THIS WEEK IN POLITICS … as only we in British Columbia can do it

Here we go with another look back at this week’s political news in BC.   

You can read about BC Ferries … BC Hydro … government belt-tightening … carbon taxes.  There was the big news as well, about John Martin, who will be seeking the nomination to run for the BC Conservative Party in the still-to-be-called by-election for Chilliwack Hope.

All that stuff is there; but for me, the most interesting news came out this morning in two stories.  One is from the North Shore News … and it is about John Cummins, who the writer has dubbed as Gentleman John … the other is from the Vancouver Sun … a story of how George Abbott has been given the unenviable task of trying to find ways to pull the BC Liberals out of the ditch.

Read on …

Abbott left to pull party out of ditch

... Clark has now asked him to help extract the party from the ditch of its own making and to develop those new linkages with the electorate. Joining Abbott in this hopeful exercise is a backroom appointee, acting as adviser to the platform committee. He's Ken Boessenkool, a Calgary-based political consultant and some-time lobbyist ...

Why the Pacific Carbon Trust Draws Political Heat

… making hospitals and schools transfer tight dollars to corporations is no easy climate policy to sell …  caused plenty of criticism, especially from public sector bodies. School boards have been angrily vocal about having to send tax dollars to a Crown corporation called the Pacific Carbon Trust (PCT), which uses the money to pay profitable corporations like Encana to cut their greenhouse gas emissions …

Gentleman John extraordinarily ordinary

… British Columbians, if they're like his former federal constituents in Delta-Richmond East, who sent him to Ottawa six times over 18 years, could discover that a non-charismatic, indifferent-speaking, average looking politician has a lot more to offer than the bangles in the standard politician's bag of tricks … supporter says Cummins has a natural gift for driving into the "remote" (from the paved-over corner of the province) and meeting "ordinary" (another uncomfortable word) British Columbians as one of them, not a politician carrying an invisible platform from which he can talk down to the unwashed…

VANCOUVER SUN: “Abbott left to pull party out of ditch”

BC Premier, and ditch digger, Christy Clark

Interesting news from the BC Liberals today ... which you can read in today's edition of the Vancouver Sun

Premier Christy Clark has appointed cabinet minister George Abbott to chair a year-long development of a policy platform for the B.C. Liberals in advance of the next provincial election.

Abbott, who remains as education minister, will preside over a lengthy consultation, starting with members of the public and B.C. Liberal party members at the constituency level. The ideas to emerge from those sessions will then be honed at a series of regional conferences, then a full-blown provincial convention in the fall.

This news story goes on to say that … Clark has now asked him to help extract the party from the ditch of its own making and to develop those new linkages with the electorate. Joining Abbott in this hopeful exercise is a backroom appointee, acting as adviser to the platform committee. He's Ken Boessenkool, a Calgary-based political consultant and some-time lobbyist ...

As we all know it is, there are going to be bad apples in every group and organization that sheds a black cloud over all who do great work. 

Unfortunately that holds true within the RCMP as well.

Here however is "some" of the good things the men and woman of the RCMP are doing in our province --- and that we rarely hear about.

"BC RCMP 2011 Year in Review" --- click HERE for the full story.

In that definition I do not see the words ‘Business” … “Unions” … or “Political Parties”

Have we handicapped ourselves?

Have we handicapped ourselves?? Have we ourselves allowed the door to begin closing on government that is open and accountable to each of us?

The most common definition of “Democracy” is … government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system.

In that definition I do not see the words ‘Business” … “Unions” … or “Political Parties”

I recent years however I think I can safely say that the majority of people in this province do not feel that we as a collective group of people, or as individuals, have “power vested in us” … nor do we feel that the power of government is being “directed by us”.

So if indeed that is true, then who are the people we elect and send to the legislature in Victoria accountable, or responsible, to?  Let’s take a quick little pop quiz to see who you think who the “supreme power” is vested in:

Who do you feel that BC’s MLA’s are accountable to:
(__) Business (__) Unions    (__) the political party they represent   (__) You

Who do you feel that BC’s MLA’s should be accountable to:

(__) Business (__) Unions    (__) the political party they represent   (__) You

Who do you feel that BC’s MLA’s are responsible to:

(__) Business (__) Unions    (__) the political party they represent   (__) You

Who do you feel that BC’s MLA’s should be responsible to:

(__) Business (__) Unions    (__) the political party they represent   (__) You

Who do you feel individual MLA’s represent:
(__) Business (__) Unions    (__) the political party they represent   (__) You

Who do you feel individual MLA’s should represent:

(__) Business (__) Unions    (__) the political party they represent   (__) You

Given the definition of “Democracy” that I began this with, all six of these questions should have been answered with “YOU” – I’m guessing however that only every second one was.  That is wrong – plain and simple – and it is one of the biggest reasons for voter apathy that continues to rise in election after election.

That however is NOT the only problem.

BC Hydro used to say, “The power belongs to us”. If that’s the case, how come we don’t have a say?

Yesterday on Facebook I posted a link to a Letter to the Editor in the Kamloops Daily news.  The letter was entitled, “Conservatives an ally against meters”

Here is what the BC Conservative Party leader had to say just 3 weeks ago:

BC Hydro Smart Meter

John Cummins and the BC Conservatives are calling on the government to end Hydro’s ill-advised plan to install smart meters across the province.

“British Columbians are upset about smart meters, and rightly so,” said John Cummins, leader of the BC Conservatives.  “They do nothing to protect the environment, and the only people who stand to gain from smart meters are the Liberal insiders who get juicy contracts to install them.”

Despite BC Hydro’s mounting debt of $2.2 billion, the crown corporation continues to pursue this costly endeavour.  In the face of clear opposition by the citizens of British Columbia, Hydro is embarking on an expensive ad campaign, reminiscent of the Liberal’s failed HST campaign from earlier this summer.

BC Hydro and Minister Coleman claim that the meters are being used to educate us on our energy consumption, not to increase electricity bills by charging extra for peak period energy consumption.  The government will only guarantee the meters will not be used to charge for time of use consumption until the next election.

“And then what?,” asked Cummins. “Charge British Columbian families a premium for power to cook their supper because supper time is a period of peak energy consumption?”

“The smart meter initiative goes beyond simple monitoring of consumption.  It is clearly the intention of this Liberal government and BC Hydro to announce higher billing charges at peak periods after the election.  People are going to be punished for performing normal, everyday tasks that they cannot do at other times because they go to work or school.”

“The Liberal government should never have let BC Hydro proceed with its smart meter program. It is a terrible initiative that will ultimately cost the tax payers of this province dearly.”

I AGREE with those comments --- some people however do not --- and some have gone so far as to trivialize those who have experienced, at least for them, very real physical problems.

Others have said that we need to move forward in to the 21^st century … that smart meters will help us to conserve power … that they will assist BC Hydro in knowing when and where power is out … etc, etc.

I believe there is another reason why, one that is simply dollars and cents (mostly dollars). The dollars belong to you and me, and BC Hydro wants more of them. 

I have stated this before and I still believe it to be true – hydro smart meters will be used to create a multi-tiered pricing grid that will ultimately cost us more money.

A media friend I have (who by the way is not from Kamloops) does not agree with this – or perhaps they are just stirring up comment – or seeing what might be useful for a story.  Regardless, we had an exchange of comments last night, and this is how it went:

He was afraid of “splitting the vote” ... last night he signed a membership in the BC Conservative Party

Well I made comment for a couple of days, with regards to an article by Chantal Hebert, intimating it would be best if the west stuck with the BC Liberals.  That kind of rubbed me the wrong way, as most of you who read my Conservative Thoughts blog are well aware.

Others within the BC Liberals ranks however, have also been suggesting (?) that BC voters better not vote for any one other than them either.   What I find regrettable is that they have no real reason that we should “support” them … only that they will keep the NDP out of power.

WHAT KIND OF REASON IS THAT TO SUPPORT ANYONE?   Why would they not instead promote the positive things they have done to make BC a better place to live … work … and raise a family?

In the Fraser Valley media over the weekend was a story that former Chilliwack city councilor, and failed (third place) federal Liberal candidate, Diane Janzen  had decided she was now NOT going to seek the BC Liberal  nomination for the riding of Chilliwack-Hope.  She is the latest now to tell us how we should vote.

Janzen said: "A vote for the BC Conservatives is a vote for the NDP. Period. The right-of-centre vote has been firmly in the BC Liberal camp and it needs to stay there. . . . Whoever is chosen will have to make sure that person appeals to the right end of the spectrum."

So I ask again … WHAT KIND OF REASON IS THAT TO SUPPORT ANYONE?  

Former MP Jim Hart (standing), with now BC Conservative
Party leader John Cummins (R) and Paul Forseth (L)

Obviously I am not the only one this is rubbing the wrong way.  My friend, former MP Jim Hart, also thought of that statement as being negative as well.  He sent the following to me … and also gave me permission to share it with you:

Dear Alan … here is an exchange that I had with the Chilliwack Times. They want to print the rant that I wrote below. I thought you might like it. … Jim 

First name announced for run as BC Conservative in the Chilliwack Hope riding

John Martin to seek BC
Conservative nomination

Down in the Fraser Valley the first name has surfaced as a potential candidate for the BC Conservative Party in the Chilliwack Hope riding recently vacated by Liberal Barry Penner. 
A story in today’s Chilliwack Times says that, “Times columnist and UFV criminology professor John Martin seeking Conservative nomination”.  Martin is also a criminology professor at the University of the Fraser Valley.

He is quoted in the story saying … "The BC Liberals absolutely don't deserve a fourth term to be re-elected.  I'm a small 'c' conservative and the Liberals don't represent me anymore. And I can't vote NDP.  The by-election in Chilliwack-Hope is the first opportunity for the BC Conservatives to get on the map and get a seat in the legislature. That's why I'm doing this, I want to help make that happen."

Meantime … I am not sure what is happening, but I am finding media stories like the following being posted by members of the BC Liberal Party???

HERE’S THE QUESTION … “WHO, put our province where it is now"?

On the weekend, Chantal Hebert had an op / ed in the Toronto Star entitled, “PM could use premiers like Christy Clark”.  That lead me to question her ‘opinion’ and to share some of my own (what a surprise eh?).  Part of that led to an exchange of comments between me, and a recent Facebook friend, who is a member of the BC Liberal party. 

ME … as an easterner (Chantal Hebert) you make no sense -- given the beginnings and rise of the reform movement in western Canada, and why the reform movement led by Preston Manning came about. And it shows you still have not learned, that the west doesn’t appreciate, being lectured and dictated to by the east ...

FB Friend: Isn't Preston Manning supporting the BC Liberals?

ME … unfortunately it appears he too has forgotten what he once believed was MOST important --- and a steadily declining number of BC voters, at all levels of government, also attests to a lack of belief that anyone running for office has anything in mind other than themselves. BC Reform tried to make inroads in bottom up grassroots democracy in the mid-90's. It wasn't successful then, but my hope is that people are now ready for truth in politics

Support the party you believe in; but do it because you believe it’s the best choice -- NOT because it's the lesser of two (3) evils!

Today, the Toronto Star, featured an editorial opinion by Chantal Hebert* entitled, “For Harper, Liberal Clark might be preferable to NDP alternative”.  It starts off by saying,

In a strictly black-and-white world, Prime Minister Stephen Harper might not be predisposed to give B.C. Premier Christy Clark, who was on a goodwill mission to Parliament Hill last week, much of a leg up in her upcoming bid for a fourth Liberal mandate in British Columbia.

In federal Conservative circles, Clark’s past ties to the clan of former Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin remain a source of widespread suspicion. Also, it is no secret that she is no friend of her former boss and predecessor, Gordon Campbell.

Until he resigned last year, Campbell was probably the premier closest to Harper. He has since landed a plum diplomatic posting in London, courtesy of the prime minister.

And then British Columbia is in the federal finance department’s bad books these days for repealing its recently introduced harmonized sales tax.  The two governments are currently negotiating the repayment to the federal treasury of a $1.6 billion HST-related transition package.

Those talks were at the centre of Clark’s trek to Parliament Hill this week. The premier is lobbying to have her province keep a portion of the cash and be granted considerable time to repay the remainder.

Clark will face her first election test as premier within the next 18 months.  Polls suggest she needs all the help she can get from a friendly federal government if she is not to lose power to the NDP….

The story then goes on to explain the difficulties Stephen Harper might have if the NDP were to have a stronger handle on politics across Canada with a win in BC … that it would give a boost to the federal New Democrats … that other election provincial elections could hand further problems to Harper … etc etc.

Stephen Harper, and many of the federal Conservatives rode into town (Ottawa), on a promise of reform of the political system … that things needed to change … and that political parties and MP's needed to be accountable and responsible to voters.

The very things which are polar opposite to the thoughts of Chantal Hebert.