Voice of BC - BC Conservatives

BC Conservative Party leader John Cummins

An interview between editorialist and Vancouver Sun news columnist Vaughn Palmer, and BC Conservative Party Leader John Cummins, aired live on the Voice of BC on Thursday May 17th.  For those who do not have SHAW as their internet provider, the link noted below will take you to this 60 minute video interview.

The following is the promo for that interview:

While the BC Liberals and BC NDP battle it our in the legislature, the BC Conservatives are growing their support throughout the province. 

Whether their support will hold until the provincial election in May 2013 is unknown, but it appears the 'coalition of the right' is splintering and most political observers believe that there is little hope of a united right going into the next election.

BC Conservative leader John Cummins provides some insight into his party's policies when he speaks with Vancouver Sun columnist and host of Voice of BC, Vaughn Palmer.

CLICK HERE for the interview

John Cummins on the "Voice of BC"

BC Conservative Party leader, John Cummins will be featured on the "Voice of BC".  The program airs at 8pm this Thursday (May 17th) at 8pm.

A number of topics, important to the people of BC, will be discussed on the program.  

For a preview of tomorrow nights show, several 30 second clips covering Aboriginal Title, People leaving BC, the race between the NDP and the BC Conservatives, and high taxation can be found at http://www.facebook.com/#!/shawtvvobc.

NOTE:

Voice of BC, Shaw TV’s weekly public affairs program, has been produced for the past 15 years. The program gives British Columbians the opportunity to hear from top politicians in B.C. and across Canada, as well as leaders in the academic and business communities, in a balanced and thoughtful forum.

Voice of BC is hosted by respected Vancouver Sun columnist Vaughn Palmer. One of BC’s foremost political commentators, Palmer brings his unique style and perspective on B.C. politics to this series.

BC Conservatives are beginning to acquire the trappings of a credible force

"... BC Conservatives are beginning to acquire the trappings of a credible force ... ", so says Vancouver Sun commentator Vaughn Palmer.  And what else did Vaughn have to say about the party?

"Money ... the party has raised $115,000 this year with almost $90,000 socked away in the bank."

He told readers of a quote spoken on Saturday from fomer Newfoundland Premier, and now BC resident, Brian Peckford who said, "John Cummins is "the best thing that happened to this party ... "

Odds and Ends

Just a couple of things of note from the past week.

One story you may have missed was that fat juicy pay raise some at Powerex have received.  Never heard of Powerex??  Well it's the power export arm of BC Hydro.  Seems that several of the top management people there are in line for pay raises of hundreds of thousands of dollars!

In story in the Vancouver Sun it said that Thomas Bechard will now be making $432,950 a year (a 65% increase since 2008-09) ... Mark Holman's pay has jumped by 70% and he will now be earning $678,898 ... while get this, Robert Campbell will be going from an annual salary of $196 thousand, to nearly $630 thousand ... an increase of 320%.

Here is more proof, of what many have been saying

In today's Vancouver Sun (June 10th), you will find the following story ... "BC Liberal, NDP leadership races saw same people sign up for both parties" 

While the the NDP claim that Christy Clark is more to the right than Attila the Hun, and the BC Liberals claims that Adrian Dix is about as far left as a person can go ... here is more proof of what many have been saying.

There is not a whole lot of difference between the NDP and the BC Liberals.

I hope Christy Clark doesn't think the drop has anything to do with her!

In a story today (May 21st) in the Vancouver Sun, Vaughn Palmer wrote about the upcoming HST referendum.  In the story he mentioned that Ipsos-Reid had just completed a study where a little over one third (36%) of taxpayers plan to vote yes to retaining the tax … while just over half the people (52%) will be voting to return to the old GST / PST combination.  That vote will be taking place next month in a mail in referendum.

Now given how the hated tax was conceived in secrecy prior to being announced ... and that only a mere year and a half ago there was near unanimous disapproval of the tax (including thousands upon thousands of Liberal voters) ... the fact they have the disapproval rating down to just over 50% now is pretty remarkable.

I hope that Christy Clark doesn't think the drop has anything to do with her however! 

Now available … “HST Math for Dummies”

Yesterday in the Vancouver Sun, columnist Don Cayo had a brief story entitled “The HST’s total impact on BC prices well under 1%”.  The following two paragraphs are the story in its entirety:

What might he be saying? Perhaps,"I think
the effect of the HST will be about this much"

The impact varies according to your income and spending habits, but for the average British Columbian the impact of the HST has been less, according to a just-released study, than most experts predicted. And much, much less than many of the tax's critics have claimed.

Jon Kesselman, the Canada Research Chair in Pubic Finance and Simon Fraser University, has calculated the overall impact on the price of consumer purchases at 0.6 per cent, based on StatsCan data on price changes and spending patterns, and factoring in inflation.

I guess perhaps columnists for the Vancouver Sun make enough money they can just kiss off any increase the provincial government decides to throw at us.  Stating that the impact of the HST has only amounted to an increase of .6% of course does make it sound very small … but let’s look at this in “real” dollars and cents.