Cost savings measures for BC Ferries … a new political poll … unemployment
… balancing the budget … John Martin nominated for the BC Conservatives … the
garbage wars … Christy Clark trying to change political stripes … negotiations
on the teachers’ contract.
All this and more took center stage this week in BC political news. Here’s a round-up of some of the stories in
case you missed them …
... the remarkable thing about the steady decline of the BC Liberals is
that the party remains stubbornly unable to distinguish a branding problem from
a content problem ... the province's ruling party has been steadily
hemorrhaging center-right votes ... to the long-dormant provincial Tories ...
the response from Premier Christy Clark and her supporters has simply been to
double-down on superficial right-wing marketing gimmicks while remaining
blissfully oblivious to the idea that conservative voters might actually be
motivated by anything more substantial ...
EDITORIAL: Latest poll
confirms the obvious
… we need yet another poll to state the obvious? From the moment former premier Gordon
Campbell signed his political death warrant by foisting the hated HST upon
voters mere weeks after winning an election, the BC Liberals have been bound
for the afterlife now inhabited by the Social Credit, Progressive Conservative
and Progressive Democratic Alliance parties … does not appear anything will
change the party’s fate in time to avoid an unpleasant reckoning when voters go
to the polls …
… it didn’t take long for John Martin to be assigned duties in the BC
Conservative’s shadow cabinet …the party’s candidate in the upcoming
Chilliwack-Hope by-election, was named justice critic … “This Liberal
government has failed British Columbians on the justice file. They have starved
the justice system and now thousands of criminal prosecutions could be thrown
out.”
… economists say a flat labour market throughout much of 2011 and a
mismatch of worker skills with available jobs are key factors behind British
Columbia’s less-than-encouraging showing in a new job vacancy report by
Statistics Canada …
... final “game-day” decision won’t be made until this year’s budget,
which will be tabled Feb. 21, is locked down later this month. But Mr. Falcon
said he is seeing enough positive economic news that he now believes he can
wipe out the $700-million deficit that is currently pencilled in for the 2013
fiscal year. This year’s budget is
expected to be in the red but, by law, the B.C. Liberal government must balance
the 2013 budget – which is due to be introduced just weeks before the next
provincial election ...
The current teachers' dispute shows us one thing: Our public school
system suffers from a serious lack of financial literacy … many BC students,
though more financially savvy than the national average, leave high school with
little knowledge of economic realities … our students learn from unionized
teachers, many of whom also appear to suffer from an alarming degree of
financial blindness
... the man who has singlehandedly changed the Liberal Party’s game plan
quietly snickers when asked to discuss Ms. Clark’s efforts to reframe herself
through a conservative lens. But as he speaks, former Conservative MP and now BC
Conservative Party Leader John Cummins seems less amused by the degree to which
the Premier – whose history with the federal Liberal Party runs deep – appears
to be trying to change stripes ...
... every election cycle, in every campaign from school board to prime
minister, two sets of vows are made: incumbent politicians promise to continue
listening to the public, while their opponents promise to change government by
throwing open its doors….
… BC Liberals in Port Moody-Coquitlam will choose their candidate next
month to run in the upcoming provincial by-election …
"I am delighted to appoint John Martin as the BC Conservative
Party's justice critic and Christine Clarke as our critic for municipal affairs
and transit," said Cummins … John and Christine are excellent candidates
and will be holding the Liberal government to account in their new
roles." Martin's justice critic
role means he will shadow the ministries of the solicitor general and attorney
general …
… coach in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is calling for an
investigation into why the Provincial
Health Services Authority blew a chance to pocket a $3-million donation. The
money—promised by Harley-Davidson Canada CEO Don James … was originally
earmarked for B.C. Children’s Hospital’s ADHD program…
… users need to have a more realistic expectation for service,
especially on under-utilized routes … in the end, it's most likely the
government will have to boost its $125-million annual subsidy to the
quasi-private corporation, though Macatee did not specify by how much. A proposal by B.C. Ferries to cut service by
four per cent, or roughly 400 sailings a year, is reasonable and could save
$5.4 million …
Ontario and BC lose out because it’s much more expensive to operate in
those provinces … Quebec and the Maritimes, where the cost of living is
cheaper, reap disproportionate benefits … British Columbia has the highest
expenditure need per capita and Quebec the lowest … cost matters as much or
more than work load. Ontario and BC, typically regarded as ‘rich,’ are
invariably the high-cost provinces. As a result, they are more often than not
the most needy …
... could Vancouver's garbage wars decide the outcome of a crucial Fraser Valley
byelection -- could the fight over the plan to burn garbage even decide the
ultimate fate of the governing Liberal Party … questions being pondered by
political insiders as byelection candidates get ready to rumble in Chilliwack …
Conservative candidate John Martin has shrewdly seized on the
garbage-incineration battle …
... in the face of stiff opposition from parents, the board reluctantly
agreed to the proposal to deal with problems caused by the ongoing dispute
between the BC government and teachers … move is expected to ease the strain on
managers and other senior staff who have taken over the job of supervising
playgrounds when teachers began
withholding duties in order to press their contract demands …
… Shirley Bond looks at sea trying to explain why access to justice is
now so problematic, why so many accused crooks are getting off, and why the
Liberals seem to be going soft on crime … People facing charges of drunk
driving, attempted murder, cocaine trafficking and other serious counts have
escaped justice … BC Conservative candidate in Chilliwack-Hope, John Martin, on
Thursday unloaded on Bond for plea-bargaining policies that resulted in a
Nanaimo child molester being given house arrest …
Take care and have a great weekend … I’m Alan Forseth in Kamloops
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