"I don't see an evidence base that would justify the expense of a full scale inquiry into the sale of B.C.Rail".

Is he an idiot?
Interesting how every Liberal cabinet minister says exactly the same thing?
No inquiry.
Now why is that?
Does it occur to him that it is something that the voters of B.C.DO want, and it is obvious that our polticians don't?
How very odd.
They will waste money on anything that suits them,but not an inquiry on something as dirty as the sale of B.C.Rail?
Does it occur to him that we do know the trial was shutdown as soon as it was time for key figures to testify?
As usual,that does not matter to these trained seals who attempt to pass for polticians!
And what about 6+ million bucks to pay Basi and Virk's legal tab,with very little information or explanation to the tax payers?
Does Abbott see anything wrong with that?
How about we have an inquiry into that, Georgie boy?
And let's also keep in mind...this is not about winning an election..yet.
It is about winning the Liberal party leadership,and that's something that we have zero control over.
It does appear that Abbott and his fellow candidates would like us to think that we actually do have some say in that.
Nice try...they do indeed think we are truly stupid.

I agree idiot alert.

George Abbott got it 1/2 right, but half right isn't good enough when dealing with an issue as critical as the loss of BC Rail. We need more.

However, a "Third Party Review" is a valuable suggestion because it would protect all documents relevant to the allegedly corrupt sale of a public railway. On Jan. 11, the Crown will be back in BC Supreme Court trying to seize all BCRail-Basi-Virk documents, and rumour has it that they want to destroy those critical documents. A Third Party Review would effectively stop that.

Such a Review could even confine itself to finding out who decided that taxpayers should pay the legal fees of the Accused who had decided to plead Guilty. Who decided that taxpayers should pay the legal fees for defending Dave Basi against the charges of bribery in the Agricultural Land Reserve? I'd imagine that such a Third Party Review investigation might well require that new criminal charges must be to be laid against people well able to afford them. In fact, Basi and Virk might be declared "Not Guilty" in which case, we might find that they've had their legal fees legitimately paid, while others may not.

Anyone who fears a Public Inquiry might just as well be holding up a neon sign saying "The whole BC Liberal Government is too guilty to withstand any inquiry".

Nobody in BC should still be thinking that Organized Crime is sitting quietly in the corner, bags over their heads, waiting for the "unpleasantness over Basi and Virk" to be forgotten.

The people understand exactly what NOT having a Public Inquiry means: more crime, more chaos, and more public treachery.

British Columbia deserves better than that.
.

And he wants to premier? He's taking a step in the right direction. LMAO

The people AREN'T coming, George. Not yet. You and your cohorts better make yourselves scarce when they are. There's a growing anger with what's still happening in BC, and your crowd is just further inflaming it with your ludicrous attempts at 'leadership'.

Amen socredible...Abbott and his buddies seriously underestimate the anger out their!

I like Falcon's platform. Not much, this is who I am, I don't extend too many promises I have no intentions of being able to keep. Hi, how you doing.

Well maybe not a complete idiot, he is taking a second look at the goofy carbon tax. Maybe he sees the science does not add up about so called man caused global warming.

"Lawrence Solomon in the Financial Post writes:

The ‘scientific consensus’ about global warming turns out to have a lot more to do with manipulating the numbers."

"Environmentalists and scientists are concerned about the massive drop in public interest in the topic over the last year. Now they are looking for new strategies to turn the tide. They’re searching for so-called “mind bombs” — highly emotional images that reduce a complex problem down to one core message.

Sadly, the article never asks the fundamental question: What do “mind bombs” have to do with facts, data, and proving your theories are correct in the real world?"

man ! theses idiots really think we will just get tired and walk away! what we need is to GET PRIVATE lawyers and do this inquiry by OURSELVES !!

Everything Abbott has said sounds exactly like what all the liberals have been saying under Campbell... I wonder if he is still steering the Liberal Ship? I know he is still there ...very quietly doing his thing, now, that somehow, he has convinced the press he is leaving.... when the heck is he leaving? All I see is a continuance of Campbellisms...

AND NOW (drum roll) For the Next Contestant who will examine all the polls he/she can prior to announcing their platforms and announce after revisions:
1. BC Rail Say yes to Inquiry, but keep it vague.
2. Will reconsider HST after getting someone federally to blame it on and then continue as is.

They must think we're a bunch of idiots.

I like the sound of a private inquiry, bozo the clown,but that's never going to happen.
The legal system in B.C. just doesn't work that way, because it is the legal system here in B.C. that allowed them to void the B.C.Rail trial as soon as they got too close.
If it was really about justice,that never would have happened.
Still...I can just see the look on the faces of the likes of Gary Colins,Gordon Campbell,Patrick Kinsela,Christy Clark...whoa...now that would be fun to watch!
I would even donate money to that one!

maybee sometimes reform has a way of finally becoming law,enough voices will make laws i hope

The only people who give a hoot about BC Rail are the lazies who were told by the NDP that BC Rail was cash cow that would make their wildest socialist dreams come true, that they could lay on the couch at home because we had BC Rail. It was a crock then and its a crock now.

Kill the carbon tax? Senate reform? Knows BC Rail is a non-issue? This guy sounds like a winner!

He isn't going to "kill the
Carbon Tax", gamblor. Only ask us if we want to delay raising it further for the next three years. You don't need a Referendum to determine what most people want in that regard. Why not ask us in a Referendum if we want it at all? It's a little after the fact, just like with the HST, but, hey, better late than never!

As for Senate reform what difference does it make if we did elect Senators? As it stands now the Senate itself is still not 'effective' nor 'equal'. Not in the way its seats are apportioned, nor in its capacity to do any more than delay House of Commons legislation. It's still a functionally useless and expensive appendage to the whole apparatus of government. And a token election of someone as a Senator isn't going to do anything to change that, just cost us the price of another election.

And BC Rail is a major issue, not just to have an inquiry into whether there was criminal wrongdoing in its sale, and who, if anybody, profited therefrom, but to lay to rest the whole issue of why "our" Asset was sold without first consulting us whether that's what we wanted done or not. Was there some pressing 'need' to suddenly get rid of that railway, after promising the "owners" it wasn't going to be sold? And if so, did we really want to give the "trustee" in whose name that Asset was held free rein to spend the proceeds?

There isn't one of those clowns that are aspiring to Campbell's job that looks like a 'winner' to me. Whoever finally gets it will be BC's second biggest 'loser'. As long as that Party is in office the first biggest loser is still the BC public.

Liberal Leadership hopeful? Guess what? If you have been involved in the Liberal Party and you haven't stood up for what's right, what's fair and what the people want, you might as well pack up and go home right now.

We want something and someone different who will listen to us, do what they are told to do by the folks who elected them. That's all.

He spoke:-"I like Falcon's platform. Not much, this is who I am, I don't extend too many promises I have no intentions of being able to keep. Hi, how you doing."

------------------------------------------
Kevin Falcon's inner worries:- "They must know who I am by now?. They're still not impressed at all? No sense me promising anything then, everyone who knows me already thinks I'm just as big a liar as Gordo, so why should I open my mouth and prove it? If I ask another person, "How you doing?" and they answer, "Without" again, sure as Hell it's bound to show up on the evening news."

So we have Abbott, so the question is, where is Costello??? Maybe he could be their leader.

The way to settle the hash of the Liberal Government and all those who participated in shafting us for the past years is to vote them the hell out.

When Mulrooney and his buddies screwed us with the GST in 1991 they knew that they were doomed, and most of them did not run in the election of 1993 they all left the Government and let Kim Campbell take the rap. They were reduced to two seats in the House of Commons.

These Liberal clowns are not smart enough to know that there days are numbered, even though they are screwing us with the HST exactly the same as Lian Brain did with the GST, by shifting the tax from Corporations to consumers, so that their buddies can make millions.

The only people who will vote for the Liberals in the next election are those who beleive in rewarding people for bad behaviour.

Have a nice day.

George Abbott says: his plan comes from having spoken to thousands of people throughout the province."

How many people?? In how many days?? Looks like another Liberal LIAR to me. No way you can talk to thousands of people. You might be able to interview about 20 a day on the street. Two thousand would take 100 days at that rate. There isn't a politician in Canada that has ever put in that kind of time. I challenge the truth in that statement George Abbott.

He might've 'spoken' to thousands, (if you count the number of people watching any tv news clips with him in them in all of BC since this whole exercise began), but he's sure not 'listening' to thousands. None of the Liberal leadership hopefuls seem to understand why they were given two ears and only one mouth.

Your problem, socredible, is that you are so delusional that you actually think BC Rail was "yours". Keep your little engineer hat on, your train set is the only railroad you'll ever "own".

There is far too little talk of axing the carbon tax and if it doesn't get tacked on to the referendum, it WILL stay.

Then you complain that the senate is not "effective or equal" but shrug off the chance to elect senators. You must not believe in democracy, in which case you are radical who needs to spend some time in a non-democratic society to gain an appreciation for it. The current situation in BC is an excellent example - only VOTERS could sign the petition. Only PARTY MEMBERS can elect a new leader. Participation is the first step to accountability.

Well now, gamblor, if BC Rail didn't belong to the "people" of BC, all of us, whose taxes over all these years paid for it, probably a few times over, perhaps you'd be so good as to tell us in your enlightened ideological right wing wisdom just who it did belong to?

Under our system the Crown, in the persona of HM the Queen or her representative, a 'tangible' being, acts as "trustee" for an intangible abstraction, the "public" ~ the citizens of BC collectively. BC Rail was a Crown corporation, whose ownership was held "for the people" in the name of the Crown Provincial. I've never said I agree with that arrangement, and I especially don't agree with the current "advisor" (Campbell) to that "trustee" deciding to dispose of property that doesn't belong to him, and then spend the proceeds. Without so much as a "by your leave" from those whose Asset is being peddled.

Abbott ISN'T proposing to "axe" the Carbon Tax. He only wants to give us a vote on DELAYING any FURTHER raises in it for three years.

Perhaps if he'd promised to actually give us a vote on rescinding it completely at the same time we get to vote on rescinding the HST, (if, and when that ever actually happens), he might have shown he's a little different than the rest of the pack.

He didn't, so why waste our time asking us a dumb question like that? He already knows the answer, I hope, or is he totally stupid?

EVERYBODY, except that tiny, mouthy minority of ditzbrained "greenies", would vote to defer any further raises in it. Nobody, except them, and a cash-starved, increasingly mismanaged government ever wanted it in the first place. What we want is a choice of whether we should even have it or not.

And if you think BC electing some Senators is going to change anything meaningfully in that august body the way it's currently organised, you're the one who's delusional, not me.