I hope everyone has a great day!!!!

Remember the Liberal pledge to halt the expansion of legal gambling? Toss that in the garbage cam with the one to preserve BC Rail and to reject Harper's HST.
Now addicts can gamble on line with the broadest choice of ways to waste money of any jurisdiction in Canada. Poker, roulette, slots...you name it, they offer it.
The rationalisation for this is that this is a lucrative business and the money should be kept here in British Columbia. By the same token, our beloved provincial Liberals can be expected to get into the business or selling heroin and running whore houses.
Maybe our local government could take over crack houses. Why should the revenue go to biker gangs?
Where will this stop with a bunch of goons running governments at all levels?

I'm SummerSoul and this is just SummerSoul's opinion.

Took a plane flight from here to the prairies on July 2nd.

On the flight from Vancouver to Calgary, there were about 30 kids going to Tim Horton's Kanninaskis summer camp. For many of these children, it was there first plane ride, and their first summer camp experience. Needless to say, they were excited and giddy all the way, making the flight enjoyable for my wife & I as we listened to them.

I have often dropped my coins in the boxes sitting on the counters of all the Tim's around town, but after seeing first hand what they do for underprivileged children, I will now Always put some coins in.

Glad to see Harper wants to spent $16 billion [before overruns] on fighter jets. That is because we need then to protect us from??? The Yankees? Mosquitoes? UFOs?

hope we hear something soon about that missing couple my prayers are with the family

Thanks for the info HabsFans. I always drop coins in too. Nice to know it is being used well. I too will continue. It's a great cause.

Oh boy Elton John tonight its going to be FANTASTIC!!!
I finally managed to get tickets....
but not cheap ... but not bad

wishing you all a wonderful weekend!!

take care of yourselves and each other!!

Me, I am heading to Saskatchewan for 2 weeks!! I am very very excited!! love driving and love Saskatchewan!!

Now that the Hst has been here for a bit, has anyone noticed any company passing down the savings yet? cause i havent. all that i have notice is that im spending an extra 4oo on my room and alot more on my flights.

How can you compare online gambling with selling heroin and running whore houses?

Online gambling choices have been available to everyone for many years. This won't create anymore problems than there already is.

Some people should actually look at this in a positive light. The government online casino will now take money away from the offshore casinos, keeping it in BC and can use this to fund government programs, etc etc.

People with gambling addiction problems will find a way to gamble, just like drug addicts will always find what they need.

Good morning all. I'd like to invite you to the BCCLA Northern Outreach Event!

Date: Saturday, August 14, 2010
Time: 12:00pm - 2:00pm
Location: Prince George – Fort George Park (meet at the stage)

Historically the BCCLA supported community civil liberties advocacy groups across B.C., especially in rural and underserviced centres like Quesnel and Prince George. We’re working to revitalize these groups through a series of public workshops across the province on issues of police accountability. With the Province moving to sign another 20 year policing contract with the RCMP starting in 2012, we want to make sure that northern B.C. residents have their voices heard about what kind of policing services they want.

BCCLA Executive Director, lawyer, and author of the Arrest Handbook: A Guide to Your Rights, David Eby will be visiting the following northern communities this summer to run “know your rights” educational workshops and get feedback on RCMP practices that the BCCLA will pass on to the Solicitor General. We’ll be looking for community leaders who will act as our community contacts, and ultimately help us re-establish BCCLA community advocacy groups across the province.

If you live in one of the communities we’ll be visiting, please come out to a workshop and share your thoughts on policing in your community, and learn about your rights when dealing with police. If you’re able to assist in promoting an event, please let us know!

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/event.php?eid=135814663108504&ref=mf

Hope to see you there!

serious, No I have not seen any savings yet. I did hang onto a receipt from June from the liquor store, bottle of scotch 38.95 deposit 20 cents the taxes are built into the 38.95 PST 3.39 PST 1.69 total tax 5.08. Total price 39.15. Same bottle in JUly 39.15 deposit 20 HST 4.17. Same total price of 39.15. Savings on tax from June to July 0.91 cents. However these saving were not passed onto the consumer. Liberals at there best. Another lie. Has anyone else noticed this?

How come people are upset about paying HST but do not complain about the carbon tax based on poor corrupted science. http://icecap.us/ http://wattsupwiththat.com/ http://www.friendsofscience.org/


http://noconsensus.wordpress.com/

I saw the picture of our cutbanks with all that trash strewn over them on the front page of the Citizen the other day. Nuthin' is beginning to surprise me in this 'burg anymore. Maybe some individual should take a trip to the airport and have a word with the flight crew of a water bomber. He could ask them to let him change the flame retardant mixture in the belly of the plane to a more eye pleasing Martha Stewart shade of fusia and then convince them to drop the load on the messy cutbanks before they clean it up. Then hire a photographer to take a photo of it, put it in poster form and sell them. Title it, "Cooties on the Armpit". But I digress. IMO the reason all that crap is there and along side our roads and in our ditches is due to hizzoner Dan the man and the "know everything about economics" crew at city hall. Getting rid of the swap sheds AND increasing the fee to the transfer station to six dollars was stupid. Swap sheds served a purpose. Maybe the reasoning behind getting rid of them that there was no money in them for the city. Dealing with the six bucks, I can only say maybe that it was the magic threshold some people refused to pay for ridding themselves of their trash. Which brings me to another point. Perceptions about costs. So in your mind it only takes three toonies to get in the transfer station, eh? How much do you have to earn to keep those three toonies in yer jeans? I'd say about $10 or $12 dollars. Just look at yer paycheque (if you work). Notice a little difference between gross and net? I do. So now the city in it's economic wisdom will send about half a dozen workers out to the cutbanks to clean them up. $20 bucks an hour each. It may take a week or two, but money is no object to our mayor. He can pay them with all those toonies they collected at the transfer stations. False economy or job creation? You pick. Oh, by the way, this will happen again. Trust me. As Inspector Columbo would say,"Oh, one more thing", when you get nailed for a seat belt infraction or yakkin' on yer cellphone don't kid yerself it's only a $167 dollar fine. It's a bit more than that. How much did you have to earn to produce and keep that $167 bucks? BC is a very expensive province to live in. Gordo says he is cutting our taxes and Dan the man raises them. Don't let yer right hand know what yer left hand is doing.

I have , seamutt, to everyone I know -- of course when I say that to make it effective and just not a tax grab maybe the carbon tax should be a dollar, people are relieved and happy with the tax as it is. And of course we should not be selling oil to the US at a low price while they do not have a carbon tax at the pump. The whole thing is just plain silly --- I could go on and on about what a scam it is and how it affects us disproportionally up here in the north but the more points I score it seems the less they listen to me --- must be too many points to ponder.

A friend lives down the Blackwater Rd and gets 50 free passes to the garbage transfer station in College Hgts. Kinda weird considering he lives less than a KM away from a "free for everyone" garbage transfer station near Westlake.

I hear the hotels are full this weekend with people from out of town coming to see Elton John. We do not hear that too often with the other acts. Guess this one draws from a larger region since he is not putting on a show in the big three cities that are pretty well equidistant from us.

So, wonder how many others are into the smaller venues thing? It benefits the small communities in two ways. There is no one from here that has to leave to see him and there is an influx of people.

Good going CN Centre staff for catching this one for us!!! Tell us how we can do more of that for PG.

rufus1, you make a good point. People just go with the flow. To much cash and credit on hand to care about the pennies. when they wake up it will be to late. The americans had a wake uo call but will they take notice. I doubt it
cheers

"And of course we should not be selling oil to the US at a low price while they do not have a carbon tax at the pump"

There is the problem, isn't it? If they do not get taxed and we do, then that is unfair trade. We need to tax them at the point of exit from this country the same amount at the least that we get taxed at the point of exit at the pump.

You see, that is the problem with the HST!!! We produce something here, such as lumber. When it was internal, both the foreigner and we were taxed the same amount. Now the foreigner does not pay the provincial tax but we do. The foreigner does typically pay a "sales" tax in thier own state depending on the local laws. The state then benefits from the "value added" tax even though we are the ones who added the value.

Anyone view this differently? Am I wrong somewhere in my analysis.

SummerSoul: "The rationalisation for this is that this is a lucrative business and the money should be kept here in British Columbia."

Funny how history repeats itself, isn't it? Because it is the same excuse the NDP used when it introduced casino style gambling to British Columbia! Remember?

The NDP maintained that it had no option since too many B.C. gamblers went to Las Vegas and that it was extremely important to keep that money here in B.C.

In Prince George the mayor and the councillors sent a letter to the NDP premier expressing their objections to having slot machines here.

In spite of that about 300 slot machines were unloaded on George Street under the cover of darkness shortly thereafter...

You see, ALL governments have been and still are addicted to gambling revenues.

It wasn't invented by the present government.

It may not have been invented by our present government, PrinceGeorge, but it was our present government when in opposition made a huge deal about gambling in BC.

It was our present government that pounded on the table repeatedly that gambling in BC should and would not happen under their reign.

So, PrinceGeorge, again it is not really the gambling that is the issue concerning Mr Campbell and his Liberal party, it is his constant lieing to the people of BC that is the issue.

Lost it all, SummerSoul raised the issue of gambling in B.C. and I was simply responding to the comments.

The NDP government was pounding on the table and it was strictly against gambling until it decided to be firmly in support of it. Previously it said wouldn't support it. Change of direction, obviously.

Gambling is NOT an issue (as you insist) with Mr. Campbell and his Liberal party?

What is the furor about expanding it all about then? Because previously they said they wouldn't do it? Change of direction, obviously.

I don't like to be lied to by any politician but as long as we don't cherry pick about whose lying is o.k. and whose lying is not, I don't have much to say except that they all do it and that they all have done it in the past.

BTW, if one party (the NDP) had not established gambling in B.C. then the other party (the Liberals) would not have been able to expand it, with or without lying about the intentions.

I don't gamble. I think it is a tax on those who can least afford it.

Socialists should never be in favour of gambling and should never make up lame excuses in support of it.

If they do they do so at their own peril.

Funny that a government that had ferry boats built in Germany that could've been built in BC now concerns itself with keeping money in BC.

Germany imports from and exports to every country in the world.

The airplanes, snowmobiles, subway cars, airplanes, etc which Germany imports from Canada could have been built in Germany as well.

The Germans have a traditional ship building industry which builds ships for many countries. It competes with countries such as Norway, Poland, Korea, Japan and others, successfully.

Such is the nature of international trade and competition.

Canada had no competitive ship building industry that could have bid on the contract to supply these B.C. ferries to be delivered on time and on budget. The yard that built the ferries in Germany is a family business which builds ferries and other ships year round indoors in huge fully enclosed buildings. It's climate controlled, not subject to inclement weather, it's all computerized and one of the most modern in the world.

It would be great if there was one like it in B.C. but the truth is that there is not.

It makes no sense to build a shipyard, produce three or four ships and then fold the business because there are no more orders.

At the time B.C. placed the order I visited the website of the company in Germany. It had orders on the books to keep them busy for many more years.

No fly-by-night business.

So we have two sets of ferries built under the watch of two different governments and both were built outside of Canada.

One set is mothballed, the other one is plying the waters and putting a smile on German tourist visiting Vancouver Island and likely putting a smile on BC Ferries.

Both governments knew it is one thing to build a ship building industry that needs to compete on a world scale and it is another to build a few ships for domestic use. Both reached the same conclusion. The only way they differed is that the outcome of one was superior to that of the other.

A letter in the Citizen mentioned they felt, The Native Friendship Center would be a good place for the Native Health Center and maybe the Fire Pit coffee house. I do not think the needle exchange should be moved there, it should be in a out of the way location. That would save a lot of money and I am sure the Friendshilp Center would welcome it ,has anybody asked them??With parents begging the Goverment not to close their schools, I can't see where the money would come from to build this BIG Wellness Center.

Pride day tomorrow. Elton John in town. So big time to be homo sexual tomorrow. In a city like Prince George I hope things go well for folks. I may or may not go down there. I am not homo sexual myself but I take my hat off to their fight to stop discrimination of any form including metal illness color of skin and religion.

I want to compliment the new Nechako Public Market. I had my grandkids with me and was surpised to find out that all the entertainment for kids outside was free. They had the huge water slide setup. The kids had a blast playing while I shopped. It's about time we got something like this in PG.

Anyone know of a local transport company called L&S Transport? I'm not able to find a telephone number for them.
They were supposed to do a pickup today...and did not show or call.

Our BC shipbuilders didn't seem to have too much difficulty building the two 'Spirit' class ferries, which, I believe were both larger than the three 'Coastal' boats that came from Germany.

As I recall, various parts of those ships were built in several different yards all around the coast, and brought together for final assembly. The bridge superstructure was constructed in Port Alberni, I believe, and other parts in Victoria, so a number of areas all got work, and wages, out of building those ships. Wages that are taxed, and spent, here in BC for the most part.

And those BC yards buy supplies AND PAY A VARIETY OF TAXES HERE IN BC, too. Looking at it from that perspective, was it really 'cheaper' building those boats in Germany?

Or was it an 'ideological' decision by a confirmed 'globalist' (except when it comes to gambling revenues, that is), made to "punish" BC shipyards and shipyard workers here for the part they played in building the NDP's "FastCats"? As if paying people here decent wages to keep a vital industry going was some kind of unpardonable sin, or something.

There's another difference between Social Credit, which believed in "what BC makes, makes BC", and this Liberal mob, which is fast reducing us to a Province so bereft of shared prosperity that they salivate at picking the last dollar from your pocket through aiding gambling addicts to overdose on their escape from hopelessness.

Another sunny day today. Enjoy the weekend everyone.