As someone who has blogged about politics since the last election in this province, I’ve seen so many stories and examples of the current governments cronyism/unethical behavior/questionable policies/ corrupt activities that quite honestly, it still astounds me.
Following the 2009 election, I was so disgusted with having to put up with several more years of Campbell & Co, that I even declared that I was going to run in the next election. At the time, I expressed an interest in the NDP and even met with Carole James, but with some serious reflection I knew that party politics of any kind just weren’t for me.
I still think it is a very big dis-service to voters to put a party agenda before the needs and wants of the voters in a constituency, in particular with parties where MLA’s don’t have free votes. I’ve never been a member of any party, and never will be, and have supported and fully endorsed good, solid independent candidates as a very credible alternative to party politics in representation, such as Bob Simpson and Vicky Huntington. I believe a collective of good independents can hold each of the two partys to account in the legislature in a way that hasn’t been seen before, and hope to see more after the coming election.
That all being said, after a decade of BC Liberal policy, many sectors in the province have suffered greatly from a shortsighted and often haphazard approach to long-term planning, and in several cases, a failure to simply see the relationship between cause and effect. For example, closing 24 courthouses across BC to save money? Cutting legal aid, closing law centres and cutting staff all resulted in stupidly long waits for trials that now increasingly results in people getting off scott free because their right to a speedy trial has been impinged upon.
You don’t have to be an NDP, a Conservative, or a Green to see the never-ending list of failures, and you don’t need to be partisan to believe the people of BC deserve better government. That’s why I have worked on an updated list of the Liberal failures documented on a dedicated page at the top of this site, titled 100 Reasons the BC Liberals Must Go.
I believe the entire province was hoping for more from Christy Clark, who right out of the gate as premier by default, reneged on her leadership campaign promise of calling for an immediate election to get a mandate from the people . Since then, she’s become the laughing-stock of British Columbia, full of reactionary policy( or lack thereof), and garbled,nonsensical sound bites that have amused and confused interviewers on TV and radio alike.
With superglue like tenacity, Clark has remained perky in public, despite being all but abandoned by the best of her party who have dropped off one by one in silent opposition to her leadership. And say what you will about her questionable and chameleon like mannerism of portraying whatever persona she thinks will garner favour and votes – I’m just waiting for the “In my heart,in my heart….I’m a desi-girl !” sound bite at the Bollywood awards – it’s her policy.. again, or lack thereof… that really makes an impact with the voters.
That’s why I want to hear your reasons the BC Liberals Must Go, but first a few rules. You must support your reason with facts, not just opinion. I don’t want to hear insults and derogatory comments, and please keep it clean or it’s gone. Just like the previous list, the updated version will contain links to documents or links to news items to support each reason.
I’m off to work on a some tips that have come in with regard to the south Surrey Casino story and Rich Coleman, but I look forward to reading your reasons the BC Liberals Must Go as I check in throughout the day!
Westcoast Views with Laila Yuile 
A word that comes to mind – NEPOTISM
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Yes, and Cronyism.
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This makes sense to me.
Experiment with Monkeys.-
If you start with a cage containing five monkeys and inside the cage you hang a banana on a string from the top — and then you place a set of stairs under the banana, before long a monkey will go to the stairs and climb toward the banana.
As soon as he touches the stairs, you spray all the other monkeys
with ice cold water.
After a while another monkey makes an attempt with the same result …
all the other monkeys are sprayed with ice cold water. Pretty soon when
another monkey tries to climb the stairs, the other monkeys will try
to prevent it.
Now, put the cold water away.
Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one.
The new monkey sees the banana and attempts to climb the
stairs.To his shock, all of the other monkeys beat the crap out of
him. After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to
climb the stairs he will be assaulted.
Next, remove another of the original five monkeys, replacing it
with a new one.
The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The previous
newcomer takes part in the punishment… with enthusiasm, because
he is now part of the “team”.
Then, replace a third original monkey with a new one, followed by
the fourth, then the fifth. Every time the newest monkey takes to the
stairs he is attacked.
Now, the monkeys that are beating him up have no idea why they
were not permitted to climb the stairs. Neither do they know why they
are participating in the beating of the newest monkey.
Finally, having replaced all of the original monkeys, none of the
remaining monkeys will have ever been sprayed with cold water.
Nevertheless, not one of the monkeys will try to climb the stairway
for the banana.
Why, you ask? Because in their minds… that is the way it has
always been!
This, my friends, is how Parliament operates… and this is why, from time
to time ALL of the monkeys need to be REPLACED AT THE SAME TIME.
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Hmmmm. Okay…. that’s not quite like any explanation I’ve heard yet!
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This liberal government has made a farce of free collective bargaining. (We will never forget them tearing up signed contracts in 2001). They continue to insert themselves in the bargaining process rendering their employer organizations (ie. HEABC) powerless to negotiate freely. They set “mandates” ahead of public sector bargaining, predetermining outcomes. They simply threaten unions with legislation and legislated contracts to get their way when bargaining gets tough.
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where to start ? just 100 reasons
1/ declined sitting days of house
2/ obstruction of auditor general
3/ service cuts and increase of user fees
i could go on and on
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All there! Thanks Harry!
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While BCRail has been THE issue for me since the Leg Raids, it was the relative non-coverage of the Boss Power scandal that made me an active political pain in the ass. When I read the column linked here http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Palmer+Taxpayers+overpaid+millions+prevent+more+Liberal+dirty+laundry+from+being+aired+court/6513137/story.html I asked myself, why was this not on the 6 o’clock news all week. Could the NDP in the 90’s piss away $30 mil on an out of court settlement and not be destroyed in the media. Could the ministers in charge, Krueger, in this case, have escaped without a resignation and disgrace?
But beyond very good columns from Palmer and pieces on internet blogs, nothing happened. No–one was held accountable. It pushed me over the edge because now I was not only angry with the Liberals, but also with a tame media.
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Thanks for posting this here as well as twitter Merv. It’s stories like that absolutely need to come back to light for this election. The outrageous thing is though, that for every Boss Power story there are a hundred more we haven’t heard of…. Reminds me of the Tercon case series on my Best Of page.
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Severance package to Boessenkool after 11 months on the job.
Many more huge severance payouts. Who’s signing off on these these contracts?
The whole Boessenkool no paper trail “investigation”.
Huge growth in Premier’s office staff and expenses, with people like Pamela Martin with no actual job.
Massive partisan spending on advertising.
Pointless travel and more expenses.
BC Hydro debt deferral.
Largest debt in BC history.
Not following BC’s accounting rules and declaring a deficit $500 below the actual amount.
Breaking their own balanced budget law. Repeatedly.
Families First.
Cost over-runs on BC Place repairs, highway construction, Olympics, Convention Centre, etc.
Patrick Kinsella behind the door of every scandal, back room deal and conniving double dealing.
Closing courts and cutting funding to Crown Counsel, judges, and watching delays grow ever longer and cases thrown out as a result.
Cutting funding to jobs training.
Keeping the HST for 2 years after the people rejected it.
No oversight into spending millions and hiring hundreds of managers at ICBC.
One billion in Smart Meter costs.
Yet another increase to health care premiums Jan 1, 2013.
The carbon tax.
Taxes, fees and levies placed on other taxes, fees and levies.
The fiasco that is Translink and the Liberal-appointed board.
The Burnaby Hospital.
Buying and building ferries overseas.
ELEVEN MILLION DOLLARS!!! to host a one-time, first ever (no track record) ,Indian Film celebration that is mostly a vote-buying exercise for the Indo-Canadian community. $11 million – one million would be bad enough for something like that, but Clark throws tax money around like it’s water. How could it possibly cost that much?
Not a fan of van Dongen, but Rich Coleman’s insinuations about him and Slater are below the belt (assuming anyone could find Rich Coleman’s belt).
Six million hush money to Basi Virk.
That’s just off the top of my head. Suggest the list be 200 reasons and counting.
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I know… you should see what I already have.. it’s going to be a damn book by the time I am done…. Hey!! That’s not a bad idea…. 😉
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sounds to me like this farce of a government is trying to buy the surry voters with our tax dollars , i mean who really cares about bollywood except the people of surry christy your a joke. payback time in may 2013………Cya
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Actually, British Columbia has the highest Indian communities in all of Canada, I believe and parties have been fighting over that vote for a long time. Abbotsford also has a very large Indian community. Bollywood movies are big $$, but these awards are basically a knock off of the Bollywood Oscars, not the real deal at all and the Indian community is well aware of that.
Christy has a ploy to appeal to every voter demographic – she’s been a filipina in her heart,deeply religious on 100 Huntley Street, a Milf on radio,a joking woman who looks at and listens to Mr. SKin on CFOX,a Conservative to try and get that vote back,a poor single mom trying to juggle it al.. it just never ends. Will the real Christy Clark please stand up?
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“Not following BC’s accounting rules and declaring a deficit $500 below the actual amount.”
Should be $500 million and for year 2012.
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Fostergate.
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In all fairness,and political campaign aside, you have really done an outstanding job on getting into this scandal Scott.Well done.
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Why thank you M’lady. Quite honestly I wish it had never happened, and I wish I could run a campaign on issues and policies. I don’t like this kind of politicking.
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Ading to the extensive list above/below would be the matter of MLA personal, fiscal accountability to the citizens of BC..
All citizens have the right to expect MLA personal expenses to be supported by reciepts. Seems requests were made by the Auditor General several years running to no avail. In the absense of valid corrective, documentations and voluntary recalibrations of personal income tax returns, all MLAs in non-compliance should be subject to Rev. Canada tax audits that are then made public.
A second suggestion is that all MLAs on the government side of the house automaticly lose a year of pension benefits when the Auditor General is forced to submit a “qualified” audit report for the government’s past year financial statements.
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On that note Erik, you would probably really like this post from Paul Willcocks, a great look at MLA compensation overall, expenses and bennies. http://willcocks.blogspot.ca/2013/01/mlas-expense-allowance-lets-almost-one.html
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The BC Liberals created the Pacific Carbon Trust, a crown corp. It sells carbon offsets, mostly to the public sector (schools, hospitals, BC Hydro, Universities etc) so that the Govt can proclaim itself “carbon neutral”.
At the same time the Govt is hypocritically encouraging development of coal mines, oil, gas and LNG in BC, all of which emit CO2.
The amount is $18 million per year of public money going to the private sector. It’s a direct public subsidy of private companies to fund projects which are supposed to reduce CO2 emissions. It’s very devious trickery IMO.
Gordon Hoekstra of the V Sun has written several articles:
http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Carbon+Trading+Projects+outside+trust+criteria+reaping+benefits+criticized/6495348/story.html
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If the Govt wanted to provide assistance to companies to encourage projects which reduce CO2 emissions, that could possibly be ok. But the way they’re doing it is a deceptive, devious shell game.
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The bottom line is. Canada is rotten to the core with corruption. The Campbell/Clark BC Liberals corrupt behavior, begins at the top in Canada. I have to include Harper, as the leader of all of this disgrace. Campbell works for Harper, right to this very day. There are no morals nor ethics left in this Nation, what-so-ever.
The BC Liberals corruption, is permissible in Canada. Campbell twice lied and cheated to win elections. In this country, corrupt, lying, deceitful Politicians, are rewarded for their corruption and thefts.
All we have to do is, watch Christy’s, blatant lies and deceit on her TV ads. There may be many jobs coming into BC. Those jobs are not for BC nor, for any Canadians. Then, the Alberta Liberals, had a fund raising dinner for Christy. Despite her blatant lies and deceit.
My reason’s go back to Campbell’s reign of terror. He twice lied and cheated to win his elections too. Christy had the opportunity to right, some of the many wrongs, Campbell did to this province, she did nothing but, take more from us.
My reasons are. The Campbell/Clark BC Liberals have, lied, deceived, are corrupt, thieved, use dirty tactics, dirty politics and when they know they can’t win, they cheat.
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1) MSP increase
2) Monthly “living out allowance” for MLA’s that can add up to $15,000 per MLA per year (without receipts)
3) 12 million for a film awards gala while production crews watch their home grown industry crumble away beneath them
4) 15 million dollar disguisedvertising election ad campaign
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Hospitals closed, CC’s attitude toward women. She said women were not interested in politics because they were too busy at home cooking dinner for their families. (Not an exact quote). Mental health budgets underfunded, quotas for doctors making it difficult for people to see a doctor. Tax upon tax upon tax….unjustified spending such as the billions spent on advertising.
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No sitting legislature for months on end.
A jobs plan with hand picked sectors, others can sink or swim
Zero commitment to fight climate change
Endorsing natural gas fracking activities without considering the risks
The blatantly phony “cold” meeting with Alison Redford and (not) premier Clark
Zero effort to “protect existing jobs” as Clark has pledged, businesses close daily with barely a wimper from this government.
Clark stating: “create jobs, private sector jobs” which was a message to all public sector workers that she controls them.
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I need help here as I lost the source? On Christie’s trip to China which accomplished absolutely nothing. She not only stayed in a hotel that cost us $700.00 per night but her room bill was averaged out at $599.00 per night on top of the $700.00. My goodness, even a male hooker can’t cost that much? This while 10.4 % of BC kids go to school hungry. No shame has this woman. Alex Tsakumis says he has traveled there and a 5 star hotel, a good one is worth $200.00 per night. I guess 5 star is not good enough for a MILF queen? (Remove the MILF word if you wish.) A friend in her fifties fell backwards injuring her back bad enough that she can no longer work. She receives less than $700.00 PER MONTH. Christy First!
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I think your source was Alex’s where he noted hotel costs-amomg very expensive and non-itemized “incidentals”.
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Smart Meters a total waste of our money just to benefit a Liberal insider .
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Totally unfit to call the party liberal when in fact they are much further to the right than a liberal would be.
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no choice about Smart Meter installation
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Possibly one more for your 100 : http://t.co/dqoe9J8V Prince Rupert has had an issue with a now disused millsite on Watson Island. When Bill Belsey lost his MLA seat he went to work for a firm called Sunray, based in China, which bought the site .. there has been a court battle since between PR and the firm, and Pat Bell was shown to be sharing information with Sunray about the court fight. Hope the attached link works to a recent G & M article.
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Dang, need an editor. Last comment should have named “Sun Wave” not Sunray. Sorry
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The number one reason the BC Liberals must go — DisHon. Christy Clark!
Followed very closely by DisHon. Rich Coleman, DisHon. Mike de Jong, DisHon. Bill Bennett, Bloy, Lee, Les, Krueger, Bond, Falcon, Cadieux, Heed, Hansen.
Oh yes, and the uncelebrated but integral part of the Liberal venality, Patrick Kinsella
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…and how could I have overlooked Gwyn Morgan and Mike Morton who help to orchestrate the BC Liberal aberrant form of democracy. Did I say orchestrate? I meant castrate.
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Before the old meter was removed, I could check to see just how fast the wheel was moving to check on wasted energy. If it was running fast, I could shut off certain appliances. Lights, computers, phantom power sources such as chargers and so on. The new smart meters have no on the fly checking. No meter to check if you are wasting energy. You now have NO control of your energy usage. That really sucks!
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Naughty list copied from “Inda Gno’s” comments on CBC article re NDP to end partisan advertising
(Laila I like this format because it is perfect for those who twitter or have short attention spans!)
——————————————————————————————————————————
Inda Gno
I have been keeping a running list for years. Enjoy!
– Unelected, uneducated premier
– HST
– BC Rail
– Basi/Virk payoff
– Smart meters
– BC Ferries
– Drunk driving Premier and 3 MLA’s
– Bonuses for CLBC managers while closing group homes
– lying about rolling CLBC bonuses into pensionable salary
– lowest minimum wage
– highest child poverty
– $30 mil payout to uranium mining company, then making the lawyer involved a Provincial Court judge 3 months later
– cost overruns on convention centre
– $900K paid to cover CN Rail’s taxes
– $350K per year pension for David Hahn after 8 years
– BC Hydro’s $2 billion creative bookkeeping error
– Three Sol.Gens under criminal investigation for fraud
– Stanley Cup Riots
– Announcing “new” job action plan without investing additional money
– Guilty plea by Kash Heed’s campaign manager for lies & campaign fraud
– Pamela Martin $130K salary to do nothing
– untendered contract for the husband of Christy Clark’s bridesmaid
– reporter Stephen Smart’s violation of National Journalistic Standards (married to Premier’s deputy press secretary)
– Harry Bloy leaking confidential documents to the Province re:Eminata Group
– arrest of Pat Pimm for domestic violence
– Christy Clark’s denial of knowing Jaspal Atwal despite being invited to the budget speech
– Rich Coleman gifting prime Crown land to brother
– John Les secretly removing land from ALR for his / his brother’s land development
– Christy saying Victoria has a sick culture, would rather be anywhere else.Rating35
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Norman Farrell has some more powerful reasons …
http://northerninsights.blogspot.ca/2013/01/feeding-frenzy-has-begun.html?showComment=1359392318379
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Inviting a convicted terrorist hit-squad member to CC’s throne speech.
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I forgot about Community Living BC and their endless scandals and mismanagement.
Then there’s the computer system and shutting down relatively cheap social service programs:
By Editorial – Kamloops This Week
Published: February 01, 2012 2:00 PM
Updated: February 06, 2012 2:25 PM
Clients of Community Living BC in Maple Ridge endured much aggravation and stress when they received word funding for their important programs was to be cut due to money shortages in Victoria.
Only publicity through the media forced an about-face and allowed the program to continue.
In Kamloops, a successful program in which seniors could access help with work around the house and yard met its end due to a declared lack of money at the provincial level, once federal funding ended.
There are countless other examples of worthwhile programs that have died or are on life support due to lack of funding.
Here’s the thing: There is money for these vital programs. The cash exists, only the provincial government prefers to spend it in all sorts of ridiculous ways.
That seniors program that died in Kamloops? It needed $487,000 a year to run.
That Community Living BC program in Maple Ridge that employed mentally challenged people at a recycling depot? It was going to be nixed and needed only $270,000 a year to run.
Thanks to the dogged work of Vancouver Sun reporter Jonathan Fowlie, and despite B.C. Liberal attempts to hide the information, it has been revealed the B.C. Liberals wasted $780,000 in 2010 on designing and printing pro-HST pamphlets that were to be mailed to homes across the province.
The Liberals decided against the mailout and simply destroyed the pamphlets — wasting $780,000 of your money, enough cash to fund for one year both of the above-mentioned programs.
The fact the B.C. Liberal government fought hard against releasing this information to Fowlie, tried desperately to hide the fact it blew nearly a million dollars of your money without a second thought, should prompt the question: What else has this government done in the name of wasteful spending that has yet to come to light?
The next time your local government MLA shakes his or her head and bemoans the lack of funding for Project A or Project B, remember this crass political tale of utter waste and let them know you know better — much better.
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Don’t know who produced this, but it’s pretty good.
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This is from Bill 13, 2009, which enabled authorities to enter our homes to remove un-olympic signs during the Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler:
See Part 9
32 (1) Subject to this section and section 34, an officer or employee of a specified municipality or a person authorized by the council of a specified municipality has the authority to enter on property, and to enter into property, without the consent of the owner or occupier for the purpose of enforcing, in accordance with subsection (4), the specified municipality’s bylaws in relation to signs.
http://www.leg.bc.ca/39th1st/1st_read/gov13-1.htm
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Cuts to the coroners service:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2013/02/05/bc-coroner-bergen-yasmin.html?cmp=rss
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2013/02/04/bc-morrison-autopsy-coroner.html
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I’ve been keeping my own list. Surely they must be up to 300 or more by now.
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– the theft of lottery money from spor, arts and recreation. Since 1976 lottery money has gone to sport. In the 1980’s in BC this money, starting with Bingos, went to nonprofit groups. The government used the excuse that because there was only a letter of understanding, they took this money. Recreation clubs, sports clubs, school groups, the arts, and many recreation organizations have had their money taken away. This was a money grab. And what was Coleman’s response, no one pays for my golf pass, why should adult sport groups be funded. As a result the Vancouver Meraloma football club folded…Coleman, a Minister in the government compares his cost to golf to an 18 to 22 year old just out of high school….really!
How about the HUGE loss of revenue and expenses incurred by BC Hydro because we are tied into contracts with independent power companies…I believe it is costing the tax payers 1.5 to 1.75 million this year alone!
That is just 2
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Here’s a link to the Smart meter mess:
“Too Many Parallels to HST Debacle in Smart Meter Rollout”Justine Hunter Globe and Mail Nov. 3, 2011
A good primer of its history-exemption of review by its regulator,call for Moratorium by Union of BC Municipalities,ad campaign telling public it is good for them $2.4 mil and counting, rushed timeline-Coleman’s response if it’s worth doing ,do it quickly, don’t wait for public support.This is an early assessment and does not take into account the fact that our meters are more expensive than those in Ontario and that they will have to be replaced every 6-8 years.
Sorry if this was already included in the avalanche of responses.What a wonderful resource your list will be going into the election! A fun homework assignment !Thanks!
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Another Bloy blunder:
Harry Bloy resigns from cabinet after leaking a reporter’s email to a company that operates private schools-one in trouble more than once and one that is one of his doners.
Source: Huffington Post 03/15/2012
Pat Bell helps out political insider and friend passing on correspondence regarding fraud allegations against Chinese Businessman.Liberal VP accused of lobbying .
Source: BC Liberal VP Probed for Alleged Violation of Lobbying Rules.Globe and Mail Andy Hoffman Jan.30 2013
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Keep them coming.. I had intended to release this a bit later but will be moving up the new release date of the new list…. coming even sooner!
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Is the new list almost ready? I need to combine it with the 1st one and hand them out.
It’s just exasperating talking to Lib supporters who refuse to accept facts (or do any research).
Thanks, Bill
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Actually it nearly is, but has taken much much longer than I anticipated with my other commitments. I’ve taken down the page for now to finalize everything because oddly enough, the links were being killed as fast as I posted them and it became ridiculous!! Honestly I could use an assistant right now… 🙂
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[…] as well known blogger Laila Yuile has undertaken, go into the endless list of liberal atrocities. She has a top 100 that will make your skin crawl. Rather, I will set context by contrasting Dix’s […]
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The list is so long it should be categorized
Selling off of public assets to balance the budget should be at the top of the list
No one would think their personal budget was balanced if they had to sell their car to buy gas, or sell your house to have a big party. Any asset that you sell must go into the loss column because you don’t own it any more, just the same as the money you spent,
If it all ads up to more than your income for that year then you ran a deficit for that year.
That doesn’t seem too complicated .
I don’t think the Liberals have ever really balanced a budget.They have just picked your pockets and emptied your biggy bank, and sold off all of your assets.
The reason these Liberals are having trouble pretending to balance their budget now, is because the public is running out of assets for them to sell. BC rail, BC ferries BC hydro BC forests pretty much gone.
This seems treasonous to me, and I don’t think it was poor planning or an accident
This is a BC liberal (right wing conservative) ideology. Look up ” Disaster Capitalism”
Harper is continuing where Campbell left off.
It will be a long long road to get back what we have lost. if ever.
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Thinly disguised thievery or blatant stealing under another name. Conservatism = free entitlement, nothing less !
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Nine condemnations from the United Nations ILO for labour law violations in two years.
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Please hurry. Even a list of less than 100 reasons would be fine. We need to get the information out before the election. Great work on everything you have posted so far.
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It is coming,there have been significant issues with links being killed – plus, there is only one of me to do this in addition to everything else – but I do hope to get it up within a day or two.
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