The May 17th Election

[TheRob]

Is it? The Players Association(not a union)is locked out. How is that their fault?

On topic.

Campbell is in Alberta today. Can Albertans vote in a BC Provincial election? Seems someone is avoiding the people of BC at all costs. The Bubble Boy moniker suits him. I can't believe no one has brought up the Maui incendent yet. That picture should be plastered all over TV right now.

 

[vratar]

Under the NDP reign, wasn't there a 2 year provincial corporate tax holiday for newly registered corporate companies with profits under $200,000. However this was short lived, it was phased out fairly quickly.
All of the corporate sector needs more incentive, similar to the film industry tax credits. I would rather have more corporate investment and privatizatiion in some sectors.

I am not certain of the exact stats but in Canada arent there more unionized govt employees per capita than in the states? The liberals apparently realize this burden and its apparent they will reduce more govt employees in the future.


btw, Dude have you heard of Canadian exit tax ?

 

[Frevo]

I can see why people would be excited at the prospect of getting handouts... (union loving government) but the NDP doesn't give a shite either. Last time around the nurses, mill workers, truck drivers and teaches spend significant time on the pickets closing schools shutting down hospital beds and our government didn't do anything. they didn't rip up contracts but they didn't help either. They aren't going to give unions anything they don't have to, and since the Liberals changed the face of union politics in BC why would the new guys buckle?

 

[Regs]

I believe the largest employer in Canada is in fact, the Government of Canada.

I can't stand Carole James.

 

[Dude]

Not planning on jumping ship anytime soon, but if the election goes the wrong way, I'll look it up. As somebody said, it may be the better of two evils.

Nice photo...looking like Gordy had a rough night in TheRob's hot tub. BTW: how can a city worker afford a swank backyard like TheRob? You go into his backyard, you'd think the man was a millionaire. Did you get a similar "patio" deal as Glen Clark?

 

[Reccos]

I think Carole James is doing a good job for the NDP. The women who ran their federal party until recently to my mind were not great. James is coming across well as a moderate left leader and I am sure that this is going to help their cause. She is balancing her attack mode with calmness and that helps her cause. Being lowkey helps avoid people focusing on NDP fcukups from last time.

The other thing is that lots of people will vote against Campbell and if they think about it, will vote NDP for a chance to get an opposition MLA elected. The downside for the NDP and the Liberals best dream is for people to vote Green or some other party as a protest. This won't elect anyone but a Liberal and this will ensure a decent majority.

If people vote against Campbell and for the NDP (other than Adrian Carr personally), this will be a closer election and we will get a decent opposition. This last time the government did a lot of stuff that missed the public radar screens as the few opposition MLAs can't focus on everything.

 

[TheRob]

Not planning on jumping ship anytime soon, but if the election goes the wrong way, I'll look it up. As somebody said, it may be the better of two evils.

Nice photo...looking like Gordy had a rough night in TheRob's hot tub. BTW: how can a city worker afford a swank backyard like TheRob? You go into his backyard, you'd think the man was a millionaire. Did you get a similar "patio" deal as Glen Clark?

That big business suckhole would NEVER be permitted in TheRob's backyard. Ever.

Similar patio deal? Yes. Getting another one this year. I love my union.

Solidarity Brother.

 

[sensei_hanson]

Since the patio was completed with little incident and/or media interference, my sources indicate TheRob's backyard "RidgeMaple Casino" should be operational in the fall of 2006. Clark's reach of terror extends much further than we know. All the way to the valley, apparently.

Rob, if you're looking for a fairly honest Omaha dealer, PM me.

And since we're talking nonsense politics, I encourage all TTPers to find and vote for one of these candidates in their respective ridings, assuming one actually exists (there's only 11 of 'em). I promote this despite the fact a 32-hour workweek might actually decrease the amount of traffic coming through TTP, given the penchant for administrative piss-taking on company time (and computers).

Alarm clocks kill dreams,
-sensei.

 

[TheRob]

So the Premier was busted having his "staffers" jam the phone lines on the radio debate yesterday. The guy truly is Bubble Boy. Then Kristy Clarke goes on the Early News saying it happens all over the world all the time. Does that make it right? Nope. This party is so arrogant it's scary.

On another note, I haven't recieve my voter card yet. Anyone else in the same boat? I bet it's some sort of Liberal conspiricy.

Bastards.

 

[Dude]

TheRob,

Carole James was busted for having a long time party member call in as well...a guy who has previously done the deed in past elelctions. Both parties were busted by veteran political reporters. Is it OK for James and not Campbell?

The arrogance goes both ways. Rose colored glasses, huh?

 

[TheRob]

Lasik Dude. Lasik.

I can't confirm your allegations Dude, so therefore I cannot comment.

Have you recieved your voter card yet? I did see in the paper today that Elections BC is mailing them out this week. Better late then never I suppose.

 

[Dude]

How does average Joe city worker afford lasik surgery? That's quite the punch to the old pocket book for optional surgery.

 

[TheRob]

My NDP backing union contributed some of the funding. let's see your big business Liberal supporting hacks do that.

 

[Reccos]

Dude: You are naive if you don't think that all parties have people call in -- they do!

Mostly, they get people who are party members and not well known like Ministerial Assistants are as they deal with the media guys all the time. That is plain dumb to get caught like that.

After the TV debate I was listening to the Michael Smyth radio call in show on NW and most of the callers ignored Campbell and James and said they were blown away by how great Carr was. You think they were all random callers or the Greens with good phone in skills?? Yeah right, random citizens.

 

[Dude]

Dude: You are naive if you don't think that all parties have people call in -- they do!

Mostly, they get people who are party members and not well known like Ministerial Assistants are as they deal with the media guys all the time. That is plain dumb to get caught like that.

After the TV debate I was listening to the Michael Smyth radio call in show on NW and most of the callers ignored Campbell and James and said they were blown away by how great Carr was. You think they were all random callers or the Greens with good phone in skills?? Yeah right, random citizens.

Reccos: if I'm naive, you're an idiot for thinking that my writing "The arrogance goes both ways" makes me a believer that both parties don't try to rig question periods in these public style debates.

The guy caught "helping" the NDP- as pointed out by Vaughn Palmer this morning- was a long time party member who is loud and proud at most, if not every, function. For media members to be able to pick out his voice is telling in itself.

So, all is fair in love and war. Just don't be the Joy McPhail type and try to pull the wool over the publics' eyes that the NDP are clean on this as well.

 

[Reccos]

OK, so I didn't read your post that carefully Spinner. My point was that no party has clean hands when it comes to call in shows. Don't forget this little gem from PublicEyeonLine.com:

January 26, 2005
Prem is Peter and Peter is Prem

In a taped interview, a veteran Indo-Canadian political organizer admitted he used a different name than his own when phoning in a question to a weekend Channel M call-in-show featuring Premier Gordon Campbell. Prem Vinning, who was hired on Monday as a senior staffer in the premier's office, confirmed he called himself Peter when he asked, "I'm in the trucking business and, you know, the economy is going great guns and that's good. But to get my products from the Cariboo into the harbour, the time I lose on my trucking business is just an enormous amount of time. When are you going to do something to move the traffic so we can keep our business going?" Premier Campbell responded "That is a very, very good question..." before answering. When asked about the question, Mr. Vinning explained, "It was me. And some of the guys call me Peter sometimes."

More importantly -- we should have a thread to see how people view the STV -- no no, not the sexual diseases of some ttpers but the proposed voting system.

My sense is that it will not get 60% as few can understand it.

http://www.knowstv.ca/questions.html - the anti- STV gang

http://www.citizensassembly.bc.ca/public - the proponents of STV.

From the opponents site:

Under STV in BC, there would be fewer but much larger constituencies in which voters elect their Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) to represent their interests.
BC currently has 79 different constituencies but under STV there could be as few as18 constituencies or less. Each larger constituency would have from two or three members in rural areas to as many as seven MLAs in larger urban areas.

Voters would rank all candidates in that larger constituency by their personal preference, with a 1 being their first choice, 2 their second and so on. Voters can rank every candidate in their constituency if they want to.

A mathematical formula called the Droop Quota is used to determine the percentage of support a particular candidate needs. This quota will be different depending on the number of seats in your constituency. The quota is the number of valid votes cast divided by the number of seats plus one, plus one vote.

The method of transferring ranked preferences is called the "Weighted Inclusive Gregory Method" (see Citizens Assembly Technical Report for details).
In a constituency of 100,000 voters electing three members the number of votes needed to win is 25,001: that is 100,000 divided by 4 (3 + 1) + 1 vote.

When counting the vote, all number 1 preferences are counted first. Once a candidate has received enough votes to win, the number 2 preference choices of those voters are counted and so on until all candidates are elected in the constituency. Click here for an explanation of STV vote counting.

Isn’t STV a lot more complicated than FPTP?

Yes. One of First Past Tthe Post’s biggest advantages is the simplicity and ease of understanding it brings to all voters. In recent New Zealand local elections using STV for the first time 11% of all votes were disqualified, more than 14 times the number rejected in the previous election.

Voters may also be faced with a very large ballot and dozens of candidates in larger ridings, making it hard to rank the candidates knowledgeably.

Voters will also be confused by a mathematical quota called the Weighted Inclusive Gregory System which determines how and where exactly their vote will be “transferred” to, by having to rank a large number of candidates in each constituency and by the need to trust computers to get the results right.

 

[BlazeArmy]

None of these turkeys are clean on a lot of things.

But, i will be absolutely choked if the NDP win this election. Business confidence will go down the proverbial shitter and while that may help me waste more time on TTP that will not help my company or it's employees. Things seem to be going well in the province and while that may not be an effect of Liberal governship they do get to take credit for it. Part of the upswing in the economy is directly related to business confidence and Gordo and liberals have done a lot in that regard by seeming to be business friendly.

Unions are not evil. However, in today's climate i really don't see the need for them in most fields of work. If our business were ever to be unionized it is safe to say we would jump ship out of this province and run things out of our unionized Calgary plant and office. The BC unions in our industry are retarded to deal with, not at all like thw IBEW we deal with in ALberta. It is nice to see that the government has swung back the union - employer relationship to a more centralized postion.

Carr has seemed to me to be most impressive of the leaders but she has zero of a chance of winning the thing.

I

 

[robj]

I voted for Gordon in the last election and I believe in Capitalism. I am not an NDPer but I will make sure that the Liberals do not get my vote this time around.

Gordon did too much too fast. He is not perfect nor is anyone else. What I can't stand about him is he is arrogant to the point that he is already talking about a third term. If there was another leader in place I might have voted Liberal but there is no way I will vote for Gordo.

-School Closures
-Medical Cuts, Hospital Closures
-Ripping up current agreements with Unions to gain more clout with Big Business
-Giving huge ship building contracts overseas instead of giving his own people the people of BC more jobs which in turn would give the Province more tax dollars
-Trying to Privatize the Coq, spending a tonne of money doing it and then forced to withdraw.
-Privatizing BC Hydro, BC Gas
-Privatizing BC Rail
-Cutting programs
-raising tuition fees (how are you going to get doctors if they can't afford to go to school
-Forcing the RAV P3.
-Selling the fast ferries to one of his biggest Campaign contributors for 17 million when he could have gotten more for them in scrap metal $73 million.


The reason this province is prospering is because of all the money he has saved in cuts, and the profits he has made privatizing, shite anyone could have done that. That's why I am pissed. I would hate to see him win even though I know he will but hopefully it will be through a minority government.

I hope it is a big voter turnout especially younger people.

 

[trece verde]

Cult of Personality: Adrienne Carr has done best on this so far. She still hasn't perfected the full Gordon Wilson method yet, though. Don't know if it's enough to get herself elected.

The Boy in the Bubble stated on the radio that he had "coached kids' teams before" - anybody ever actually play for him as a coach, or know anybody who had?

Sinister plots time: best one so far in the campaign was the story of the two U-Haul trucks that sandwiched Carole James' tour bus. Just love the apparatchik knobs who come up with these ideas...

Re STV vs FPTP (no Luc, that's not two dj's spinning your flavour of the week tracks...) for those of you old enough to remember, BC used to have a number of dual-member ridings in the legislature. This was before the gerrymandering that caused "Gracie's finger" in Vancouver Quadra. Personally, I don't recall any of these ridings ever having elected members from different parties, though (but I could be wrong).

What have the Liberals done right for us? The only thing I can think of has been lowering the corporate income tax rate from 16% to where it currently sits. Sectoral breaks for the mining industry have helped, but nowhere near as much as Gordo & Co. have claimed.

Mining depends on commodity prices more than anything else (even government legislation - anybody remember Bill 31 from the 1970's that was touted as going to kill the industry here?). When the bottom fell out of the price of copper in the 1970's it wouldn't have mattered who was in power here. There was no more mining then, either.

Would an NDP government led by Carole James do any better than the Liberals are currently doing? Not likely. Provincial governments have minimal control over the performance of their economies, especially in a resource-dominated one like we have here. What's screwing our largest (legit) industry (forestry for those not quite awake)? Not Provincial legislation, but outside (Merkin) inflicted tarrifs. The newer, fresher, more conciliatory NDP is still burdoned by the baggage of old ideologies that make it unpalatible to the traditionalist "business community," so despite the fact that the Campbell Liberals generated the largest provincial deficit in BC history, the NDP will always be thought of as more fiscally irresponsible, no matter how much they protest otherwise or have changed their current policies.

Personally, I wish there was a true "Liberal" party in this province. Gordo's ideology comes straight from the Bud Smith-era Socred policies of laisez faire, and are more libertarian than liberal. Carole James is still behooven to too many party dinosaurs to accomplish any real change in the NDP (the last hope for a centrist NDP died with Ujjal Dosanjh's re-election chances as Premier). Adrienne Carr and the Green Party's few common sense points for saving us from ourselves environmentally are lost in a tangle of insane economic ideas propagated by party hardliners that would completely kill our economy. What's a card-carrying Rhino got left to vote for? The BC Sex Party? The Marijuana Party? The Democratic Reform Party?

Ah, screw it. Don't ask me who I'm voting for; it's easier to tell you who I'm not going to vote for. Just go out and vote for yourselves, for whatever group you believe best represents your interests. Just make sure you actually vote, for fcuk sakes....

Voter cards started arriving in the mail today.

I need several beers....

stew

 

[TheRob]

I hope it is a big voter turnout especially younger people.

More people are registered to vote in this province right now than ever. I think that spells bad news for one party in particular.