Lessons in big money,bad politics and blind ambition.

Posted on by Laila

Politics, n:  [Poly “many” + tics “blood-sucking parasites”]  ~Larry Hardiman

Politics: A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles.  The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.  ~Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary,1911

 Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich, by promising to protect each from the other.  ~Oscar Ameringer

 A funny thing happened while writing this post earlier today. I was searching google images for a photo of Christy Clark and Gordon Campbell, and guess what ? They all seem to have disappeared – even cached versions are now redirected to Christy Clark’s premier page on the government of B.C. website. 

 In fact, the only photo I could find of the two of them together, remains in existence in a cached version… on my site! ( click image to enlarge)

 

 Kind of funny, no? If you can find one of the two of them together, save it to your computer before it disappears too. She seems to want to break any association between the two of them.

The powers of the BC Liberal party never cease to amaze me, nor do they surprise me any longer. I have personally had contentious or telling links disappear within hours, gone dead, and even the cached versions gone and it hasn’t only happened to me, but other writers as well. What the Liberals don’t want known, they will work very hard to make disappear, and if they can’t make it disappear, they will push the spin cycle button and wash that news right outta your hair faster than can blink your eyes.

With her narrow margin win in Point Grey this evening, one thing has become clear to nearly everyone watching her tonight. Christy Clark has become a stunning example of blind ambition, big money, and bad politics. And today the voters backed that up at the polls in a stunning way, despite the rain, despite the media and despite the thousands of people she talked to… Christy barely won. Barely.

Was it because she has taken more than a few pages from the Campbell Guide to bad politics?  Re-hashing old press releases and posing for photo opportunities out the ying- yang. Taking credit for projects, initiatives and openings that she had nothing to do with. Saying little of anything with substance, but smiling widely and pushing the ethnic buttons all over the lower mainland. Don’t say it isn’t so – it is, and we both know it.

Tonight’s win does not bode well for Christy’s future. Her rosy glow has already begun to fade as more candid shots of her show the narrowed lips and eyes of a politician who will do and say anything to get to where she wants to be.

Try as she might, she is stumbling already. Watching more than a couple of videos of her at town halls like this one in Richmond, she appears less at ease, stumbles on her words and uses far too many of those filler words we all rely on when we don’t know  what to say: Umm, ok, well, now, you see…. could it be that  she knows that all the big money behind her, all those corporate advisors and friends who are waiting to lap at the river of money sure to flow in their direction under her leadership, are worried she won’t make it? Did they back the wrong person?  Could it be that she really doesn’t have any real change to offer, that she is banking on the mom image to fool people long enough for her to get a foot in the only door she’s really wanted to be in since she left so many years ago?

Sure it is. And that is just the beginning.

She still has the BC rail issue stuck to the heel of her shoes, every single pair. And it isn’t going to go away, the people will see to that. She still has the association of having been one of Campbell’s minions back in the day. She can’t shake the stink of the mess she left behind with teachers, education and those most vulnerable in society during her failures in those ministries.  And guess what? When she resorts to the same bad politics as Campbell did when he was most desperate, she only strengthens the argument she is more of the same old thing we’ve had for the last ten years.

Big money. Bad politics. Blind ambition.  Frankly, I’ve had enough of all three.

 

I’m Laila Yuile, and this is how I see it.

 

22 thoughts on “Lessons in big money,bad politics and blind ambition.”

  1. What blows me away about this clip is her suggesting we need to learn more about other cultures from other countries besides Europe, including Asia. Now I am all for that but what about learning about our own home grown culture? First Nations? We have a treasure trove of First Nations history at the Glenrose Cannery and St Mungo’s sites along the South Fraser – a 9000 year old site older than the pyramids, and the provincial government is planning on paving it over with the South Fraser Freeway. So much for learning about the most precious, special culture of all.

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  2. “ADDLED BRAINED” – I think, is the polite term used to describe someone like Clark.

    With the last “Decade of Dishonesty, Deception and Deceit” of the BC Liberal reaign, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to learn of ballot tampering. Marking ballots with an ordinary, old fashioned, lead pencil – does not ensure honesty. Using an indelible ink marker so that the individual voters choice cannot be erased and redone by someone else would do a far better job.

    If nothing else, the past decade has shown unequivically, that the BC Liberal government and it’s crooked and biased judicial system, cannot be trusted.

    Time to move on and use the governments own practice :-

    “create a crisis and use the crisis to advantage” – time for civil disobediance and a general strike folks.

    Thank you

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  3. Do try to focus in on the BIG MONEY aspect as that is to-day’s alpha and omega of Of the New World Odour
    Poli=many Tics= blood sucking insects is an apt description for the make-up of governments and until the electorate re able to get the minds around this simple point all the rest is superficial fluff that fogs the view
    Having lived long enough to be able to realise tht the majority of the electorate have successfully be Brain Dirtied(c) and then bringing this to the programmed electorate is a study in frustration.

    “The main mark of modern government is that we do not know who governs de facto any more than de jure . We see the politician and not his backer, still less the backer of the backer or, what is most important of all, the banker of the backer, throned about all in a manner without parallel in all the past is the veiled prophet of finance, swaying all men living by a sort of magic.” (G. K. Chesterton.)

    I should be amazed at my fellow beings for continually repeating the same actions while expecting a different result as humans are rumoured to have the faculties of reason and logic, however there is little evidence these attributes of the mind have been supplanted with clever mind-control programming

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  4. Hi Laila

    I didn’t follow the by election down there. Mainly because I didn’t want my blood pressure to go through the roof. This morning I have looked at a couple of newspapers, mainly online ones, and through it all I concluded that if there were no Greens or BC First in this election (Point Grey) that Eby would have won. Maybe by not as great a margin but a win anyway.
    Something else I noticed was the gloating style of the Province paper down there. (I don’t bother with the Sun anymore. I’m going to turn on the News now and see just how much gloating Baldry will do. He was pretty apprehensive last night.

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    1. Hi Gary, FYI there was both a Green and BC First candidate… but Eby gave Clark an impressive showing- this is one point I am glad to be wrong on, because my initial thoughts were Eby was the wrong candidate for that area. I agree with other pundits who surmise Clark’s increasing nastiness did more to turn people off of her, than it did assist her. Some of her twists on Eby’s views were so far out in left field, and this is an area with a lot of older voters – a good amount who likely appreciate the kind of work Eby has done and continues to do.

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  5. Let’s keep in mind that the conservatives did not run a candidate that could have split the vote. If they had the results could have been quite different.

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  6. I have heard a number of people doubting the ballot count. BC citizens don’t exactly trust Elections BC either. Craig James changed the wording on the recall, after the fact, that was corruption, of himself and Campbell. Even the Federal Election ballots were done in pencil. The government requires everything you sign for them, to be done in ink. Neither the ballots in Point Grey no the ballots for the Federal election, were done in ink. I used my own pen to mark my Federal ballot. My first thought was, PENCIL, how easy to erase and change the ballots. I thought it was my own wicked mind, so distrustful. But it was far more citizens than me, who didn’t like the idea of, pencil marked ballots.

    Now, especially when there is a petition out, to prosecute Harper and Peter MacKay for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Wellll, who knows. Harper was rabid and frantic to win the election, even begging for a majority. Many Canadians believe the Federal election was rigged. Even the Americans, out and out say Harper’s win was cheated. The American people are dead set against the N.A.U. and despise Harper, with a passion.

    I think, I am going to call the world, and require if the world could stop and let me off. Our poor kids and grandchildren, are going to be left a legacy of, a world gobbled up by corruption, greed and a polluted wasteland to inherit.

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  7. My take….The endgame nastiness from Ms. Clark’s handlers/Zubycons was purely a response to internal polling they saw late last week that scared the bejeebuz out of them…Isn’t it funny how none of the pro-Punditry got a whiff of that one via selective leaking for Wurlitzer purposes (despite the fact that it was plainly obvious for anyone to see who was actually paying attention).

    Like you Laila I too went searching for a photo of the mentor and the the mentee to place atop a post about my favourite quip from last night’s festivities. And I had to search high and low just to find this most unsatisfactory one.

    .

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    1. Oh RossK, where did you find that one? It’s just plain weird that they would all be gone. When I first found the one I have posted, there were still quite a few – but now, nary a one but those in private supply and a few here and there. Sorry I missed the live blog last night – I was in a strata meeting that lasted three hours.

      Her downfall is that really, she has little experience at having done anything for very long in life. She never finished university, and quit. She ran for politics, and then quit that. She worked with her husband for a bit then quit. She worked at CKNW for a while, then quit…lol… so, don’t worry everyone, if she keeps to the pattern shown throughout her life, she’ll soon quit this too – or be voted out. Either way, we won’t see her for long. I’m not overly worried. And the great thing is, now that she’s done some waitressing and deliveries, she has some actual work experience to fall back on!!

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  8. I was quite unhappy with her win. And fearful for the outcome of the provincial election. It seems many people are too willing to simply believe what their government tells them. The BC Green Party should realize if they do the same thing in the provincial election that they did here they could do a lot of damage to our environment. I so like voting for the party and principles you believe in. However it doesn’t work real well with our first past the post system. The green votes would have nearly closed the gap between Clark and Eby in Vancouver Point Grey. A vote against the BC NDP is a vote for oil tankers up the BC Coast to a tanker port in Kitimat. Served by a new bitumen pipeline from the tarsands. As well as a vote the Taseko Mine to destroy Fish Lake, something even the federal Conservatives said is too environmentally damaging, but that the BC Liberal Party wants to push through. BC Greens would do better to vote strategically. The environment would fare much better.

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    1. Christy is a non-starter. She’s already showing to the Point Grey voters who did check her name on the ballot, that she’s a liar. She spent the entire campaign telling them she is going to be a part of their community, and not even a day later, shes talking about moving her house or changing ridings for the next election! http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Premier+Clark+might+change+ridings+after+close+call+byelection/4775677/story.html

      Now, if she says she didnt think about uprooting her son, then it shows she is not qualified to even think decisions through correctly, but either way, it is already a HUGE slap in the face to the voters she tricked into voting for her.

      Like I said, big money, bad politics and blind ambition. So blind it will be what ends her career as a politician in the end. I can’t believe she even has the nerve to show her face to the media and spout this nonsense about possibly changing ridings, simply because she knows how close it came to not being her seat. She clearly hasn’t thought this through again, the optics of how this plays to voters in the other riding it has been speculated she might run in. Liberal or not, shes not only shown the public shes a feather in the wind…but also Liberal party members. Flighty is what my nanni used to call it. She’s flighty.

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  10. Heya,where have you been all my life babe? You got a hell of a lotta good work here, Been reading all morning and now I’m gonna be late for work but who cares. Shadow tolls? Shite! Falcons Follies? Shite!! I got a lot of catching up to do on whats going on in this province. Did you know ‘da man’ Tsakumis gave you props on his site for your post? You two would be a blast to have on radio,yeah, can you imagine it? P Gotta go, be back later for more.. .seeyaa!!!

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    1. Well Peter Piper, I’ve been here all along, doing my thing, but glad to hear you enjoy my work! Check out the Best of page – which is being updated shortly- for past stories of interest.

      AGT? Something nice about me? Wow. The world has gone mad, hasn’t it? ; ) Alex and I on radio? Hmmm. Entertaining certainly, if you like bloodsports. Come again anytime…lol.

      workforfun, addled brain works too. She doesn’t seem to speak as well as she used to. One of the first tips I got at NW was to lose the filler words or you sound uncertain,hesitant or stupid. She seems to use them a lot to catch her thoughts.

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  11. Christy Clark Flighty ? – you are being far too kind to that predatory vulture.
    methinks “addled brained” suits her well 🙂

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    1. Yes indeed, Falcon’s Follies :

      Part 1 ) https://lailayuile.com/2011/02/06/falcons-follies-gatewaysfpr-and-the-railgate-connection/

      Part 2) https://lailayuile.com/2011/02/08/falcons-follies-part-2/

      Published in several community papers in BC and was very well read. ( Delta Free Press, Abbotsford Today, Langley Today, to name a few) There is another wonderful article from a writer from the Delta optimist, Debbie Mcbride, that I re-posted with her permission as well that talks about the land options that are now being done, to hide under the radar of actual land sales.

      https://lailayuile.com/2011/02/16/the-shadow-plan-to-industrialize-what-is-left-of-arable-farmland-in-delta-is-very-real-and-it-needs-to-be-exposed/

      Good to see this story getting big legs, and I hope to see more to come.

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  13. Mary’s BCRail has an article. Appears to be coming together. A deal that has been ongoing for many, many years I’m sure.
    http://bctrialofbasi-virk.blogspot.com/
    And over the past while I’ve noticed in some local Surrey papers notices of persons/entities requesting land use permits on ALR land. The request is for storage facilities for container/trucks.
    So Laila the “legs” are growing very quickly.

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    1. Actually, I knew I had seen this story somewhere else when I saw the document on TV, and I was right !

      Sean Holman of Public Eye Online, actually broke this story, with the same document, back in March !
      He posted the Request for Proposals document on Scribd, like many writers do. Click the link to see it all.

      http://www.publiceyeonline.com/archives/005893.html

      Province looks at setting up foreign trade zones
      March 2, 2011
      The province is looking into lending the international trade business a helping hand following a lobbying effort that involved the government’s former top bureaucrat. Last week, the ministry of transportation and infrastructure quietly announced it was searching for a consultant to study the pros and cons of establishing location-specific foreign trade zones in British Columbia.

      A foreign trade zone is a location where tariffs are reduced or eliminated and goods can be stored duty or tax-free. Such zones already exist near Winnipeg’s James Armstrong Richardson International Airport and at Gander International Airport in Newfoundland.

      However, there are none in British Columbia – something “visiting foreign delegations and numerous port-related companies” have commented on, according to a government procurement document released on February 22.

      The government has stated those zones – which are favoured by such companies – “could” increase British Columbia’s “competitiveness in global markets and attractiveness as a gateway for international trade and encourage new economic activity.”

      But the government will also be examining whether those zones could result in a loss or deferral of government revenues, as well increase regional disparities if one was established in Vancouver but not elsewhere in the province.

      The announcement of that study follows a lobbying effort that involved Premier Gordon Campbell’s former deputy minister Ken Dobell, who is now British Columbia chair of a government relations firm Hill and Knowlton Canada Inc.

      In an email, a spokesperson for GCT Global Container Terminals Inc. confirmed Mr. Dobell – along with his colleague Tamara Little – has been communicating with the government regarding foreign trade zones on behalf of the company.

      GCT, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, is one of North America’s largest container terminal operators. Those terminals include TSI Vanterm in Vancouver and Deltaport at Robert’s Bank.

      GCT corporate communications director Lori Jackson stated the company isn’t specifically looking at establishing a foreign trade zone in British Columbia. Instead, it’s pushing for a federal foreign trade zone program that could be activated anywhere in Canada.

      Indeed, at a federal level, four Hill and Knowlton lobbyists are presently registered to work on the file for GCT. But Ms. Jackson also confirmed an industry steering committee chaired by CGT has proposed setting up a small agency that would implement and market a foreign trade zone initiative in Metro Vancouver.

      She stated that proposal is preliminary and would entail $5 million in funding over five years. According to the government procurement document, that funding would be provided by “federal, provincial and local agencies.”

      But it remains to be seen whether the province will act on that proposal.

      A government spokesperson stressed Ottawa controls the policy levers to allow for the establishment of location-specific foreign trade zones and that “no decision” has been made on the issue “and one will not be made in the short term.”

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  14. Long time reader, first time commenter. Couldn’t help it after your comment here. I sent the reporter on this story a note this morning and asked her how it could be an exclusive when Sean broke this in March. She replied she wasn’t aware of it and that she was sure I would agree that the msm hadn’t touched it. I replied that Sean was syndicated and held a Jack Webster and was well esteemed, and that Global should correct the story. Then I sent it to the newsroom and said they need to correct or credit the story. I really like Sean’s work and he deserves the credit on this FTZ story,because she didn’t have much that he didn’t report already. His work has been online and so has that document for two months. Some exclusive. Watch now she will report the land deals and that will be an exclusive too,even though you’ve had those stories published all over.

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  15. Not surprising,but yeah it is lame to claim exclusive on this story. I noticed that too on Monday how they pushed the global exclusive and laughed. Coulda been a mistake on the reporters part if they didnt look hard enough, but must be frustrating for Sean to see that!

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