Hindsight based on the amount of money. No one knew how much it would spiral out of control and Im not happy with it either but I understand what the original goal was. The Olympics left a great legacy for Calgary. Not so much in Montreal. Funny how people will always use the worst example possible to state their case. Calgarys venues are used for alot and still stimulates the local economy more than 20 years later.
I’m not even sure how I’m going to vote but I do see things different than most, especially in a riding that is an NDP strong hold. bobo, you raise some interesting points. I believe that the forest industry went into the tank primarily based on federal issues surrounding softwood lumber. The pine beetle was mismanaged long before the Liberals were elected so that can’t be pinned on them either.
Forestry is Provincial, Softwood issues definitely didn’t help,however a truckload of raw logs hits saltwater every 10 minutes in NW BC, the Libs answer,
“Well at least the loggers are working”(W Belsey)
Exactly! Thats why forestry issues can’t be placed solely on our provincial gov’t. You can’t fix what you don’t control.
What do you do if no one wants to buy value added lumber? Let it stand in the forest? I agree with Belseys comment, its better than the loggers being out of work too.
Longshore would have loaded out the lumber too.
, and I don’t buy the argument that no one wants our dimensioned lumber.
If dimensioned lumber was all that all that a foreign country could get from Canada they would buy it, the forest companies love raw log export because it involves fewer of those whiny employees and for the dollar spent there is a greater margin of profit.
Mark my words, Gordon Campbell and the Liberals Olympic Legacy will be a debt load so huge that our grand children will most likely still be paying for it, Thanks for nothing. Herb is a nice enough guy personally but I couldn’t trust his politics enough to vote for him as mayor, I sure as hell am not voting for him to represent us at the Provincial level, Sorry Herb but there’s just too much at stake here, and I’m not going to elect you and let you gamble away our future.
At least we are hosting the Winter Games. The sheer size of the Summer Games makes it almost impossible not to have problems.
There is no question that the host city gains from the events. And at little risk. If it is very successful, Vancouver wins; if it isn’t, people from around the province and the rest of the country help the bailout. People outside of Vancouver/Whistler gain very little despite the risks they have to bear.
And yes Vancouver will have some nice buildings that should last a while. One of the arenas is the old Trout Lake Community Centre where I first learned to flounder on ice. It is being upgraded to a practice site for figure skating. World class. But will it be easy and cheap to maintain at that level for the kids who just want a place to skate? How many arenas around the province could have received new sheets of ice or other upgrades for the cost of making Trout Lake world class for a couple of months?
For most Canadians it is hard to resist the allure of the Winter Games. And I am sure the spin (regardless of the facts) will make it successful. I just wonder why we need these giant Roman circuses at all.
Agreed.
As I previously mentioned I am deeply disturbed by the priority set of the BC Liberal government. During the Liberal reign education and health care has been cut to the bone. Classrooms are filled to capacity with little support for special needs children; schools are being regularly closed. People are required to wait for extended periods to have medical procedures done. My Father is required to wait until September for knee surgery.
Yet, this government can spend hundreds of millions on the Olympics. I completely understand the message coming out of Victoria: “We don’t care about your children or the sick and elderly.”
I look forward to the spin that Mr. Pond will put on this. Unfortunately for Mr. Pond he must run on the less-than-caring record of the Liberals.
I predict that because of the further economic downturn the audiences outside of BC won’t be there. Vancouverites will be able to attend because of cuts to admission prices.
What we have seen from Herb, at least in his tenure as our Mayor is a lot of fluff and not much substance. As a typical politician, he tells people what he thinks they want or need to hear, without delivering the action to support it. Also, he is very clearly aligned himself with all the wrong powers for me at least, but I do love the democratic process, it will make for an interesting election. And at least the Local Liberals have put forward a candidate that is electable, compared to some of the previous people that have been on the ballot for them. I only hope that common sense prevails, and we get a change in government. In total agreement with hitest and others here, in fact I still have my ‘Really don’t care card’ with Gordon Campbell’s name on it. And he very clearly years later really doesn’t care even less. Pretty fucking sad that they didn’t even attempt to make any improvements while economic times were better, because it is going to be much harder now.
Herb is a great salesman and providing that the Liberals are in power, if Herb is elected he would be a great asset to our riding. I’d rather have someone who can sit across the table from Gordo and have a meaningful discussion on what our area needs rather than just be a critic towards everything that government does. That works both ways. If Carol James is elected I’d rather see Coons in rather than Herb bitching about everything that government doesn’t do for us.
He certainly likes the limelight. I feel that he genuinely wants to do what is best for our community, as does Coons. He’s been a great ambassador for Rupert and really has become the face of our community. I’m considering voting for him just to see what his positive attributes could do for us on a provincial level. Gary is a great guy but so far he really hasnt been able to do anything that has made a positive difference here. Thats no slight against him but he is not really in a position of power, he’s just a critic.
I don’t think anyone is questioning the hard work Mr. Coons has done as a member of the opposition, but it’s understandable that some people are looking for what he’s actually done for the Northwest other than write a critique for the papers once in a while.
I’ll be the first to admit that I haven’t paid enough attention to provincial politics in the Northwest to say that he’s done nothing, but that’s how some people are perceiving the situation, I think.
Tell me the good things that happened while Dan Miller was MLA? Skeena Cell? The economy of this town took a sharp turn downwards under the NDP regime. Belsey just inherited it.
It’s nice that you agree with me that having an MLA from the governing party doesn’t help.
So very clearly now, we are both in agreement that porkbarrel politics is a myth.
It’s still more beneficial than having just a critic. Just once, I’d like to see the opposing party commend something that the party in power has done. I dont care who it is, it’s not all bad as they all paint it to be.