Will This Really Fix Things?

vancouversun.com/news/BCTF+n … story.html

Wow if EVER there was a line so pure of utter bullshit - its this one!

She’s asking people to get involved… Election turnout is getting worse every year, and the younger generation has a lower turnout meaning that our democracy will be decided by fewer and fewer people in the future. This is an alarming trend. So yes by asking unions to vote she is targeting a segment that is traditionally ndp, but she’s not asking them to vote ndp, she’s just asking them to vote… So good for her. And just because you don’t like it, doesn’t make it bullshit…

What exactly is the point of voting these days? whether its completly doing a 180 on critical issues after getting elected or voter fraud via robocalls our democracy has been stolen. It really is an exercise in futility.

For the past 21 years BC has provincially only supported a two-party system. Voting to bring down the Liberal government would mean voting for…can’t think of the other political party…wait, is it the NDP?

Smells like partisan bovine poop.

And Wendy Turner, one of two BCTF Executive Members-at Large, compares her suffering to that of Anne Frank? Now, this really smells bad.

winnipegfreepress.com/opinio … 72016.html

[quote=“dabbledon”]

For the past 21 years BC has provincially only supported a two-party system. Voting to bring down the Liberal government would mean voting for…can’t think of the other political party…wait, is it the NDP?

Smells like partisan bovine poop.

And Wendy Turner, one of two BCTF Executive Members-at Large, compares her suffering to that of Anne Frank? Now, this really smells bad.

winnipegfreepress.com/opinio … 72016.html[/quote]

Teachers can’t really win it would appear.

There are two ways of fighting this battle with the government. One is to strike/disrupt the system and the other is to defeat the government that is refusing to negotiate. Which would people prefer?

Of course what is truly needed is some kind of mediation/arbitration process that would end public sector contract negotiations, but in this case the government is unwilling to even make its case before an arbitrator.

As for the Jon Ferry article. He makes reference to the criticism that he has received and it is well deserved. He has a history of being biased against teachers and other public sectors so there is no surprise in the article. But please note a couple of things. One he calls it a wage dispute. That’s misleading and Ferry knows it. This is more than wage dispute. The teachers I know would like some kind of cost of living (not the 15% which was a starting point) but they are far more interestied in getting back the contract language on class size/composition that was the illegally gutted from the contract 10 years ago. They are far more interested in maintaining contract language that the government wants to strip this time around. And that contract language is pretty much the only topics that the so-called mediator is allowed to mediate. (By the way, the mediator has no mediation experience, has donated money to the Liberal Party of BC and wrote a paper on education reform for the Liberals in 2006 in which he supported many of the items that the government has tabled and he is supposed to mediate.)

As for the Ann Frank reference. I cringe when I hear mention of Gandhi or Martin Luther King or Rosa Parks or in this case Ann Frank when people are talking about some battle they might be having with a current government in Canada. But again, look at the reference. The teacher was talking about an experience that taught her something about fighting a law before it was too late. She wasn’t saying that teachers are being treated the same way Jews were treated.

And Ferry jumps all over the word “devastating” as used by Susan Lambert. Of course the loss of a child is more devastating than the loss of a couple of year’s of 0% salary increases. But again note Ferry’s manipulation of how the word was used. Lambert was not using the word in reference to losing a wage increase. She was using it in reference to how Bill 22 would influence the way education is delivered. If class size increases, if special needs kids don’t get the attention they require, then devastated is a pretty good word to describe the effect on education.

And one last point, there are definitely three parties in play in the next election as the Conservatives at this point have the same level of support as the Liberals.