Hmmm… federal Liberal government says BC Economy isn’t so hot:
[quote]Real average weekly earnings in BC have fallen by almost two per cent since the Liberals took office, and most wage rates are now not keeping up with inflation.
Average yearly job growth was about 2.2 per year during the NDP tenure, compared to only 1.6 under the BC Liberals.
Overall consumer spending has fallen since the 1990s. Consumer savings are down, and consumer debt is at an all-time high.
Surveys by major banks listed the recent rise in global commodity prices and 50-year low interest rates among the main reasons for BC’s recent moderate economic improvement. None of the banks gave credit to BC Liberal policy.[/quote]
Funny how thetyee has never once said anything good about the Liberals. They’re a bunch of true NDPers.
Everyone knows that the NDP didn’t truly have “balanced” budgets. They cooked the books to try win an election, and still got wiped out. They give ridiculous raises to unions in hopes of winning an election, and still got wiped out. The NDP tried to use, I believe it was the SoCred way of “not having debt”. They passed some government debt off on to some crown corporations to cover up their massive deficits.
As for thetyee, they basically take any statistic they can find, and then cook up a story to make them look as bad as possible. Like the “BCs economy is not actually booming” story. Maybe it isn’t in shithole Prince Rupert anymore, but it most definately is down here in Vancouver. I’ve worked a few side jobs already, because some places were that desperate for workers. Everywhere I look in the paper, there’s job posting everywhere. I get about 5 emails a day from BCIT with new jobs available in IT. If people weren’t too blind to see that Rupert’s dead, I guarantee that 90% of the people on here would vote Liberal.
Probably the only people that wouldn’t vote Liberal are all the teachers on here that are still bitter that they “only” got a 7.5% raise, not the ridiculous 35% they wanted. Believe me, I could be a shithead in high school too, but it definately is not with a 35% raise.
So Statistics Canada is wrong? The bank presidents are wrong?
This isn’t the NDP saying this, it’s Statistics Canada, and the presidents of the 5 big banks.
[quote=“mrbios”]
Everyone knows that the NDP didn’t truly have “balanced” budgets.
They cooked the books to try win an election.[/quote]
Says who? Campbell?
Why don’t you use your sharp reseach skills to show proofs? The claims of balanced budget under NDP and of federal equalization payments under the bcliberals that have been made in this forum were all backed by urls that someone could look up for themselves.
[quote=“mrbios”]
Probably the only people that wouldn’t vote Liberal are all the teachers on here that are still bitter that they “only” got a 7.5% raise, not the ridiculous 35% they wanted. Believe me, I could be a shithead in high school too, but it definately is not with a 35% raise.[/quote]
Teacher bashing eh! Fun! Fun! Fun!
Where did you get the 35% figure? And do you remember that the government only paid for 2.5% of the increase and let the school districts come up with the rest resulting in less money for other services and making the teachers the scapegoat for their underfunding?
The fact is, they imposed a contract on the teachers and for most of us that was a huge mark of disrespect. And if you noticed in the news lately, Campbell is at it again. I was waiting for the teacher bashing to start during this campaign and it did. More liberal lies on the right wing Global network. And now you jump on that bandwagon too.
Honestly, Russell, I hope you’re trolling because if you’re not, I am very disappointed in you. You came to school and most teachers tried their best to support your learning, by helping you learn in class so that you could get where you are now, and by volunteer after school. Now you go out and make comments like this. And you expect me to just accept that without calling you on it?
I’ve never been involved in any political parties. I’ve voted for many different ones. But this year, I can tell you that I got involved against the Liberals in BC. Not that I liked the NDP of past years way more. But the Campbell government has done more things to devaluate teachers and make their daily life harder than anyone before.
Because of the effects of this government’s policies, my last few years of teaching have been more difficult than ever before. Not only because of all the issues but also because of the image the government paints of the teachers, image that influences people like you to make comments like you did. I was even thinking of quitting a couple of years ago and I remember not recommending this career to a few young people who asked me about it because with the way the politics are going in this province ( and elsewhere!) you have to have a thick skin to enter the profession.
I’d like to remain anonymous but I know you want to know who I am. I will give you a clue that a grade 8 could solve if only his teacher could really show what a reciprocal is in an original way.
Got it?
NDP may have had a surplus budget, but the economy was dead.
According to that bastion of Liberal propaganda, Statistics Canada (ie: the federal Liberal government), the economy was better 4 years ago than it is now.
If the economy is so much better now, then why are we getting transfer payments, like a welfare province? Never in history has BC received transfer payments until the Liberals tanked the economy.
Don’t blame the NDP for that. Global factors play an important role in economic cycles. The NDP was in power during a trough. The liberals are taking credit for things they didn’t really do. Hopefully enough British Columbian will recognize that.
I don’t remember bashing any teachers. Merely an opinion that the teachers in 2001 were in fact being greedy. I do have respect for lots of teachers, but as I said earlier, even to put up with someone that could be a shithead to teachers like myself, a >30% raise over 3 years is way too much, in my opinion. Then, to hold the students hostage as a way of bargaining, I’m sorry, but I have no respect for that. My grade 11 year was quite possibly some of the worst teaching I’d ever had to deal with. To essentially be told to go to hell whenever I needed help with a subject, I’m sorry, that’s not teaching, that’s bullshit. You can talk about disrespect from the government towards the teachers, and in some respects I agree, but the disrespect towards the students was FAR greater than that. But you know what, by the time grade 12 came around, and there was a contract in place, things changed. One teacher whom I really didn’t like during grade 11, because pretty well no matter what, you weren’t getting help from this individual, was actually one of my best teachers in grade 12. When teachers teach, I have the utmost respect for them, but again, when they try to hold students hostage, I’ll make no apologies, I have no respect for that. Again, this year at BCIT, me and all the students of BCIT were held hostage by a union. BCIT had 5 days of classes cancelled, but some had as much as 10. To use students as the hostages in bargaining, I don’t care who you are, I have no respect for that.
35% was from lots of paper articles back in the day. Howver, here is a timeline that does in fact show that a >30% salary demand was made: http://www.mapleleafweb.com/education/spotlight/issue_8/printable.html
Again, I support the BCLiberal party, and that is who in fact I will be voting for. The fact that the NDP said(then later tried to backtrack) that education isn’t an essential service, that alone probably killed a lot of NDP support. The fact that the NDP supports taking students hostage like that is one damn good reason that the NDP can go to hell.
How come doctors aren’t an “essential service” ?
How come it’s only in BC that teachers can’t strike?
[quote=“Anonymous”]How come doctors aren’t an “essential service” ?
How come it’s only in BC that teachers can’t strike?[/quote]
How come college teachers (like yours at BCIT) aren’t an essential service?
Teachers don’t want to strike. They want to negotiate.
Teachers in Rupert would love the chance to negotiate directly. I doubt they’d ask for any money, as they’re pretty well paid. The “35%” bullshit was for teachers in Vancouver (especially in North and West Vancouver), who make less than a third (yes, less than a third) of what teachers in Rupert make.
The Liberals have refused to allow local negotiations. They want a “one package fits all” approach. Teachers in Rupert didn’t want a raise, but thanks to the Liberals, they never had a chance to negotiate that.
Guys, if you can’t have a debate about issues without resorting to name calling and racial slurs, then take it elsewhere.