Here we go again with an alleged "no tax increase" regime, and yet all those hidden taxes keep going up and up

Why is it that government continues to allow an out of control sense of

entitlement to crown corporations giving them selves big wage increase and bonuses ... and yet expects government employees to accept zip, zip and zip. 

A story in the Vancouver Sun today reminds us that ... ICBC eliminated more than 260 jobs late last year, most of them from a management group that ballooned almost 41 per cent from 2007 to 2011, according to a government audit last August. After the audit, then-CEO Jon Schubert — who earned $486,541 in pay and bonuses in 2011 — resigned.

At the same time it is fine and well for ICBC to nail us with an increase in rates of 16.1 percent in just a year and a half. 

Can some one please tell me how much the BC Liberal government gouges out of ICBC to bury in general revenues? 

Here we go again with an alleged no tax increase regime, and yet all those hidden taxes keep going up and up. 

Remember it wasn't all that long ago that we heard we could expect an increase of 30% to BC Hydro rates was on the horizon.  Bill Tieleman, in a July 9th article in the Tyee had this to say: 

If there's any surprise, it's for BC Hydro ratepayers who will get hosed with significantly higher electricity bills of likely 30% over three years because the government and board were playing with the Crown corporation's finances like it was Monopoly money. 

Sadly, the residents of the lower mainland also have even more out of control government intervention in things ... for example Translink. 

Another story from earlier this spring in the Surrey North Delta Leader stated: 

"The province has exercised a dominant interest, feeling free to impose its priorities on the region and reluctant to provide a role in transit for local government institutionsit did not directly or indirectly control." 

There is now an ... unelected "professional" board consisting of corporate directors with expertise in areas like finance, real estate and engineering."

Wouldn't you agree? Is this a legitimate expectation we should have?

Once upon a time a popular opposition firebrand named Christy Clark, stood up in the BC Legislature, to rip the NDP government for spending tax dollars on shameless, self-promoting advertising. 

“People don't want the government to spend 700 grand of their money so they can find out how to access services; people want this government to spend their money so that those services are there for them to access. That's what British Columbians want,” Clark railed. “How many firefighters, how many police officers will not be on the street because [the Finance Minister] is spending… on her advertising campaign?” 

The above is from an opinion / editorial piece by BC Taxpayers Federation Director Jordan Bateman (November 2012) entitled, "Government Ads Use and Abuse Taxpayers’ Money".  

For month prior to the May 14th provincial election campaign, the BC Liberals took hits from all quarters, on this clearly wasteful and partisan adverting campaign.  

Sadly, during the four week election campaign, it was all but forgotten ... even by former radio co-worker Bill Good who on November 16th, over the airwaves of CKNW had stated:  "Those are very partisan ads. They should be bought and paid for by the Liberal Party of BC." 

The election is of course ended a week ago, but perhaps the major political commentators such as Keith Baldrey, Vaughn Palmer,  Bill Tieleman, Michael Smyth, etc, will now ask this question which I now pose: 

"Will the Premier comment to ending this kind of self-promotion and stick to truly informative ads providing BC residents with 'needed' information?"  

I believe if she does this, it really will help to put her on a more solid footing with a large number of British Columbians who still sit in two distinct camps; those who didn't vote for her ( over 55%) ... and those who again for a number of reasons(including a belief it doesn't make any difference) didn't cast a vote at all (approximately 48%).  

By the way, this is equally a fair question to ask of Adrian Dix and the NDP, as he himself had also pushed for a ban on partisan information being presented in government advertising being paid for by taxpayers, and had indicated that if elected he would put forward legislation to stop this from happening again.

So I put the question forward to both leaders then; are you against partisan political advertising which is paid for by taxpayers, and will you put forward legislation / support legislation, that would see this in place and enforced?

It's fair question to ask this, and the taxpayers of BC should have every right to know the answer ... wouldn't you agree? 

Is this a legitimate expectation we should have of government?

I'm Alan Forseth in Kamloops, with the thoughts of one conservative.  The floor is now being turned over to you ... and I welcome your thoughts on this.

No wonder people say that politics in British Columbia is crazy!

Before I begin today's Conservative Thoughts blog post, I should reiterate that while I am a member and director of the BC Conservative Party, this blog is not officially or un-officially sanctioned by the BC Conservative Party.  Now ... on with today's post.

If you're confused by politics in BC, you're not alone

The NDP hold no differentiation between the Provincial and Federal wings of their party.  In fact they clearly state they are, "... proud to be associated with the democratic socialist parties of the world"

From the Preamble of the NDP Party constitution you can read for yourself the following:

The New Democratic Party believes that social, economic and political progress in Canada can only be assured by the application of democratic socialist principles to government and the administration of public affairs ...

... the New Democratic Party is proud to be associated with the democratic socialist parties of the world and to share in the struggle for peace, international co-operation and the abolition of poverty.

ARTICLE III — Affiliated Membership and Donors

3.01.1 Affiliated organizations shall be those BC organizations affiliated to the NDP of Canada.

And exactly what countries define themselves to have a socialist government?  Well those would include China, Cuba, Vietnam, Laos, North Korea, Venezuela, and Syria.

I also sadly noted the following from the Conservative Party of Canada Constitution:

15. PROVINCIAL PARTIES

15.1 The Party shall not establish provincial political parties. The Party shall promote and maintain relationships with existing provincial conservative parties.

It seems to me that with the exception of a number of true small 'c' conservatives, it seems that Section 15.1 of the Conservative Party Constitution is ignored; at least here in British Columbia.

Now ... here is something else which is also a well known fact:
At the time of the BC Liberal leadership campaign, to replace Gordon Campbell, Christy Clark was a member of the Federal Liberal Party.  It also well know that in her youth she was also a member of the Young Liberals of Canada.

Here is what political commentator Bill Tieleman had to say back in March of 2011:

Well that didn't take long!  Premier-Designate Christy Clark has begun the process of Federal Liberalizing her new government at all levels.

Notwithstanding the use of arch-Conservative Gwyn Morgan on her Transition Team to premier for at least optics, Clark is already stacking the deck with federal Liberal operatives.

Her campaign featured a host of Paul Martin-ite and Stephane Dion-ite operatives, including  FD Element's Don Millar, federal Liberal Party spokesman Brad Zubyk, an ex-Harcourt NDP government aide, and of course Campaign Manager and now Chief of Staff Mike McDonald, who backed ex-NDP Ontario Premier Bob Rae in the 2006 federal Liberal leadership race.

And of course hidden in the backroom was her brother Bruce Clark - a longtime federal Liberal bagman and LPC BC executive member best known for the December 2003 police search of his home to find confidential BC government documents on BC Rail given to him by convicted fraudsters David Basi and Bob Virk.  That would be the BC Legislature Raid case of course.

But now the more serious work begins - transforming government into a more palatable federal Liberal look - call it LP-osuction - removing the undesirable BC Liberal & federal Conservative love handles and replacing them with more attractive Grits.

 

So it seems what we have in BC, are New Democrats, who support both federal and provincial wings of the Party.

I hope you have enjoyed taking a look back at the stories that spurred the most interest in 2012

Over the past couple of days I have been looking back at the stories / blog posts from 2012 that held the most interests -- the ones which were read the most.

Today is the final look back at 2012, and the #1 post which went online on May 4th

"David Loukidelis described what he called ... an unacceptable pattern of government-wide failure to respond to access requests in as timely a fashion as it should.”

This post started off saying:

The BC government today announced that Deputy Attorney General David Loukidelis will be leaving the government.  Loukidelis became the Deputy AG in January 2010 following a position as the Commissioner of the Freedom of Information Office.

A brief story in the Vancouver Sun this afternoon noted:
The announcement was made in an internal note sent Friday by John Dyble, deputy minister to Premier Christy Clark.

It’s in his role as the Freedom of Information Commissioner that David Loukidelis made news that many have likely forgotten.

For example someone made a request under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act to the Royal B.C. Museum for a copy of the draft report, Loukidelis had to beg the government for more money to argue the case in court.

Writer Bill Tieleman, in a Strategic Thoughts piece from May 2004 asked:
What kind of independence does the Freedom of Information Commissioner have when he has to beg the Finance Committee for line item approval for specific investigations and legal opinions? The Campbell government has reduced an independent officer of the legislature to little more than a minor bureaucrat in one of many government ministries.

You can read the rest of this post by CLICKING HERE

Just as a follow-up, and in case you are wondering about the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner, here is information directly from their website:

BILL TIELEMAN: "say what you like about me - but try to deal with the facts"

For weeks now I have been hearing rumblings of who, and what, has been behind the turmoil.  A number of names have surfaced ... I have pretty much dismissed them all ... until recently that is.


I am NOT a conspiracy theorist, however the stench starting to rise from this is starting to get beyond what a bottle of Febreeze might be able to clear.

Now along comes Bill Tieleman with a view that obviously he has been thinking about for sometime, and which today he decided to make public.  He finished his post with the following words:

I fully expect comments and posts suggesting that I'm merely promoting the BC Conservatives to hurt the BC Liberals.

I hardly think the BC Liberals need my help - they are damaging their brand daily - from their ridiculous and changing positions on the Enbridge pipeline to bringing Chinese workers into BC to run a Chinese-owned coal mine to the HST to a host of other bad decisions.

I don't agree with John Cummins or his supporters on a whole lot of issues - but he is a straight-shooter and he has dragged the BC Conservatives out of obscurity to have a real chance of electing MLAs and re-establishing a party that was lost in the wilderness for decades.

So - say what you like about me - but try to deal with the facts here, because they are certainly pointing towards some real involvement of the BC Liberals and their supporters in sabotaging Cummins - for obvious reasons.

A few weeks back, the public face of unrest was Ben Besler and John Crocock -- now it's Allison Patton and Ariane Eckardt.  If it doesn't end soon, then I beleive there will be others who will crop up to foster more dissent.

Others who may, or may not, be getting stirred up by individuals who are behind the scenes.

The bottom line is they are causing a great deal of damage, as these news stories from just the past few days show:

Bill Tieleman says, "Christy Clark Has Trust Issues"

Interesting column today on the HST by Bill Tieleman --- a comparison of voters being Charlie Brown, getting set to kick a football held by Christy Clark, who is playing the role of Lucy.  I think most of us know what would always happen when Charlie Brown trusted Lucy. 

Click HERE to read the full story.

The HST makes for great news if nothing else

It's election day in Vancouver Point Grey, and BC Premier Christy Clark is hoping to have success in the polls with a by-election victory.

We'll be having another vote soon with the HST, which has been in the news now for two years.  With that in mind, here are the words of Christy Clark regarding the HST ... along with many others well know in BC politics. 

Christy Clark (Leadership bid announcement – December 2010) … describing the HST as "fatally flawed from the outset" and saying the Liberals could "put the HST behind us" with a free vote on the floor of the legislature by the March 31 end of the current financial year.

Christy Clark (CBC News  - August 2009) … it was "sneaky" of the Campbell government to announce the HST after the May provincial election … it seems impossible the tax wasn't contemplated before the spring ballot.  "I just don't think it's possible that that could be the case"

Bill Tieleman comments on Vancouver Point Grey

In a story on Bill Tieleman blog, he states:

A research firm closely connected to the BC Liberals has been polling heavily in Vancouver-Point Grey, the riding where Premier Christy Clark confirmed Monday she will run in a by-election, likely by mid-May.  And 24 hours has exclusively obtained all the questions being asked last week, which show Clark is concerned about the upstart B.C. Conservatives under leadership candidate John Cummins, a former Conservative MP, and the Harmonized Sales Tax.

The story goes on to say ...

Vancouver Island University Professor Allan Warnke says Clark should be worried.

“John Cummins adds some credibility right away to the BC Conservatives,” he said, adding that the party's advisory group of former Reform MPs will also help.  "Randy White is a good organizer," Warnke noted.

But BC Conservative spokesperson Keith Roy says Cummins won’t run in Vancouver-Point Grey.  “We’re the biggest threat to their government right now,” he said. “I’d like to thank the BC Liberals for finally showing us some respect.”

To read the full story Click Here

Don't be fooled, Christy Clark doesn't want to be mayor of Vancouver, she wants to be premier of BC

"Don't be fooled -- Christy Clark doesn't want to be mayor of Vancouver -- she wants to be premier of B.C."

Bill Tieleman, 24 hours, Sept. 20, 2005

Okay so now Christy Clark is the Premier of BC --- here's what a few of her friends have had to say so far:

·         Mike De Jong, who finished last in Saturday's vote, said that "I think people are excited about the beginning of a new chapter. I think there is anticipation. Our first chance to come together after the election of a new leader and premier-designate. It's all good."