Why I will vote Liberal

General Forums Prince Rupert Forum
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  1. I will start by saying I never voted anything but NDP until last time, but they were screwing up just too much. I was pro fast ferries, I was pro Glen Clark, but you can’t talk the talk and then do everything possible to screw small business by handing out grants to compete against them and signing off big deals with mega business to win their union workers’ votes.
  2. I agreed with many of the cuts to public service, and the freezes in contracts. The kitchen staff at the hospital does NOT deserve wages equal to an RN or even a practical. The forestry office does not require more staff than the largest sawmill in the district. The school board does not require a huge IT staff and skimps on teachers who have to ask me how to burn a CD and hide the newest equipment so the ‘kids don’t screw it up’, or cut special needs to afford that IT dept. I have a special contempt for those public workers who hold their noses in the air and act like they’re more valuable to society than Joe at the mill, Fred at the tire shop or Sam the welder, bitch about the town they live in, work here Mon to Friday and screw off to spend every nickel they earned in Prince George, Edmonton and Vancouver every weekend.
    The NDP was very good at encouraging attitudes like that by sending Ministerial staff to tell them how we’re all a bunch of redneck hicks and the people in Victoria knew so much better what was good for us, and ignoring all input from non NDP ridings.
  3. Dave pointed this out in another thread: an idiot is at least 2 standard devialtions below normal intelligence. Our NDP candidate is only -1. Our Liberal I don’t like, I don’t really know but at least he can honestly claim to be a zero. I admit to being an elitist, if the Green was a +2 they might win my vote.
  4. It is not the time for a change in gov’t. Radical swings cause major economic headaches. Emotional ones too, because when it’s time to change I will get off my ass and go campaign for change. I don’t feel like that this time.
  5. My riding has a hopeless history. When I came here it was a disgraced Socred who couldn’t do dick. Then the retards here voted in one of the last Socreds so he couldn’t do dick. Then we went Liberal and Glen Clark got in so he couldn’t do dick. Then he won again, rode in on Gordo’s horse and promptly shot the legs off it so we got screwed again. The Libs are going to take this one too, they’ll have a real opposition this time, but they’ll win. And it would be nice, for once to have an MLA that could do something for us.
  6. The provincial NDP has no talent pool. Carol James is an ‘at least we might win a seat or two with her instead of losing the two we have left with one of the other choices’ leader. The field of candidates is lacking, you need business people, ex-mayors, successful ethnics, noteables to be among the running. The Liberals have this. The NDP doesn’t. You need a talent pool that knows about the field they can effect. Someone who knows about forestry, knows about tourism, knows about ports. The Liberals have people who know. They might not ‘get it’ but they know something about it. All the NDP candidates I’ve met know about unions, education, social work and hospitals. They don’t ‘get it’ at all that the forests, seas, mines, ports and tourist flow determine the raison’d’etre of their knowledge. Gonna teach to earn degrees in unemployment, super-service them by hand to fill out the welfare forms, and give them private rooms with personal MRIs when they shoot or drink their livers away in despair?
  7. Only the Liberals are delivering a positive message. All the ads I hear are NDP ones attacking Gordo and offer no positive message or reason to choose them instead. This again is a lack of talent. The Liberals don’t have tp spend 5 cents on advertising because Gordo’s name and the Liberal party have been repeated for free. We have a slogan in our Internet shop: >You don’t have to “tell us” how good our service is< We don’t display it outside because in people’s heads it rings a “Bell” and a huge number of people think bigger must be better, and off they go.
    8) And this is for Rupert people: If you choose to elect an NDP member, you will not ‘suffer the wrath’ under the Liberals. They will know they had a member and lost him. They will try to woo your votes back. Stalling the seal-coating project in Hooterville might 'learn ‘em a lesson’, but messing a port around will affect the whole province. Enjoy your options.

Consider all this and feel free to give a thoughtful reply. We really really need a third option free of zealots and dogmas that can run this place without losing track of the big picture. The rest of Canada thinks Alberta is ‘Western Canada’ and we’re just a bunch of flakes. We’re bigger than Alberta and we have more stuff. Let’s act like it.

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Well said herbie_popnecker

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In Prince Rupert, I would say that the liberal guy is probably at 0. The Green and the NDP guys are at +2.

[quote=“herbie_popnecker”]
The Liberals have people who know. They might not ‘get it’ but they know something about it. [/quote]

25 % of the NDP candidates were involved in business ( CBC reality check) Probably a bit more were unionized people. That means that these people worked in industries too. So they would know something about it.
A lot of liberal candidates know how to accumulate personal wealth, often by making people around them angry ( I know the local liberal has done that to a former business partner.)

Well that all changed with Campbell ranting about the teachers last week!
During the american presidential campaign, the Bush clan too used only positive stuff when they were not talking terrorism. For the BC liberals it’s the same thing except they switch unionism instead of terrorism.

Astrothug must have skipped this paragraph! I think that Rupert people are scared for nothing too. I think Coons would be a good person to be in Victoria because he will represent the people.
That’s why I will vote NDP.
But Herbie, I appreciate that your situation is different than mine.

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I can’t bring myself to vote for our Liberal candidate here in Prince Rupert and my reason is simple:

The whole time he was representing us we never heard from him. Only come election time does Belsey pop his head out and start trying to get my attention.

So this either makes him a terrible politician (because he has no clue about at least looking like he’s doing something for me) or he’s an outright liar who is very conveniently taking credit come election time for some of the “good news” announcements we’ve had lately. Either way he won’t get my vote. I’m not terribly impressed with the NDP or the Green party either.

I’ll certainly go and cast my ballot, but frankly I’m not entirely sure that my decision of who to vote for won’tl be no one at all.

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This is the second election where I have decided who I will vote primarily because I do not like the other person who is running. The first election I did this was the last federal election where we put Nathan Cullen in Ottawa. Miles Richardson never stood a chance running on his oil and gas platform, being from Haida Gwaii himself. He pretty much alienated his own people. Plus the fact that he is arraogant and power hungry didn’t help either. I am totally happy with the job that Cullen is doing in Ottawa.

That aside, Gary Coons scares me. Over the last 10-12 years he has become very much a union radical. He has really changed since he was my Math teacher in '84. He just seems very unstable to me. Also, isn’t the NDP (according to everyone in here) supposed to be suporting the “common” man/worker bee? What does Coons know about the “common” man? Does anyone have any idea what he makes as a teacher? There is nothing common about that. Don’t get me wrong, I respect teachers to the fullest, and whatever their salary is, more power to them. But don’t claim to be for the people, and understand what the people are about when you are making $100,000 a year.

As for the BC Liberals, people make it sound like a bad thing that they support business. How do you think things get done around here? If it wasn’t for business, then what would we have? One of the "Guest"s in another forum wondered what would happen to 3rd Avenue businesses if WalMart or Canadian Tire were brought into town. Let’s take that chance. We have a chance at real respectability (economically speaking) here if we stay the course. I haven’t seen this town so hyped up about something (the port) that isn’t even gonna happen for a couple of years. People are optomistic again. Let’s not screw this up.

I don’t think there is any way that the NDP is going to get in, provincially speaking, so why would we consider going against the grain here? Are we trying to rebel against “the man”? Good luck with that. If you had a choice between giving money to a family member who has supported you, and a guy on the street looking for a handout, who would you choose?

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[quote=“stanley19”]
you are making $100,000 a year.[/quote]

Teachers make that much?

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I know of a substitute teacher on-call that makes over $50,000 a year. Now that’s only working maybe 3 out of 5 days a week.

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[quote=“mhepburn”]

[quote=“stanley19”]
you are making $100,000 a year.[/quote]

Teachers make that much?[/quote]

One with as much seniority as Coons yep.

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[quote=“stanley19”]

[quote=“mhepburn”]

Teachers make that much?

One with as much seniority as Coons yep.[/quote]

No teacher makes that much money.

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Don’t be fucking stupid, you idiots.

No teacher makes that much money, no matter how much seniority they have.

The school district publishes all salaries above 60k, and there are very few teachers on that list. There are no teachers near 100k.

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Bullshit.

190 school days. So… they only work 3/5 of those days as you say. So they might work 114 days. You’re telling me they make $438 a day?

That’s sick, it’s just not correct. Stop being stupid.

The school district will take anybody as a TOC, even if you’re not a fully qualified teacher, because there is a SHORTAGE of TOCs. Know why? They’re not very well paid. Try $100 or $150 a day, depending on qualifications.

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[quote=“stanley19”]But don’t claim to be for the people, and understand what the people are about when you are making $100,000 a year.
[/quote]

Don’t be stupid. Stop repeating lies and start thinking for yourself. Want to know how much teachers make? Take a look here: sd52.bc.ca (I’ll leave it up to you to find the salaries, two clicks away). Guess what?

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teachers on average make 60.000 to 80.000 a year and thats here in rupert for less then 10 months of the year, but then again a Principle in a high school make’s more then that I’m Sure…So 100.000 might not be that far fetched.

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[quote=“Anonymous”]

Bullshit.

190 school days. So… they only work 3/5 of those days as you say. So they might work 114 days. You’re telling me they make $438 a day?

That’s sick, it’s just not correct. Stop being stupid.

The school district will take anybody as a TOC, even if you’re not a fully qualified teacher, because there is a SHORTAGE of TOCs. Know why? They’re not very well paid. Try $100 or $150 a day, depending on qualifications.[/quote]

Dude, layoff the caffeine and SIMMER THE FUCK DOWN! I’m just guessing you wrote the last 3 negative posts, and instead of being a negative idiot, more people might take you seriously if you stated your facts in a nicer manner.

With the substitute making $50,000 a year… I’m going by what SHE told me. I’m not sure if that is before taxes or if she’s lying through her teeth… that is purely what SHE told me. Some weeks she works all 5 days, others she works as few as 3, and she is very flexible so she’s able to work anytime she is needed.

Anyways, I’m not here to defend this person, I was simply stating what I was told.

On the SD52 website, in the 2004/2005 budget, it says $10,754,774 was the salary expense for 110 teachers. That works out to an average of $97,770 each. With it being an average, some will be paid more than that, and some will be paid less. That makes it quite feasible for a teacher with many years under their belt to make $100,000 a year, unless those stats are screwed up, or there are other factors built in that they don’t mention.

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It’s about half that.

On average, a salary is only half the cost of a position. If somebody gets paid $50k, then your employer usually has to pay about $100k including taxes, EI, pension, medical, etc… You still only make $50k though.

So yeah, the average salary in Rupert is under $45k, not $100k.

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Seriously people, you have to stop talking about things of which you know nothing.

Instead of convincing people that Gary Coons is a greedy $100k-making bastard, you’re just convincing people that you aren’t very intelligent.

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Well, while we’re talking about teachers:

thetyee.ca/Views/2005/05/16/Camp … edEnemies/

How Campbell skillfully picked his enemies.

Ask yourself why he’s picking on teachers, of all people?

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he is right sort of if you were back in 2001
http://www.bcpsea.bc.ca/public/emplgroups/teacher/bargaining/backgrounder/bb2001_sep13.pdf

CTV WEBSITE 2002

[quote]TEACHING
Clearly, they’re not in it for the money. But jobs are plentiful in this profession, since almost 45% of Canadian teachers will be eligible for retirement by 2008. (As one 38-year-old elementary-school veteran in B.C. points out, “I’ve taught for 12 years and there are only two people on staff younger than me.”)

Most Canadian teachers with bachelor’s degrees earn $33,000 to $60,000. None of it is tax-free; and they can’t deduct home computer depreciation and office supplies.

Out-of-pocket expenses are considerable-Canadian teachers spend about $430 of their own money on supplies. Our B.C. teacher fares worse-his province’s average is $1,095 a year. Maybe that’s why 40% of B.C.'s new teachers leave the profession within five years.

Teaching staff in B.C. were enraged by a recent government-imposed contract. Meanwhile, principals and vice-principals are not part of the collective bargaining unit, so their salaries can change at any time, generally based on the number of students or staff they oversee. B.C. principals average $74,649 to $82,267 in elementary school, and $83,874 to $91,296 in high school. Vice-principals average $68,995 to $72,882 in elementary school, and $73,966 to $78,993 in secondary.

Nine out of B.C.'s 59 school districts have principals earning more than $100,000, the highest in Vancouver, at $107,103.

At the other end of the spectrum, salaries for teachers’ assistants and aides are downright dismal-the national average is $19,500 a year. Preschool teachers fare only slightly better at around $23,600.

All tolled, teachers may be better off in the U.S. and Britain, where offers come with higher salaries, signing bonuses, tax credits, partial student loan write-offs, and even housing subsidies.>[/quote]

Hard to Find figures for 2005 I did see though some were the average was 60,000 to 80,000 but I cant find it yet.

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[quote=“Anonymous”]Don’t be fucking stupid, you idiots.

No teacher makes that much money, no matter how much seniority they have.

The school district publishes all salaries above 60k, and there are very few teachers on that list. There are no teachers near 100k.[/quote]

so are principles teachers too couse it looks like they do make that kind of money…over a hundred grand a year…lol…

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All i can say is that i think you guys are getting a little too heated up over this whole election thing. Liberals are going to win hands down, although Gary certainly has a chance of winning in town. After tomorrow it will all be over, at least for another 4 years.