Another joins the list of those wanting to go down with the sinking ship MV Liberal. For the short period of time the winner will be king, he/she shall have an increased pension, so why not hey.

Well, Dragonmaster. If the Liberals don't lead us, who will..... I really don't see a heck of a lot of activities coming out of the NDP camp.

Its pretty easy to figure out, the NDP has had at least 5 years to prepare for a win, but lost the last election, why. Because they are not motivated to win.

Its not like the 1960's where the working man was under educated and relied on the unions, and worked one job for twenty years. People today are well educated, and will stick with the company only if they treat them decent. The average working person that is trying to get ahead, does not mind working 6 days a week, or be putting in 50/55hrs a week. What they don't like is working like this to pay taxes to support the lazy people. Today's 20 to 30 year olds are smarter, and not as soft hearted for the less fortunate, as it was in the 1980's. Times have changed, and the NDP has not.

he spoke wrote: "The AVERAGE working person that is trying to get ahead, does not mind working 6 days a week, or be putting in 50/55hrs a week"

Then he spoke followed that with: "What they don't like is working like this to pay taxes to support the LAZY people"

I am not sure whether he spoke sees that he has indentified one of the key problems.

Even at 50 hours per week instead of 40 hours per week, that person is taking up 25% more time than is the possible "average time" 40 hours. The more common may be 37.5 hours (33.3%). At one time it was even coming down to 35 hours (43%).

Actually, if one takes the "average working hours for those in the workforce that are working, it works out to about 33 hours according to StasCan which means that the 50 hour person is taking up 51% more time than he/she should be.

Pretty amazing, isn't it?

While there may be some that are lazy, there are many more that are not. They have simply not got the right skill sets, the right connections, the right other attributes. So, employers are willing to pay the increased per hour rates, or they simply pay a fixed salary and load people up with repsonsibilities which are impossible to accomplish in 40 hours.

And, of course, now we have the complaints about the increase in retirement age being moved upward in many western countries because of the lack of reliability with government operated retirement funds. Young people are complaining that they do not get access to the superior jobs.

The situation we find ourselves in is considerably more complex than you make it out to be he spoke. To pretend that it is simply the hard worker against the lazy worker will not solve the problem because that is not the problem. Pretending that is the problem does nothing to contribute to a solution.

Let me introduce a word - greed. Get rid of greed and add cooperation and we may be a little closer to an improvement. At the moment it appears to be us against them.

Greed has ruined a lot of people Gus, and unfortunately, it appears to have ruined the Liberal Party. Now you see the greedy throwing their hats in to the ring hoping for what, another chance to bring down the liberals for their own self interests, the NDP are no where near the gate, so who's left? If there was another Corky Evans out there that would be a good thing.

Gus,

Your getting dangerously close to Communism. You basically are saying, that though I have worked hard to get the skill set that I have, which allows me to be in high enough demand to dictate a 50 hour work week, I should sacrifice my family's security for the greater good. Moreover, you suggest that in essence, myself and others like me are stealing from those who don't have the hours that I/we do.

I challenge you to follow that line of reasoning and put your money where your mouth is. For every room in your house, go add two homeless people. You don't need all that space, you are taking it from others, stop being so greedy.

"Get rid of greed and add cooperation and we may be a little closer to an improvement."

Your right, but, working hard to get ahead and improve your lot in life IS NOT GREED!!

Its seems funny, the word greed is always used by people who have made bad descisions in their life, they always call it greed when someone is successful.I believe jealousy is an issue. I work hard, Im successful, I never use the word greed. Take care.

Politics in BC are always........confusing!!!

I didn't mind the Liberals, but they haven't exactly been taking the high road lately. But I guess you can't expect perfection because it is politics.

What makes me laugh is in a Province this size we don't have a decent alternative to the Liberals. I can see that 3 elections ago the NDP was pretty much wiped out when they only won 2 seats. So I can see that it would take time to get organized again. But it's been a number of years, they have more seats and they still don't seem to be a viable option.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not keen on the NDP. But it would be refreshing to go to the polls and actually have more than one choice.

There are other choices. Vote for the independants. Can they make a bigger mess than the parties have?

Both the Liberals and the NDP currently follow exactly the same 'policy'. Their only differences are in the 'methods' of approach to implementing it, and who gets to shake the plum tree, and pick up the ripe ones that drop.

What Gus is telling us is something neither side wants to hear. The average work day came down to 8 hours at the end of World War One from the 10 hours it had been for a decade or so before, when it fell from 12 hours. After World War Two the forty hour workweek became the norm.

With the increases in productivity we've seen since then, it should've dropped still further, with a shorter workweek, too.

Instead, we see it going the other way.

Not because we NEED the additional 'production' ~ we can't even sell what we're producing in many of our industries now. And that's with some of them operating at less than half their rated capacity. But because the workers who are still working need the additional 'money', (in a now generally TWO-INCOME family), just to live.

The He Spokes carry on about the energetic keeping the lazy. But never can they answer the simple question. If a man's continued 'production' is of no advantage to himself or his fellow man, (and if it was, would he be unemployed?), then how can his continued 'consumption' be a disadvantage?

We are long past the point where there is any genuine NEED to have EVERYONE employed.

In fact, our efforts to achieve that, the 'policy' that is common to both the NDP and the Liberals, are actually the greatest detriment to overall "effciency" than they even realise.

For we must bear ALL the costs of this "inefficiency" ~ the superfluousness of "making work" where none NEED be done. Simply to have an excuse to give someone an income. And a generally inadequate one at that. Inadequate because ALL the COSTS of this "make work" policy, past and present, (and future), have to be met from CURRENT incomes which are always going to be only a PART of those COSTS.

Is it any wonder under such a scenario there is "greed"? Most of driven by the threat of economic insecurity ~ 'financial' insecurity ~ in the face of a productive system that 'physically' is more than capable of delivering a higher standard of living to all, without taking anything away from anyone who's already achieved even the highest standard of living possible. But is completely hamstrung to exercise its potential. Not by people who WON'T work ~ and there'll always be a minority who won't ~ but by a flawed 'financial' system that all too often measures 'waste' as 'wealth'.

Which Party, or Leader, or would-be Leader recognises THAT? Of all the current ones the only one I've ever heard who even has an inkling of the problem is Corky Evans. And he, unfortunately, is now retired.

Mr De Jong, the man who should be remembered for slamming through the most regressive forest policies our province has ever seen and is still being destroyed by. In 2003, then forest minister Mike de Jong introduced the end of major licencees having to operate mills and allowed them to ship THEIR wood to anywhere they wish.
Small town BC thanks you mr de Jong for already having killed several small communities main source of employment and putting at risk the future of many more.
As long as you mr de Jong are happy that concentrating corporate profits is more important than constituants having jobs, or communities having a reason for existing then I hope your quest for a leadership career ends before everyone else's career does.
It also makes me green crazy when I pay carbon taxes when it was mr de Jong that introduced the rights granted to forest companies to waste whatever wood they don't want to utilize. We are paying dearly to be green and yet we let companies destroy a whole forest to take only the best of what they want and then do what if anything with it, anywhere they want. Mr de Jong could likely blame the previous premier ramming this bs down his throat but if that were the case then he is one of the nutless team players and no future leader that I would want.
Thanks for the Open Mike..Mike>