Over the last few weeks I keep reading ‘journalists’ pieces in our local news deficient main stream media (which over the last decade have not reported what is really happening in BC partly I suppose because the Dictator didn’t give them permission to do so and secrecy allows for avoidance of responsibility), who are trying to sell Campbell as pretty damn good.
Headlines such as “CAMPBELL’S LEGACY MOSTLY POSITIVE’ from a Black Press writer caused me to wonder if the writer even lives in BC.
Our dearly departing Dictator Pinocchio started with a mandate to be envied. This could have lead him to do wondrous things for BC and the people of BC, but he chose instead to do wondrous things for the corporations clamouring to have a piece of the Super Natural BC pie. As all the people of BC know Super Natural has been changed to ‘the best place on earth’ and we also know that this is for the corporate friends of the Dictator not for the people of BC.
Instead of the open and transparent government promised what we got was lies and deceit, hidden agendas, closed meetings and decisions, and a very rare sitting of the legislature as cabinet decisions were easier made in secrecy than to explain what was happening and why.
My son worked very hard in the kitchen of the Victoria General Hospital as specialty chef for those with special dietary needs and he loved his job. His contract along with all those working at the hospitals was deleted and he was offered a position doing the same work but with no benefits at, if I remember correctly, $8.50 per hour from a company which was not even Canadian. How the Hospital Workers Union allowed that to happen still defeats me and where were the NPD? Where was the public outcry and strikes?
B C Rail WILL NOT BE SOLD was an outright lie as we all know and the costs of the subsequent dealings falling out from that is staggering. The chances of that whole expensive mess being buried without us knowing who was really responsible and why are now excellent. So let’s just lay it at Gordo’s door because he was the Dictator. In answer to a posed question: Yes I believe we as a province should own a railway, it obviously made money because it was sold to one of several bidders, and giving breaks to BC producers would be good business would it not. I wonder if that particular writer has realized the potential of rail from the Tar Sands of Alberta to south USA for refining the black gunk into oil? Ooh no, yet another loss of income to BC!
BC Hydro was half way to being sold very quietly before Accenture’s story got out, and The Heritage Act was passed, to quiet down the howlers, which said that BC Hydro could not be sold. OK no more of it can be sold but it can be financially ruined so that it could be picked up piece meal by those corporate friends of Pinocchio the Dictator who are waiting in the wings. This story is still not being told by the BC mainstream media ( a few casual mentions in articles is not telling the story) even though it is staring them in the face and to ignore it is to show complete indifference for the truth and compliance with the afore mentioned Dictator. BC Hydro has in the past few years paid to its only shareholder an annual dividend of somewhere in the region of 3oo million dollars which has been used in the Health and Education fields. Now this last year it was only paid (with a 100% increase to $600 million) because of some very fancy and suspect bookkeeping which will have to be explained under the new method of accounting which came into effect this year. Thanks Gordo, no wonder you wanted out.
An NPD premier was hounded out of office because he had a deck built on the back of his house, and Gordon Wilson was hounded out of the Liberal Party of BC because he was having a relationship not considered right by Gordon Campbell. However it is OK for Gordon to take his addiction for booze to Hawaii and get a premieral criminal record, and for him to have a child, we are told, out of wedlock with a long time mistress who is on his staff payroll and still stay on as the most destructive politician in BC’s History. Double standard? Of course that is Gordo’s motto…. Do what I say not what I do.
Have you read the BC Green Plan? What do you think about the intent stated there that we will drill for oil and gas in the fault lines off the coast of BC?
Does hydraulic fracking in north east BC in the middle of the headwaters country sound like a reasonable proposition to you? Do you know that the entire water system up there will be poisoned? Do you have any empathy for the first nations whose treaty lands will be toxic? Do you mind if what lakes are spared by chance only, will be destroyed when they are used as tailings ponds for the mines up in that area and turned into toxic fish habitats? Does it not seem ironic to you that coal mines are not only being seriously considered up there too but Site C damn would be to provide almost free power for them and the Tar sands? Enbridge Pipe Line and super oil tankers anyone? Very green plan what? And who pays the price?
Whilst in BC the homeless, sick and handicapped and starving children in poverty are increasing, and toxic vaccines are pumped into our children’s bodies almost from birth but before they leave the hospitals, whilst those hospitals are now being run by out of province or even out of country corporations and even the food is now trucked in from Edmonton Alberta to Victoria BC, the tax concessions to those same corporate gluttons is destroying our provincial income and thus our ability to help those in need. Now that is a record of accomplishments only a man like Gordo could be proud of.
There is the claim made that under Campbell’s guidance the financial picture of the province of BC was of surplus budgets and reduced debt. Well anyone claiming that must surely be drinking the Reagan cool aid.
The concept of carbon tax on fuel was a good one if that money collected had been used for the purpose promoted. Instead in the budget that introduced it the exact amount to be collected was the same amount that was offered as incentives to oil and gas companies to explore for more carbon producing products. Was this explained to the people of BC by the media? No, instead it was glorified as the way to go.
Income tax cuts are very easy to give to everyone until you realize that they have to be balanced by something……Services such as health, social responsibilities, education, transport, highway maintenance (now privatized of course and look at the state of the highways around Victoria and the lower mainland – I haven’t been to the interior for ages but I would make a bet they are as bad all through the province), transit outside Vancouver is pathetic shown by the number of single occupancy cars morning and night. BC ferries are out of control with spiraling costs passed on to the travelling public to the point where Mainland or Island Visits are now a major expense; forget going over watch the Canucks now unless you are very wealthy. Make a reservation and that is a donation to management bonuses, but don’t make one and you may get bumped by an unmanned tractor trailer unit from the so called ‘drop trailer’ division of the Ferries. Pay into the bonuses or get left behind…some choice eh? Are we not supposed to own this service? Is it not supposed to be for our benefit and convenience? What happened? An overseas CEO for one thing whose interest is only in the bottom line of a supposed to be service oriented ex Crown Corporation. Luckily we still have the Blackball and Anacortes ferries to the states to rescue some of our tourist traffic.
Another thing I have seen praised is the trade deals made with first Alberta and now Saskatchewan called TILMA. What a joke they are until you really look at them. Trade, Investment, Labour Movement Agreement. There was no problem with any of this according to the union leaders. But the sting in the tail is of course there as with FTA and NAFTA in that disagreements are settled by so called independent tribunals and are stacked against the people. An example would be if a Calgary brothel (sorry Calgary it’s just an example) was to apply to Sooke BC to open a branch brothel there and was turned down by Sooke, then Sooke would be sued for lost earnings. Or as I have said in the past, let’s suppose that the proposed Mega Marina for the inner harbour of Victoria gets turned down completely, then the developers can and almost certainly will sue the city of Victoria for lost earnings, and in both cases the suers will win. This is supposed to be a good deal for anyone? Only if you’re a corporation and then you have Campbell’s blessing to grab what you can no matter how ridiculous the situation maybe.
Relations with the Feds? Well Martin for sure and now Harper are globalists and see the corporations the same way Gordo does so why would he not be in the same feeding trough as them? Give them what they want and accept the board positions and payments.
Forestry sector used to be the mainstay of BC and now we really don’t have such a sector anymore…we have given Crown Lands away free thanks to Gordo, Coleman and Chong, so that they can be turned into housing developments and thus the excuse to cut trees that before were not available, and where do those trees go? Why overseas as raw logs naturally because we don’t have anywhere to process them any more.
Our ocean is now a death trap for salmon smelts trying to go to sea to grow into edible fish thanks to the dangers of the lice coming from the Norwegian fish farms scattered up and down our coast line. Great run this year in the Fraser River as the fish probably figured out that Juan de Fuca is a better way out to sea and home again.
The suggestion that power developments and health care are too big to be done by the state alone are an excuse offered in defense of giving profits to private companies. What exactly is wrong with keeping those profits made from BC resources for the people of BC ? If any finance minister in Canada including the federal one would only use our own Bank of Canada then the expenses would come down and any interest charged would be paid back to us instead of going into some commercial bank CEO bonus structure. The state of North Dakota has it’s state owned bank and is in a budget surplus position because they use that bank. We have our own bank and ignore it. Actually, provincially, we mandate which banks can be used by municipalities…very clever. No the real reason we invite corporations into the mix is so they make money and I refuse to believe none of that rubs of on people like Gordo. It certainly doesn’t come back to we the people.
The HST has to be mentioned simply because it is used as the excuse for the unhappiness and anger in the province and that is absolute BS. No one likes to pay extra taxes but we will do so if it means that the standard by which we all live is maintained or improved. Lies, contempt, arrogance and flat out refusal to listen to the people who voted for and employ these MLAs of all stripes is what has made us mad. Well I certainly, maybe I should not speak for everyone else, but I know that I will take to the streets if that is what it comes to in order to protect my children and grandchildren for Hell In BC.
Last major thing Gordo did was to destroy the whole concept of environmental responsibility by creating a new natural resource operations ministry which just like the federal counterpart ministry of natural resources will bypass environmental requirements in favour of speedy approval of resource developments. Not that our BC Environment Ministry was any good anyway as they approved everything.
So what did Gordo do that was beneficial to all of BC?
Hmmm, could have been the Olympics if it hadn’t cost us so damn much in money and environmental impact.
Elections every four years? Well let’s see if that holds up any better than some of his other promises. On that subject I am told he has a favorite joke…”if we had fixed elections, there would be no problem” Ha Ha…What is the difference between a ‘fixed’ election and one in which the lies are so thick that the sun is obscured?
Personally I am glad to see the back of a man who has done so much damage to BC, and I hope that whoever his replacement may be realizes that the people of BC have finally woken up….Come to think of it Gordo that is probably the best and only thing you really did for the people of BC. Pity it had to be at such a cost.
Jeremy Arney
