BC Politics … the week that began February 5th

It’s the end of the week … and during it; we have of course had a number of stories on BC politics.   

No surprise, BC Hydro was again in the news … as was news on another poll showing declining support for the governing BC Liberals … and the appointment of nine new judges in BC.

Here’s a quick recap of some the stories in case you missed a few:

Poll in line with B.C.'s history

This is the province that threw out the old Liberals and Conservatives in the mid-20th century and replaced them with Social Credit and the NDP … then turned on the Socreds and exterminated them as a party … then, a decade after that, reduced the NDP to a rump of two members … we are not kind to those who have disappointed us, failed us, led us into hard economic times, or lied to us …

B.C. Liberals expecting tight Chilliwack-Hope byelection

John Martin, BC Conservative party candidate said he's going to put up a good political fight … "I don't buy into this Liberal line that somehow anyone who is not an NDP voter should get their vote, owes them their vote, that they should get their vote by default" …

BC Hydro Withdraws Massive Effort to Build a Spin Arsenal
… the Times Colonist and Global TV reported that BC Hydro was pre-approving 25 marketing firms to have ready to go to spin various initiatives … Thursday, BC Hydro announced that they had withdrawn their call for companies … a win for taxpayers who are sick and tired of government agencies using our money to sell us their ideas …

This is a free enterprise government?

So the BC Liberals claim to be the "free enterprise party / government"?

Wildlife viewing is one of the top tourism sectors in the province.   

I’ve had it passed on to me that in Bella Coola, BC Parks decided to build a "free" bear watching stand.  The problem is, there are already several licensed, and tax paying, commercial operators who were providing bear watching tours, to people visiting the Bella Coola Valley.

Now isn’t that a nice use of their tax dollars --- as the government goes into competition with them --- providing free bear watching.

This doesn’t sound like the ideas of a free enterprise party to me.

I'm Alan Forseth in Kamloops ... with the thoughts of one conservative.

Health care delays hurt --- they hurt real people

Yesterday I posted about the thousands of news stories that have been written about BC medical system … and the systemic delays in care in emergency wards.   

I also mentioned that in the middle of writing that piece, I received a telephone call from a friend that has personal experience with the system.

Their story is one that caused me to go through a wide range of emotions, emotions which ended in anger … anger in wonderment at how one of the worlds best medical systems could get to this point.

I have asked to share their story, and they agreed … here it is in part:

3 years I was diagnosed with degenerative disc disease. The third neurosurgeon gave me hope, and said my operation was to be in the fall, meaning October, or November 2011.

That date has come and gone

This operation is needed to relieve the nerves that affect my legs.  The nerves are severely pinched to such an extent that my legs feel like they are on fire and I just writhe in pain. My quality of life has got to the point where must days I can only go from my bedroom to the living room couch, where I stay until I return to go to bed in the evening.  Like I mentioned this is no quality of life. 

BC Medical Association: ED (Emergency Department) overcrowding requires system-wide solutions

Emergency room problems continue to be in the news again … and in particular, this time around, with Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster.

That led me to consider writing my blog comments on the issue.  I don’t need to however … plenty is already being written about it … and has been for years now. 

All I had to do was conduct a Google search for “overcrowded bc hospitals” and in 0.34 seconds six hundred and twenty eight thousand (628,000) items came up … here are just a few

Today’s letters:  Hospital overcrowding nothing new

The situation at the Royal Columbian is not unique to that hospital; most urban hospitals in Canada are facing the same problems. What is unique is that the New Westminster Fire Marshall’s office is seemingly the only government agency that is able to rapidly do what hospital and regional health authority officials seem incapable of doing; acknowledging a threat to the public’s health and rapidly solving it …

Doctors take a stand at overcrowded Royal Columbian

Doctors at the chronically overcrowded Royal Columbian Hospital have announced that starting next week, they will no longer be treating non-emergency patients in the emergency department.   On Tuesday morning, 40 of the 42 emergency beds were occupied by non-emergency patients because regular care rooms were full. The continual lack of beds means doctors have had to treat emergency patients in hallways, other hospital spaces, and even a Tim Horton’s once …

Dear Geoff ... you asked? Well here's the answer.

Former BC Attorney General, Geoff Plant

Today former BC Liberal Attorney, General Geoff Plant wrote a column entitled, “What does John Cummins really want?”

In it, he begins by stating:

Of the two provincial by-election campaigns about to get underway in BC, the race in Chilliwack-Hope may be the more interesting.  It looks like the fight in Barry Penner’s former riding will be between a BC Liberal candidate with impeccable conservative credentials, and a BC Conservative party candidate with impeccable conservative credentials. 

Huh? 

Well, it’s true.  The BC Liberal candidate is Laurie Throness, who was chief of staff to former Conservative MP Chuck Strahl, and calls himself a “policy conservative.”  The BC Conservative Party candidate is John Martin, a professor of criminology and former Chilliwack Times columnist, whose party describes itself as “BC’s only true conservative party.”

So with two candidates trying to “out-conservative” each other, maybe this is as good a time as any to ask what it is that BC Conservative Party leader John Cummins actually hopes to achieve.

He goes on to talk about truth … policies … being an armchair quarterback … the split-vote argument and more … the regular stuff you would expect to hear from the BC Liberals.  Then he concludes by saying:

Which BC leader would you hire to cut the lawn?

Today we have a guest comment / opinion piece from my friend, BC Conservative, and former MP Jim Hart.  An analogy, if you will, of lawn cutting, and BC Politics

Want it done right?  Click HERE for the manual 

Looking at the recent political party polls in BC, one wonders exactly what it all means to the average family, guy or gal when it comes to real life in BC. So I decided I would analyze the recent polls by adding a task that most British Columbians will face in the coming weeks. As the groundhog has haphazardly told us that spring is just around the corner, I pose the question: Which BC political leader would be the best person to hire to cut your lawn? Here's what the polls suggest.

BC Green Party – Jane Sterk, is the most unlikely to accomplish the job as she would want to pass legislation to make Kentucky bluegrass or Canada Green an endangered plant life.

Instead of cutting the grass we would all be transplanting our lawns and relocating them to a government nature site or new provincial park, where grass would be protected and allowed to grow in an effective government-supervised fashion. Cutting and trimming devices would have to be registered in a government database to protect innocent plant life.

British Columbia’s judiciary will still be woefully short

A story in the Vancouver Sun says:
BC has appointed nine new Provincial Court judges, the government announced Tuesday … move comes as the province faces intense criticism over delays in the justice system, including from judges themselves.

  

Four of the new judges announced Tuesday will be appointed to the Greater Vancouver and Fraser Valley regions, with another two being placed in Prince George.  One new judge has been appointed to each of Nanaimo, Smithers and Penticton.

The judges were assigned in response to the court's specific needs throughout the province, the government said.

Even with these nine new judges added today, by the BC Liberal government, we are still going to be woefully short of what is needed.

A previous report showed a need for 143 full time judicial equivalents ... and last month (January 2012) there were only 121.3 full time judicial equivalents on the bench across the province. That makes us still short 13 judges.

That is NOT fiscal restraint … or financial accountability

BC Finance Minister Kevin Falcon

A story yesterday in the Vancouver Sun (Monday February 6, 2012) said that “Kevin Falcon reaffirms promise of balanced budget by 2013”

In it, Falcon stated that, "We are focused on controlling our spending and protecting our revenues to ensure we can continue to deliver the priority programs taxpayers want."

Well here’s what I think after seeing another story in the news … this one on the new prison, to be built in an industrial park on Osoyoos First Nations land, that was of such urgent importance it demanded the personal appearance of Christy Clark

It seems the somewhat obvious wasteful spending of Christy Clark's photo op, doesn't come under the controlled spending Kevin Falcon was referring to.

Wardens, Deputy Wardens, and heavy equipment on
hand for Premier Clark's announcement in Osoyoos

You’ll note from the photo that appeared with the story (it was much larger in a story released earlier in the day) that not only did BC Liberal Premier Christy Clark decide she had to personally be there to make the announcement … she also required a large contingent of BC Wardens and Deputy Wardens to be on hand.  PLUS … she also hauled in expensive heavy duty equipment that won't be needed, or put to work, for goodness knows how many months from now.

So much for controlling spending Kevin!

TNRD: Asking for ANY increase this year is completely unjustified

An editorial today in the Kamloops Daily News alerted me to something I somehow missed last week.

The elected members of the Thompson Nicola Regional District (TNRD) awarded themselves a 1.7% wage increase.  Now I know that doesn’t sound like a lot … but that’s ON TOP OF A 40% INCREASE they felt justified in giving themselves just a year ago,

So in actual fact --- TNRD board members have gone to the taxpayers of the Thompson Nicola region (which includes the City of Kamloops), and not asked for, but simply taken, a wage increase of 41.7%.

Here is a bit of the editorial from the Kamloops Daily News …