She can win elections! That's a good reason to vote for her! I'll plug my nose and vote for the unknown candidate first!

So is there a footnote on a win when no one else is running?

BIG WHOP!!!

Political experience lacking in her running mates CVs? Methinks that would be not having the pleasant experiences of cashing her gold plated provincial government pension cheques courtesy of the provincial taxpayers largess.

Lois I wish you well, and its good to see Rick by your side, he's a fairly good lawyer.
The other one looks like some kind of union rep., who the NDP have done no favors for.

Yawn again. Why pay any attention to this snoozefest?

Frankly, why is the media paying any attention to this non-event?

It's akin to paying attention to a Conservative candidate in Vancouver East (BC's safest NDP seat), which the Conservatives will never, ever win..... or even be in political contention for that matter.

Hmmmmmm.... Now I get it. Lois and her backers are all calling the media to attend this "exciting" event in order to make some dummies out there believe that she's actually in contention. :D

Anyone paying attention to the great job our current MP's are doing for Prince George should really just have to drive around downtown. Prince is dying. 'nough said.

Coronation? Bad choice of words--just another reason to make the masses vote for someone else.

Apolitikalgeek.....

Yes you should drive around the Ridings of Prince George-Peace River and Cariboo-Prince George.....and take a look at the hundreds of $ millions the Hill and Harris have brought to the interior...check it out, more taxes back to the area in the last four years than EVER in the history of the two riding. With these projects came thousands of jobs for people who badly needed the jobs. So you think Prince George is dead....perhaps you should cast your eye toward City Hall. The Conservative MP's have more than delivered even if your political blindfolds wont allow you to see it.

So Gimmeabreak wants us to look at input to see how much we are benefiting. How many dollars are we consuming? How many do we have to thank the Feds for?

On the other hand, Apoliticalgeek wants us to look at output and points to downtown PG to show us that as an indicator of well being, or not so well being.

I was just watching a program on PBS addressing sustainability with respect to food supply in America. The opinion promoted by that program was the consumerism has increased but the quality of life has decreased over the last 2 decades. On balance, I tend to agree. Most definitely in rural Canada. And make no mistake, while we are an urban area by definition, we are closer to rural characteristics than metropolitan characteristics

I believe we have improved our access to post secondary education and we have started to improve our access to health care in the city. Much of that is because we were a bit pushy, not because Hill or Harris came to us to ask "how can we help?".

I do not think much has changed in the communities strung along Highways 16 and 97 to improve quality of life.

BUT, we are losing population while larger communities, including communities in BC that are our peers – Kamloops, Nanaimo, Kelowna - are gaining.

The following is a list of 14 cities that have had negative population growth between 2006 and 1996. The average growth rate for Canada’s 100 largest cities over that period was 12.9%. PG is #5 in that list.

Cape Breton NS 102,250 114,733 -10.9%
Shawinigan PQ 51,904 56,721 -8.5%
Sault Ste. Marie ON 74,948 80,054 -6.4%
Saint John NB 68,043 72,494 -6.1%
Prince George BC 70,981 75,510 -6.0%
Saguenay PQ 143,692 152,811 -6.0%
Greater Sudbury ON 157,857 165,336 -4.5%
Thunder Bay ON 109,140 113,662 -4.0%
Cornwall ON 45,965 47,403 -3.0%
Sarnia ON 71,419 72,738 -1.8%
Chatham-Kent ON 108,177 109,950 -1.6%
St. John's NL 100,646 101,936 -1.3%
North Bay ON 53,966 54,332 -0.7%
Regina SK 179,246 180,404 -0.6%

So, what have the federal, provincial and municipal governments done in ALL those places? What have they done differently there than they have done in these places which have had growth in population?

Kamloops BC 80,376 76,394 5.2%
Nanaimo BC 78,692 70,130 12.2%
Chilliwack BC 69,217 60,186 15.0%
Lethbridge AB 74,637 63,053 18.4%
Kelowna BC 106,707 89,442 19.3%
Medicine Hat AB 56,997 46,783 21.8%
St. Albert AB 57,719 46,888 23.1%
Red Deer AB 82,772 60,080 37.8%
Grande Prairie AB 47,076 31,353 50.1%
Barrie ON 128,430 79,191 62.2%

Have they poured more money into those places? Is the amount of money the Feds have poured inot a community an indicator of population increase and possible quality of life increase?

Does anyone really understand why one community thrives, while another does not? What kind of input is really needed in order to get an output that equals population growth and qulity of life increase?

Have Harris and Hill contributed to the understanding of what makes a community tick so that they can spend money wisely?

Bottom line? Hill and Harris spent the big bucks on projects that were initiated by the Province and the City. Had there been no ask, there would not have been a give.

BTW, where is the $billion over 10 years that was promised by the Feds for MPB mitigation funds? Some arrived. I would love to see an accounting of that.

So, to the nominees on the Conservative side and to Boone, what is it that you are going to do to help Prince George become a sustainable city over the next 10 years so that it has a stable quality and population growth that is not dependent on the up and down cycles of resource based industries?

Good Morning. Thank you very much for covering Lois Boone’s nomination event yesterday.

There is one minor correction that needs to be made regarding one of your quotes from my speech. If you check your recording I think that you will find that I said something slightly different about Lois Boone’s victories in ’86 & ’91.
What I think I said was “in 1986 [Lois] won Socred Jack Heinrich’s seat in PG North. Then 5 years later [Lois] won Socred Bruce Strachan’s seat in PG Mt. Robson”

I was careful to put it this way in my speech because I couldn’t find out who it was that ran for the Socreds in those elections. The candidates may or may not have been Mr. Heinrich and Mr. Strachan, respectively. It could well have been that the Socreds had put up other candidates in those elections. If they did, I was unable to figure out who they were.

I checked the BC Elections web site and if the information is in there somewhere, I couldn’t find it. I also checked Lois Boone’s page in Wikepedia and all it told me was the dates of the elections and who Lois’ predecessors were in each of the ridings. That being said, I’m sure you have loyal readers who have closely followed local politics over the years and who will be glad to enlighten me as to who Lois’ opponents were in those elections.

The point I was trying to make in my speech was that when Lois won in PG North in ’86 and in PG Mount Robson in ’91, she took seats that had previously been held by prominent Socred politicians like Mssrs. Heinrich and Strachan and that when she won them they were by no means to be considered ‘safe’ NDP seats.

In 1986, New Democrat Lois Boone defeated Social Credit Gordon Springate by 526 votes.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/bcvotes2009/ridings/051

googled the words: "1986 bc election prince george" - 5th hit down on first page.

1991
Boone - 5,751
Strachan - 4,135
Kordyban - 1,393
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_George-Mount_Robson

googled the words: "1991 bc election prince george" - 1st hit down on first page.

Just a curious question. Did you not do the obvious and ask Lois Boone before you prepared your speech? She really should know who she defeated.

In addition to that, she should be able to relate how the political climate of that day was different from today. More importantly, she should be able to provide an educated opinion of how the provincial political climate differs from the federal, especially the seat in question.

If you need a researcher for your campaign .... $200/hour ... :-)

That took 5 minutes plus another 5 to write it up. Minimum billing is 15 minute increment .... so $50 for this one is on the house.

Our current reform/conservative MP's voted to support big business and not the working people of this province when they supported the HST....Harpers Sales Tax....and it has cost me lots of money....so now I have fewer opportunities to support local business
I will support a candidate that will put working people ahead of corportations. It is the working men and women of this province that pay the majority of taxes...

WorkingWoman wrote: "It is the working men and women of this province that pay the majority of taxes..."

I have not figured out yet who else pays taxes. There are individuals who work, or have shares in businesses or get paid dividends or receive other monetary gains from businesses they are associated with.

Businesses, whether incorporated or not, pay taxes, but all those tax expenses are recovered by selling their products and services to their customers. If they cannot do that, they will eventually go out of business.

So, unless there is something I am missing, all taxes are eventually paid by the people who are consumers of goods and services and owners of real property and investments.

For those who think that the HST has gotten rid of “hidden” tax. Think again. Property tax, excise tax, user fees, etc. etc. are all not recoverable through the HST. They must be recovered by including them in the pricing of products and services. When an industrial property in BC costs more than an industrial property in Ontario or New Brunswick and when payroll costs in BC are greater than Nova Scotia, none of those kind of business costs are recoverable through the HST. They must be recovered through the price paid for products and services.

Those that think the HST is the saviour of BC productivity are dreaming.

Gus, you've come up with some good analysis here.

But on taxation of corporations, I disagree.

I think the problem with corporations, in Canada and probably elsewhere, is that once you incorporate, 'the company' = you, gets taxed at 10.5 % versus 30 % or better for the common citizen. And there are a lot more opportunities for tax sheltering or deferrals.

You, the corporation, can send the family, who own class a,b,c shares, to Hawaii for their yearly shareholders meeting, all tax deductible.

They can allow your children, who hold class c shares, to have dividends that allow for income splitting across your whole household, not just yourself and your wife.

The company can elect to pay many of your personal expenses, and any income left over is taxed again at that lower marginal tax rate. You pay yourself minimum wage or fairly low, and then uses the shell of the business to own your house, etc.

The downside is that the income is taxed twice, both when the company earns it, and when they pay it back to you, but there are enough reasons to do it that according to my accountant, if and when I should be so lucky to make more than 150000 a year I should really look into it.

It is not so much for the tax savings opportunities, but rather the opportunities for tax deferrals. The corporation can hold, generate, or accrue interest on investments, and then is taxed at a lower rate. If I have a really good year I can elect to not pay my corporate tax and then pay it in a poorly performing year. I can't do that as a private citizen.

So in a nutshell the company can garner income, and be taxed at a lower rate, and pay more of my expenses than I can as a private citizen.

But the additional accounting costs are ~ 3000.00 a year so you better be saving at least that much.

"You, the corporation, can send the family, who own class a,b,c shares, to Hawaii for their yearly shareholders meeting, all tax deductible."

Been there, have not done that.

Why not? It still costs money to the business. It goes to improving the "quality of life" to the family shareholders. There is no other benefit.

Depending on the business, there is ample opportunity to travel on business expense that is quite beneficial to the business. Product bying trips; association conventions for networking and "continuing education"; touring similar businesses in other communities/countries; developing business relationships with potential clients/suppliers. The list is limited only by your magination and improvement/expansion interests.

It can be quite legitimately called re-investing in your business.

I remember some decades ago travelling to Europe to see some of the climbing walls they were putting into recreation centres at the time before they became a vogue here as well. The beaches were very nice too. :-)

Either way, it is a business expense and can only be afforded if the business is making a net gain.

All I am saying is that whether it is taxes, user fees, licenses, conventions, free gifts to promote the business, a business camera to take pictures of proiduct displays, etc. etc., it is the purchaser of the product/service who un;ltimately pays for it NOT the business.

And, if the business has comptetion, and the competition runs a leaner operation and or an operation with better customer service, you will soon have to cut that spending which has excessive family/worker perks built in.

Those shareholder meetings in Greece will stop and take place at the local Greek restaurant with an HD video "Over Greece" playing on a large monitor for your viewing pleasure instead. :-)

Granted.

And those who complain that B.C. is not very competitive (goods for services) only have to look at various levels of taxation to realize that they are the single largest unavoidable cost for most businesses.

It would be nice, however, if they were applied universally across Canada - as it is now if your province is a 'has not' (as bc has been for 5 of the last 10 years) the other provinces that manage to run a better 'business' have to use transfer payments (federal taxes) out of their province to subsidize ours.

No easy decisions. As I tell my kids "Stay out of industries that are going through hard times." Forestry is one of those.