Which government sucks the most?

Based on some of the threads lately, I am curious.

I am no fan of Harper, and I know city council has its flaws, but neither of them get my hateometer going nearly as much as the provincial government.

I am going to admit right off that my feelings may be totally irrational. Maybe, at least for me, Ottawa is too far away and doesn’t seem to have the same effect on Rupert as the other two governments. Maybe, at least for me, city council is too close. I know some of the councillors so it is hard for me to be hyper critical even though they have responsibility for many of the day to day problems (infrastructure, recreation, garbage, taxes) that we deal with regularly.

And maybe, at least for me, the provincial government is remote enough that I can hate without feeling guilt while feeling disappointed/betrayed at how they have dealt with health, education, taxes, job creation and other departments that hit close to home.

How do the rest of you feel?

I feel like this is a negatively colored thread right from the start, and will accomplish nothing good.

The real challenge would be to have a thread like this and not use any personal insults.

Challenge accepted. I will not insult anyone in this thread… Well anyone specifically. Truthfully the worst government is the provincial one currently. They are a bunch of directionless morons with no agenda other than winning the next election for their personal enrichment. Not that the ndp morons are better but every term the liberals have won has made them more arrogant and corrupt. I refuse to comment on Christy Clark in this thread.

I would say seconded by the feds only because of the robot calls and various other scandals and their stupidity regarding copyright spying etc etc.

You are certainly correct Mike and I thought a lot before posting it. I was thinking of phrasing it positively e.g. With which government are you the most satisfied but figured everybody would say none of the above even if I didn’t offer it as a choice.

Part of my reason for posting though was the amount of criticism many of us level (myself toward the provincial Liberals) at our elected officials. I have said this before, but I do feel sorry for city council. Unlike MLAs/MPs it is not a full time, highly paid job. There is no great pension that comes at the end of it. They don’t have a whole lot of power. We get this big tax bill once a year which focuses attention on the budget unlike income tax, MSP premiums, consumer taxes that are spread out into smaller amounts. And they are right here in town so we can hassle them as often as we want.

I know the wording of the poll was provocative but I hope as Mig pointed out that we can make comments without personal attacks. My criticism of the provincial government is that they have betrayed our trust. In a lot of cases they have done the opposite of what they said they would do. I knew what to expect from Harper and he hasn’t disappointed (that is not meant as a compliment) and city council is, I believe, trying in an almost no win situation. That, of course, does not give them a free ride.

Perhaps I shouldn’t have posted the poll, but I do think it is important that we try to look at the expectations we have for elected officials and whether or not those expectations are reasonable and then judge them on how well they have met those expectations.

[quote=“DWhite”]
Perhaps I shouldn’t have posted the poll, but I do think it is important that we try to look at the expectations we have for elected officials and whether or not those expectations are reasonable and then judge them on how well they have met those expectations.[/quote]

I think this poll and thread is just fine. At HTMF we often discuss emotionally charged topics.

Or how long the thread will last with all of the original posts intact, especially when you have a certain few new members who contribute regularly to The Wasteland…

[quote=“PLA”]

Or how long the thread will last with all of the original posts intact, especially when you have a certain few new members who contribute regularly to The Wasteland…[/quote]

Ahem… that feels like a personal insult.

Shut up Jesus! I spent 10 minutes crafting this veiled insult…

Municipal sucks the most. PR taxpayers are getting a horrible return on their money.

Federal is next. While I think the conservatives have done some good economically, I distrust the far right (Reformers) of the party.

Provincial is the best of the three. Clark is a better leader than Dix, and I believe that our unemployment rate, debt/person, GDP, income tax rate, and credit rating will remain amongst the best in the country under Clark. Dix’s personal (lack of) credibility and ethics aside, we have no idea what he would do to our economy as it relates to environmentalists and other special interest groups.

[quote=“crazy Horse”]Municipal sucks the most. PR taxpayers are getting a horrible return on their money.

Federal is next. While I think the conservatives have done some good economically, I distrust the far right (Reformers) of the party.

Provincial is the best of the three. Clark is a better leader than Dix, and I believe that our unemployment rate, debt/person, GDP, income tax rate, and credit rating will remain amongst the best in the country under Clark. Dix’s personal (lack of) credibility and ethics aside, we have no idea what he would do to our economy as it relates to environmentalists and other special interest groups.[/quote]

My thoughts exactly!

[quote=“crazy Horse”]Municipal sucks the most. PR taxpayers are getting a horrible return on their money.

Federal is next. While I think the conservatives have done some good economically, I distrust the far right (Reformers) of the party.

Provincial is the best of the three. Clark is a better leader than Dix, and I believe that our unemployment rate, debt/person, GDP, income tax rate, and credit rating will remain amongst the best in the country under Clark. Dix’s personal (lack of) credibility and ethics aside, we have no idea what he would do to our economy as it relates to environmentalists and other special interest groups.[/quote]

bc leading the country with 75% of all job losses seems to back up those factual statements… one of the leaders in child poverty too iirc… things are peachy here in paradise. im not saying youre bill belsey but you know, birds of a feather…

personally ill take have no idea over knowing exactly. i fear the known more than the unknown.

i see your veiled insult and raise you…

[quote=“crazy Horse”]
Provincial is the best of the three. Clark is a better leader than Dix, and I believe that our unemployment rate, debt/person, GDP, income tax rate, and credit rating will remain amongst the best in the country under Clark. Dix’s personal (lack of) credibility and ethics aside, we have no idea what he would do to our economy as it relates to environmentalists and other special interest groups.[/quote]

Well to be fair to Dix we cannot know this until he leads our province. When and if the NDP forms the government then you can make that claim if it proves to be true. I’m not sure what litmus test you use to rank someone as a good leader, but, I’m guessing you’re setting the bar rather low. :smile:
As stated previously I’m not wildly enthusiastic about the BC NDP at the moment, but I will take my chances with Dix. Clark needs to hit the road.

The Federal Government has always been disappointing to me just because we have historically revived little attention from them. We’re in a sparsely populated area almost as far as one can get from Ottawa within Canada and I’ve never felt that we’ve had a strong voice. We always elect an MP that is not representative of the party in power as well so we just don’t seem to fit within the Federal mindset. We’re finally getting more attention from the Feds than we ever have before which stems from the Gateway initiative and Port activities.

We don’t get a great deal if attention provincially either. When I travel around the province I see infrastructure development everywhere. When Herb Pond was still mayor I remember him lobbying the province for a new overpass at the last rail crossing in the Skeena because of Port development and increased rail traffic. Yet, there’s been nothing in that regard.

Our municipal officials work exclusively for us and probably have the toughest job. Less money to work with, highly scrutinized, and live amongst us. They have to deal with issues like Skeena Cell with no support from the province or Feds. I don’t always agree with them but I respect them.