Agreed. As of late I have not felt enthusiastic about the BC NDP, but Clark needs to go. The NDP will get my vote in May. Things need to change.
I’m just trying to figure out the communist vote!
[quote=“crazy Horse”]
I’m just trying to figure out the communist vote![/quote]
Haha, I was wondering about that one as well! I’m guessing that he may have classified all left of center votes in the communist camp. 
You should research the trustworthiness and integrity of Mr. Dix.
[quote=“crazy Horse”]
You should research the trustworthiness and integrity of Mr. Dix.[/quote]
No one is lily white in the upcoming campaign. I will give my vote to Mr. Dix. BC Rail, HST, etc., etc. Clark is a train wreck.
[quote=“hitest”]
No one is lily white in the upcoming campaign. I will give my vote to Mr. Dix. BC Rail, HST, etc., etc. Clark is a train wreck.[/quote]
Hardly a train wreck. What about the HST, you don’t like that it is being abolished or you want to keep it?
With this government we know what we are getting. A pretty decent economy in tough times.
What will we get with the NDP? Who the hell knows? Adrian Dix won’t say. So we are forced to look at past track records from the NDP. High taxes, high unemployment, and we became a “have not” province. And there are some pretty big fundamental questions that need answering. They can’t be all to everyone. We are a natural resource exporting province, will they continue to develop that to please unions? What about the environmentalists? Or the Natives? How are they going to please all of their “supporters”?
[quote=“hitest”]
I’m just trying to figure out the communist vote!
Haha, I was wondering about that one as well! I’m guessing that he may have classified all left of center votes in the communist camp. [/quote]
Not at all. That was in another province. A communist (I forget which sect) was on the ballot, and I wasn’t going to vote Tory. Sometimes, including when living under an NDP train wreck, desperate measures are called for.
I’m with DWhite on this one; the issue that rises above all else is the corruption of the BC Liberals. It has cost us millions of dollars, spent on everything from the Basi-Virk payoff to private power partnerships, to BC Ferries executives. As for the alternative, the NDP? Well there are always going to be different views, but here is an interesting link on the subject of debt incurred by various governing parties:
northerninsights.blogspot.ca/201 … ality.html
And as many of us who cruise around the political blogs are aware, Alex Tsakumis (a Conservative blogger, and definitely not a fan of the NDP) has some things to say about Adrian Dix, the infamous memo, and the attacks on Glen Clark here:
alexgtsakumis.com/2013/01/31/par … len-clark/
And here:
alexgtsakumis.com/2013/02/01/par … len-clark/
All of which suggests that we should all be wary of the standard propaganda lines, regardless of which party they originate from.
[quote=“crazy Horse”]
I’m just trying to figure out the communist vote![/quote]
Oh hi Danielle Smith!
[quote=“PLA”]
Oh hi Danielle Smith![/quote]
Why hello Kathleen Wynne.
But really, if I had to reincarnate as a conservative female Alberta politician, I think I’d be the other one.
[quote=“crazy Horse”]What about the HST, you don’t like that it is being abolished or you want to keep it?
[/quote]
I don’t like being lied to. If the Liberals intended to introduce the HST in 2009 they should have informed us about it during the election campaign. The HST was subsequently crushed in a referendum and the Liberals have yet to respect the will of the people. I remember Clark hinting at an early Fall election, but then a quick retraction after the referendum results were announced.
[quote=“crazy Horse”]
[quote=“hitest”]
No one is lily white in the upcoming campaign. I will give my vote to Mr. Dix. BC Rail, HST, etc., etc. Clark is a train wreck.[/quote]
Hardly a train wreck. What about the HST, you don’t like that it is being abolished or you want to keep it?
With this government we know what we are getting. A pretty decent economy in tough times.
What will we get with the NDP? Who the hell knows? Adrian Dix won’t say. So we are forced to look at past track records from the NDP. High taxes, high unemployment, and we became a “have not” province. And there are some pretty big fundamental questions that need answering. They can’t be all to everyone. We are a natural resource exporting province, will they continue to develop that to please unions? What about the environmentalists? Or the Natives? How are they going to please all of their “supporters”?[/quote]
Define insanity…
PS our decent economy is being fueled by selling every asset we have and cheap. We are able to do this through the sound financial technique of wracking up massive debt to fulfill sweetheart contracts.
From what I’ve seen third world cops are less willing to be corrupted than the liberals. That said did is a weasel but I’ll take the chance of less corruption than sticking with the level of corruption we are all so familiar with.
[quote=“crazy Horse”]
[quote=“hitest”]
No one is lily white in the upcoming campaign. I will give my vote to Mr. Dix. BC Rail, HST, etc., etc. Clark is a train wreck.[/quote]
Hardly a train wreck. What about the HST, you don’t like that it is being abolished or you want to keep it?
With this government we know what we are getting. A pretty decent economy in tough times.
What will we get with the NDP? Who the hell knows? Adrian Dix won’t say. So we are forced to look at past track records from the NDP. High taxes, high unemployment, and we became a “have not” province. And there are some pretty big fundamental questions that need answering. They can’t be all to everyone. We are a natural resource exporting province, will they continue to develop that to please unions? What about the environmentalists? Or the Natives? How are they going to please all of their “supporters”?[/quote]
Define insanity…
PS our decent economy is being fueled by selling every asset we have and cheap. We are able to do this through the sound financial technique of wracking up massive debt to fulfill sweetheart contracts.
From what I’ve seen third world cops are less willing to be corrupted than the liberals. That said did is a weasel but I’ll take the chance of less corruption than sticking with the level of corruption we are all so familiar with.
Danielle Smith #2?
I don’t like being lied to. If the Liberals intended to introduce the HST in 2009 they should have informed us about it during the election campaign. The HST was subsequently crushed in a referendum and the Liberals have yet to respect the will of the people. [/quote]
We don’t like being lied to, for sure, but in fairness the return to PST is well along, with businesses being invited to register and an outreach program in motion to educate businesses in how to be provincial tax collectors: < www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/topic.page?id … 1783F4BA6D >. Restoring a byzantine tax regime is no small bureaucratic undertaking regardless of who in power.
On your main point though, saying that we’re lied to, I don’t strongly disagree, but that may not quite capture how things really work behind the scenes in the corridors of power. Alex Tsakumis’s piece cited earlier about Adrian Dix’s “faked” memo when he was an NDP staffer seems to provide some insight.
Now I’ve read a few of Tsakumis’s pieces (what a lot of hyperbole and self-praise to wade through). He is an intrepid seeker of the truth about the BC Liberals, a man whose mission happens to align with that of the NDP, although just for now I suspect. The total meltdown of the BC Liberals - a distinct possibility - would obviously suit the NDP, but should also clear the way for the phoenix like rise from the ashes of electoral defeat of a reconstituted and true right wing party where centrists like Christy Clark (a federal Liberal, not a Harper Conservative) are out of the picture. Zalm, of course, will be their patron saint, after being rehabilitated during the anti-HST campaign (memories can be so short).
Tsakumis reveals that there is some personal history between him and Dix. They are both ‘old boys’ of the same private school, and their families patronized each others’ businesses. He knows Dix well.
By Tsakumis’s account, allegations that Dix “faked” a memo to the premier by altering the date are a “lie”(falsifying a document was not a lie, it is the allegation of a lie that is a lie; it gets a bit tangled). What Dix really did wasn’t a “lie”, it was just “a very stupid thing to do” during the course of a criminal investigation. We are further reassured that it wasn’t “criminal” because no charges were laid (I’m not sure that’s the best test of unlawful conduct, but anyway).
Tsakumis then goes on to say that, although only a “kid” at the time, Dix “… understood his job was to take a bullet for HIS premier. That’s the job, my darlings. Politics is an ugly, ugly business. You do what you must to protect your Minister, at all times.”
So by falsifying a document containing advice to the premier Dix did not “lie”; he did what must be done. It almost sounds heroic.
I’m not going to get on the tired old bandwagon of Dix is a “liar”. Discussions of BC politics seem to be so preoccupied with recitations of old grievances, usually from several years ago and some only barely remembered. Meanwhile surprisingly little, if anything, is said about what either party actually plans to do in the future.
Reading Tsakumis’s account of Dix taking a bullet and the warlike nature of politics, I’m reminded of this quote from Winston Churchill: “It’s not only the good boys who help to win wars. It is the sneaks and stinkers as well”.
I’m hesitant to say that anyone is a “liar”; those are strong words, never to be uttered or taken lightly. In this province, though, going way back, and from all parties, we sure seem to have had an awful lot of “sneaks and stinkers”.
There are only two major political figures that I would exempt from that description, appropriately one from each side of the spectrum. Harcourt was not a sneak or a stinker, but he sure was surrounded by a bunch of them. He should have fired a large contingent of his cabinet and continued on. The other is WAC Bennett. When I was in the youth wing of the NDP we hated him, but looking back he was a bit wacky, granted, but he was also a leader who had a clear and ambitious program that was actually delivered on: buying up companies, improving public services, building universities; the list is long. He had a record that he could proudly point to.
I don’t know if Dix will be a good premier. Amidst the drumbeat of old grievances from all sides little is known about what he actually plans to do. Our parties no longer run on platforms; they just reassure us that they’re not “liars” like the other guys. So I’m not going to say in answer to allegations of Liberal “lies” that Dix is also a “liar,” but Tsakumis’s article persuades me that Dix is a chip off the old block of BC politics, at least as it’s been for the last forty plus years or so.
[quote=“BTravenn”]
I don’t know if Dix will be a good premier. Amidst the drumbeat of old grievances from all sides little is known about what he actually plans to do. Our parties no longer run on platforms; they just reassure us that they’re not “liars” like the other guys. So I’m not going to say in answer to allegations of Liberal “lies” that Dix is also a “liar,” but Tsakumis’s article persuades me that Dix is a chip off the old block of BC politics, at least as it’s been for the last forty plus years or so.[/quote]
I don’t know if he will be a good premier as only time will tell. From my perspective he is the lesser of two evils at this point. I’m not thrilled with voting for Dix, but a vote for the Greens is a vote discarded. I’ll take my chances with Dix.
[quote=“hitest”]
[quote=“BTravenn”]
I don’t know if Dix will be a good premier.[/quote]
Amidst the drumbeat of old grievances from all sides little is known about what he actually plans to do. Our parties no longer run on platforms; they just reassure us that they’re not “liars” like the other guys. So I’m not going to say in answer to allegations of Liberal “lies” that Dix is also a “liar,” but Tsakumis’s article persuades me that Dix is a chip off the old block of BC politics, at least as it’s been for the last forty plus years or so.
I don’t know if he will be a good premier as only time will tell. From my perspective he is the lesser of two evils at this point. I’m not thrilled with voting for Dix, but a vote for the Greens is a vote discarded. I’ll take my chances with Dix.[/quote]
That pretty much captures the dilemma that were’re stuck with and a sensible conclusion. Hopefully someday someone with vision and, for a change, a comprehensive program - from whatever party - will come along, rather than just another politician in a long line of “sneaks and stinkers”. That being said, I hope that the BC Liberals are not so diminished and pulverized that they are superceded by a renewed Conservative party with Zalm as its patron saint and Tsakumis as its’ leading spin doctor.
If only Bill Belsey were running. Would make choosing easier.
so the liberals are corrupt but the only politician that I know of in BC that ever did a criminal wrong doing was Adrian Dix, he forged a date on a memo which was evidence in an RCMP investigation, tampering with evidence is a federal offence, ppl bring up the BC rail court cost being paid, well here is a question who paid for Dix’s lawyers? I bet it was the government, Why wasn’t he charged with a felony?
and if ppl want to go back even further remember bingogate where NDP leaders in Nanimo where taking kickbacks for donating money from charities, how many of those are still around helping run the NDP. in other words each might have bad ppl in their ranks but don’t call them corrupt because you don’t believe in their policies. if there is proof of corruption then fine go for it. Dix’s memo altering is fair game it goes to his character. Just like Campbell’s drunk driving was fair game.
Don’t forget the classic Adrian Dix Hawaii DUI.