional Districts are all pushing for water meters. Everywhere. All over BC, so far as I can tell. They say they can't get senior government grants unless they're installed first. As if those grants came out of some pocket other than OUR OWN! I could go on, but what's the point?

The Campbell government has been a litany of utter failure at containing and reversing the rising cost of living that continues to outpace the rate of increase in our overall standard of living.

If Social Credit, under WAC Bennett could keep the cost of government low, deliver services, (not cut them), develop the Province, actually reduce many taxes, and do so, with surplus budgets and increasing money in the Bank for over twenty years, why can't the current guy ~ a Master of Business Administration degree to his credit, in comparison to Mr. Bennett's lack of anything in the way of formal education past high school ~ begin to do some of these same things?

The big difference that I discern was that WAC Bennett was FOR genuine "free-enterprise". He knew what that entailed, and in what order. And that "service" was the necessary precursor to 'profit'.

Gordon Campbell is for something else. Something, interestingly enough, not all that different from the 'socialism'he professes to detest ~ not what 'socialism' promises to be, but what it really always becomes. "Global Capitalism" under a different name. But a 'monopoly' just the same. One where 'profit' comes first, no matter what it takes to glean it. I hope I'm wrong, but I truly believe we're going to rue the day we ever allowed that guy to be our Premier.

property taxes are a municipal thing, nothing to do with "Gordo".

MSP, a federal matter, nothing to do with "Gordo".

Carbon tax, well ok you win that one. In the liberal's defense, it was an action for greening the province.

Water rates, municipal again,

Worried about containing your rising cost of living, quit being suckered into every little feature and convenience. Does one really need a cell phone with text messaging et el and cable and an ATV with 3 cars in the driveway and and and?

Social Credit Party, who? The is almost no conservative party of BC.

You are correct on most of that Loki and while Gordo may not be my favourite - NDP was way less favoured.

MSP, however, is provincial. Do you know that BC is the only provice in Canada that charges monthly premiums!!! All other provinces use other means such as payroll taxes etc. Alberta quit charging premiums effect January 2009. Our gov't could probably save alot of money if they did away with the premiums. They probably would need alot less administration instead of spending all that money on billings and tracking people down to pay and garnishees on wages for people that don't work for an employer that covers MSP.

We could bring that up as an issue next election!

Property taxes, for the business property I referred to, Loki, are paid to the "Surveyor of Taxes", a PROVICIAL official in Victoria.

MSP premium rates are a Provincial matter. It is the "Medical Services Plan of British Columbia".

Water rates are municipal or regional. But they are being determined by the senior governments' unwillingness to help finance needed upgrades to existing water systems to take care of the urban "growth" those senior levels of government are so anxious to support everywhere. Unless water meters are installed.

Now I've no objection to metering water and user pay, but our water rates are not going to go DOWN from where they are now by what we conserve. They're going to go UP, from the base rate we're now paying, no matter how much we use. We're encouraged to use 'less', but we have to still pay 'more'. And this is after many years spent paying for the existing system, that already adequately serves us.

I don't have a cell-phone, nor text messaging. This computer was new in 1998. I have one vehicle. It's paid for.


And the Social Credit Party in BC disappeared for the same reason the Conservative Party did. It was no more FOR 'social credit' in its last gasps, than the Conservatives were conservative.

my bad on msp, thanks for correction

The Medical Services Plan of BC, when it was brought in by the WAC Bennett Socreds, had premiums because it was initially voluntary. There was no compulsion to be enrolled in it, as there is now. Many people back then were covered by reasonably priced private medical plans like Blue Cross, or MSA.

However, these plans were generally set up as "group" insurance schemes, to pool and share the risk amongst a larger number of people employed in some particular business.

And the premiums were paid by employer deduction from the paycheques of those who were enrolled as a condition of employment. I believe in some instances there was also a contribution from the employer.

Many of us, farmers, contractors, owner-operators, and other small business people, had too few employees to be able to get reasonably priced private coverage. Or coverage at all.

The BC Medical Plan filled the gap. If you felt you were always going to be rich enough to pay your own medical bills, or would like to take your chances that you'd never need a doctor's services, there was no one compelling you to contribute. You stayed out, and took your chances. And paid the shot yourself if luck was against you, and you got sick or injured.

Most of us didn't want to take that chance, and welcomed the Socred government's M S Plan, and voluntarily enrolled.

The premiums were quite modestly priced, and various degrees of premium assistance was available to those who always, or sometimes, had periods of low-income and needed some help. Or were paid 100 % by the government for those who had very little income at all.

The fact that it wasn't initially a 'monopoly', especially a government funded 'monopoly' with far deeper pockets than any co-existing private plan could ever have, tended to keep the demands of those medical professionals being paid by it modest.

Once the function of the private plans was completely usurped, however, and the BC Medical Plan was compulsory and "the only show in town", the premium costs never stopped going up. And services covered or provided have continued to decline.

The thing that's all too often forgotten about all these type of "social safety- net" set-ups provided by government, is that they're all needed because the public, in general, has too little remaining income in its hands to meet its ongoing costs of living 'individually'.

These schemes, while certainly beneficial as insurance in many ways, contain a fatal flaw. They are an attempt to 're-distribute' an insufficiency (of 'money').

And no matter how we try to do that, it's still an "insufficiency".

Ergo, what starts out well, with perfectly good intentions that no thinking individual should ever disagree with, ends up being a rationing of services to try to match "finances" that are always going to be short of what's needed.