Don’t spend the money you hope to save

24-11-06

We’ve been through a provincial election with tons of promises, many of which will never see the light of day. It’s a waiting game now.

Since the election, Premier David Eby has reaffirmed his pledge to and provide involuntary care to those with overlapping addictions, mental illness and brain injury. He has also repeated a promise to eliminate the consumer carbon tax, on condition, that Justin Trudeau and the federal government approve.

That would mean waiting on federal opposition leader Pierre Poilievre becoming prime minister, next year, and doing away with the carbon tax. The Conservative leader also wants to eliminate the GST on new homes under $1 million and is asking the provinces to do the same with the provincial sales tax.

That’s where it gets sticky. When you eliminate one tax you have to raise another one to make up for the lost revenue. Basic bookkeeping shows that income has to cover expenditures, they have to balance. It's a sleight of hand. The only option is more borrowing and going deeper into debt. Eliminating a tax is really just shifting it somewhere else, unless, of course, government cuts spending. And that ain’t gonna happen.

U.S. election is almost over, or is it?

24-11-04

The fate of the world hangs in the balance as Americans go to the polls to elect a new president on Tuesday. The choice they have is a no-win situation either way. They have to choose from a braggert bully who has good policy and an inept liar with no policy.

Donald Trump has already been there and he would now be completing his second term if he had shown some civility in his first term. He lost the 2020 election rather than Joe Biden winning it. All he had to do is learn to keep his mouth shut.

For Kamala Harris it’s been nothing but a word salad and lie after lie, after lie. Her ineptness shows in the illegal immigration issue. She insists she totally supported Biden’s way of doing things but would now consider adding more border wall. Inflation is one of the top issues for Americans and Harris offers nothing but what she calls an opportunity economy, unable to explain what that means. She was totally ineffective as vice president.

The election has turned into a gender campaign with polls now tracking how each gender is expected to vote – women for Harris and men for Trump. That’s a sad divisive commentary. What about the claims by both candidates that they will unite the country?

When the end result of the election is known it will be a popularity contest with each party’s supporters rather than which candidate will be best for the country and the world.

After the final results there will of course be accusation of cheating, by both sides. And they will both be correct, both parties take every advantage they can, legitimate or not. Then is will boils down which party is the best cheater. The Democrats have the most experience.

Sept. 10, 2024

No one knows what

the future holds

I launched the Daily Buzz nearly seven years ago, about 2,500 daily columns, seven days a week. It’s been a labour of love, certainly not a successful financial venture. I could never bring myself to hit the pavement to sell advertising. I have posted non-profit community promotions at no charge.

It has been an avenue to deliver comprehensive news links to the original stories from other media. It has also allowed me to express my Perspective on the world we live in, and add a couple of commentators – my good friend, former Newfoundland Premier Hon. Brian Peckford and John Feldsted.

As in anything else, circumstances change and I don’t know what lies ahead. I recently heard the words nobody ever wants to hear – “you have cancer.” I have begun chemotherapy treatment to fight an incurable invader – MDS blood cancer. It has no cure, although friends keep assuring me that new treatments are being discovered every day.

Despite its warts, our health system is really coming through when it comes to cancer. When first diagnosed, I was sent for a bone marrow biopsy within days, and then an almost-immediate appointment with the hematologist to set up the chemotherapy, all in a matter of a couple of weeks.

I’m not bitter, I’ve loved life for 83 years, and I’ll face whatever lies ahead with satisfaction that it’s been a good ride. I don’t know how the daily chemo injections will affect my quality of life, I’m hoping to be able to continue informing you another day, one at a time.

“Life is what we do until we die, so we might as well do a good job of it.” – Donald J. Trump

Sept. 3, 2024

Rustad has a mess

to clean up in a hurry

Laurel and Hardy, Kevin Falcon style – “Now that’s another fine mess you’ve gotten us into.”

BC United leader Kevin Falcon’s move to pull his party out of the Oct. 19 general election has created a mess with a lot of question about who will run where in the election.

United candidates are left hanging as to what will happen to their aspirations. Some Conservative candidates who invested a lot of time and effort have been told to take a hike.

One United MLA says he will run, and the way he understands it, his name will appear on ballots in his riding, but there will be no party designation.

It’s all about optics.

Time is running short but Conservative leader John Rustad needs to get a handle on this as soon as possible. Granted, with a virtually new party it’s a major chore to form Electoral District associations in order to hold nominations.

Appointing candidates is not the democratic way of going about it, grassroots party members must have a voice on who will represent them.

Surely with the stakes this high – winning the election – some fast footwork could set up nomination meetings in EDAs where both Conservative and United candidates have an interest in running. If not, the chances of winning those seats are a lot lower, especially when homeless United candidates run against Conservative candidates. After all, that’s what this was all about, getting rid of vote splitting.

Sept 1, 2024

There is no middle road

in British Columbia politics

The illusion of a middle road in British Columbia politics has been shattered with the implosion of the Liberal/BC United party.

The concept of a middle in politics has always been an illusion, it’s either left or right with a little lane wandering from the main parties. It also clears the picture for voters, they have a choice either way.

The birth of the Social Credit party eons ago was an attempt to bring factions of the political centre-right together to oppose the left socialist New Democrats. It virtually eliminated vote-splitting on the right, enough to come out on top in many elections. That continued until recent times with the B.C. Liberals, a rebranding of Social Credit after they fell apart.

That brought us the Bill Bennett, Gordon Campbell and Christy Clarke governments interspersed with the NDP’s Mike Harcourt, Glen Clark, John Horgan and David Eby.

That’s where we’re at now, a lying and finger pointing contest between Eby and B.C. Conservative leader John Rustad. That’s what it’s going to be if the release of the first NDP election commercials is any indication. Instead of focusing on issues, the NDP is intent on smearing Rustad’s image.

It’s made more difficult by Rustad’s lack of a track record. So whatever he comes out with now becomes a target screaming extremism, no matter that it’s a mislabel.

The demise of B.C. United is not a simple switch of that voting bloc going to the Conservative. They had about 10-per-cent voter support in recent polls while the Conservatives were within a couple of points of the NDP. Will there be enough crossover to put the Conservatives in the lead? Early indications are that a majority will go to the Conservatives.

It’s not a sure bet. For example, former Liberal cabinet minister Terry Lake says he'll consider voting for the New Democrats if the Conservatives don't shift their stance on climate change.

The status of many Conservative candidates is also raising questions. Are they simply making way for United MLA and candidates to step in? That’s not the case in Nanaimo-Gabriola where Viraat Thammanna was pushed aside.

That results from the rush to get candidates by appointing them rather than going through the normal nominating process. It may fill the roster of names but can have messy repercussions. With the free-agent United candidates on the open market, a lot can change in the next little while.

Aug. 19, 2024

Two months to judgment day for provincial election

We get to pass judgment on our members of the Legislature in two months from today.

Eighty seven MLAs will have to answer to voters, and six new ones will be added with a total of 93 seats as a result of redistribution. The latest Mainstream poll showed the Conservatives at 39 per cent support, the NDP at 36 per cent, B.C. United at 12 per cent and the Green Party at 11.

Regional breakdowns give the NDP a commanding lead though across the province. The urban Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island have the NDP leading comfortably. The main Conservative strength is in the rural north.

It’s difficult to assess all those members, so we have to rely on the parties they represent. It’s more like a report card on the party in power because they carry all the weight of delivering what the people of the province need. For the other three parties it’s difficult to assess because they have the advantage of proposing legislation and criticizing the government, but not having to deliver.

We can’t elect a premier, the winning party in an election makes that decision. You can’t vote for a party, all you have is a choice of the MLA candidates in your electoral district, hoping he or she will be a member of the eventual winning party. That’s a very small dent in the big picture.

So let’s look at what he B.C. New Democrat government can be judged on

Health care is a disaster with emergency departments closing down on a regular basis, complaining about a staffing shortage and stubbornly not rehiring health care workers who were fired during Covid for not taking vaccines. Now a couple of years later the government is still not changing from that stance. Health care is sick.

Mental health, addictions and street crime – All three are rampant on our streets and the government is feeding the problem by providing free drugs, including free delivery and online ordering. The premier insists that it is saving lives.

That is closely related to crime, homelessness and mental health as a singular challenge and the premier refuses to turn to institutionalization for the victims. Many of the victims are beyond being able to be able to make decisions in their best interests, so someone has to do it for them. In contrast, Eby had no problem denying health care workers’ human rights on the Covid vaccine issue, firing thousands of them.

Housing British Columbians can afford continues to be a major problem. It’s been all about control so far, a denial of private property rights, telling property owners what they can do and cannot do with their investments. One of the biggest culprits remains government regulation and taxation driving up housing prices – property transfer taxes, sales taxes, and extra development costs due to red tape.

BC Ferries has been an unreliable mess with breakdowns and delayed and cancelled sailings.

$10 day care is still not delivered. Maybe halfway there at $18 but that’s not what was promised. This is year seven of a 10-year promise.

This is part of what New Democrat MLAs have to answer for. Have they delivered what you expect of them?

The provincial Conservatives have come from nowhere to be almost neck and neck with the NDP, with a number of United Party MLAs defecting to their side. Their biggest commitment to date revolves around eliminating the carbon tax which they’ve been preaching this since day one, and it’s popular with many people. As a matter of fact, it’s the climate debate which breathed life into the party after John Rustad got booted out by the Liberals. The Conservatives are also talking about other meat-and-potatoes issue, specifically health care.

Then there’s the official opposition B.C. United, elected as B.C. Liberals, tied for last place in the polls. They’re starting to make rash promises to attract new support. Their big one to date is promising to eliminate provincial income tax for anyone earning less than $50,000 annually.

For 2.4 million British Columbians who earn less than $50,000 a year, including seniors, it would eliminate provincial income tax entirely. For a minimum wage worker earning $35,000 annually, it would mean $1,134 annually in taxes they can keep rather than paying. That’s appealing for many.

The Green party is also lagging in the polls, with the possibility of getting wiped out on election night. To them, issues are more philosophical than hand-to-mouth.

Borrowing, like government do, is not the answer. United leader Kevin Falcon suggested that extra money in our pockets will increase consumer spending and create more employment, thus more revenue for the province. United has also brought back the old balanced budget promise which has been promised by every party but never succeeded. No matter how much you want to believe our PM, the budget does not balance itself.

So there are your options. It’s what the parties are promising and faith on your choice of MLA to be able to deliver what they promise.

Eby represents just about all things many people feel is the problem but he’s still the most-popular leader in the pack. You get to make that choice by the number of New Democrats elected. The candidates representing his party are good people personally, but would I vote for what they represent, what they want to impose upon the province?

That’s your choice to make on Oct. 19.

Aug. 3, 2024

Communicate with people if you want their vote

October’s provincial election is going to be a lot different than we’ve had in recent years.

Although all the parties campaign across the province, in the past its really boiled down to about a dozen electoral districts that can go either way. Picking up six seats means the other major party can lose six seats, making for a 12-seat difference and that can decide an election.

It’s different this year in that there’s a new serious player in the mix, the B.C. Conservatives. For them all ridings in the province are in the target range. The question remains whether their new supporters are simply transfers from the old B.C. Liberal party, now identifying at B.C. United.

The identity problem is so acute that United leader Kevin Falcon is now making a bid to be listed on ballots as both United and Liberal. He’s got reason, their own polling shows 30 per cent of people didn't know the party is the re-named B.C. Liberal party.

Does that speak to political awareness among B.C voters our has the relabelled party just done a bad job in communicating, especially with its own membership. The experience for party members over the years has been a one-way street. Send correspondence to the party and see if you get a response. That includes an e-mail address for Falcon, no response.

In past direct contact with party brass the response has been they’re too busy at headquarters to answer questions from members. Any party must place members first, ahead of the hired help. Listening is more important than talking.

That answers the question.

Aug. 1,2024

Politics and

road apples

With a lot of time on my hands, I waste much of it following the U.S. presidential election and it quickly becomes evident that journalism is not what it used to be. Today’s mainstream media are engaging in advocacy journalism, the so-called reporting is really propaganda for or against their candidates in the election.

There’s a direct bias in the majority of the reporting, an echo chamber of what the politicians are spewing. We’re seeing so much misinformation – lying – from both the Republican and Democrat campaigns that you have to wait for the fact checkers to verify them, but even the fact checkers display bias, pushing one side or the other. The candidates make outrageous assertions, obviously not caring that video proof from their past paints them like fools.

The majority of the major media, print and electronic, favor the Democrats, and it shows. On the flip side, Fox News stands alone in favoring the Republicans. You’d be hard pressed to find the unvarnished truth somewhere between all the media.

The disturbing point is that there is a highly uninformed or misinformed public believing what they see and hear. They don’t have a BS filter, most have unshakeable partisan devotion, and they  blindly vote accordingly. Party loyalty always comes first ahead of what’s really best for the country.

Recent social media chatter proves the point. Close to home, a comment about horses dropping road apples on urban sidewalks drew steaming heated arguments while serious issues of state went by virtually without comment. It’s what modern media have become – horse manure.

July 29, 2024

Only a proactive approach can solve climate challenge

Hey, it’s Monday, what better topic to tie into than the climate debate, a topic everyone claims to be well versed in? You can’t avoid it with all the propaganda and insistence that it is something that we are guilty of creating.

Weather statistics from the late 1920s up to the mid 1930s, the Dirty Thirties, are clear evidence that we have had hotter weather than we’re enduring today, and we survived. There’s an even longer history of rising and falling climate, up and down, going into the millions of years.

The real debate today should be about developing proactive solutions to the upswing on weather graphs. The climate is going to change regardless of how we try to interfere. The popular refrain calls for “fixing” the climate. Suggested solutions are a dime a dozen. We’ve been told ad nauseum that we can reign in climate change through government tax programs designed to reduce the carbon dioxide we produce. The climate is bigger than just our little world in the massive universe.

Governments need to back up and redirect their efforts to be proactive rather than reactive. File away the idea of changing the climate in some dark storage room. It's not about changing, it's what we're going to do about it.

The examples are right in front of us with the increasing number of wildfires across western Canada and down the western U.S. coast. They spew tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Since government programs have not proven to make one iota of difference in lowering temperatures, the answer has to lie in how we react to the changes, how we prepare for these and other natural disasters before they hit us.

It will be a bigger job than changing the climate – proactive preparation for fires and flooding, creating fire breaks and more dams. That will be an expensive undertaking, but we’re already collecting the taxes, they have to be redirected. That will mean massive investment in changing forestry practices and infrastructure to control water and the atmosphere.

Are we up to it? It’s a question of when our political leadership takes a step back and swallows a dose of reality.

July 31, 2024

Local election activity perking along slowly

We’ve got just over two months to go until the October provincial election and the gap is narrowing between the BC NDP and the BC Conservatives with just three points separating them. Mario Canseco of Research Co. says the poll shows Premier David Eby's approval dropping below 50 per cent for the first time. Conservative leaders John Rustad is at 39 per cent. Meanwhile, another B.C. United MLA has joined the Conservatives. Teresa Wat, will run in Richmond North Centre.

Here on the mid-island home front, we’ll be represented across three electoral districts instead of two.

The parties have been quietly putting their candidates in place. The NDP and Conservatives are all geared up, United is flailing around with two candidates and the BC Greens are nowhere to be seen.

A prominent former BC Liberal told me he didn’t even know whether there is a BC United riding association in Nanaimo-Gabriola.

Nanaimo Nanaimo-Lantzville, the NDP has selected former Nanaimo city councillor George Anderson and the Conservatives have former MLA Gwen O’Mahony who crossed over from the NDP in the Lower Mainland. There’s Independent Adam Walker who was kicked out of the NDP caucus. However, that could turn out to be interesting if Anderson and Walker split the NDP vote. United and Greens have not told us of any candidates to date.

NDP – George Anderson
Conservative – Gwen O’Mahony
Independent – Adam Walker
United – None
Green – None

Nanaimo-Gabriola – Incumbent MLA and NDP cabinet minister Sheila Malcolmson has Conservative Viraat BK Thammanna to contend with. United has long-time IT consultant Dale Parker.

NDP  – Sheila Malcolmson
United - Dale Parker
Conservative – Viraat BK Thammanna
Green – None

Ladysmith-Oceanside. This is the funny one. It starts in Oceanside, north of Nanaimo, and wraps around the virtually-uninhabited western side of the other two ridings, finally taking in Ladysmith. Former school trustee Stephanie Higginson is carrying the NDP banner and Lehan Wallace represents B.C. United. For the Conservatives, Brett Fee is a late replacement after the first candidate was removed for what some suggest was his exercising of his freedom on speech.

Conservative – Brett Fee
NDP – Stephanie Higginson
United – Lehann Wallace

Green – None

July 25, 2024

Our election needs to stay out of gutter

The lying season has swept upon us with unparalleled character assassination.

We’re getting a double dose with our provincial election on Oct. 19 and the Americans voting before, on and after Nov. 6 as is convenient.

It’s already begun in British Columbia with the B.C. NDP stooping to personal smear rather than issue debate. The NDP recently launched a television commercial lumping Conservative leader John Rustad and B.C. United leader Kevin Falcon as evil villains, then adding, “just like Christy Clark, only worse.”

That’s gutter politcs, shame on the NDP braintrust.

The former B.C. Liberals, now United, have engaged in this type of politicking for years through their communications department. They seem unable to issue a news release without leading off with Premier David Eby’s name front and centre.

Labelling political opponents as far-left extremist and far-right extremist, or any other insult, does not contribute to the debate. It’s designed to breed hatred among the blindest followers.

Each party leader has his/her own ideology, and that’s what has to form the discussion – they offer a choice and we can choose. Eby’s ideology does not match that of a lot of British Columbians. That’s no reason to vilify him personally, just don’t vote for his group. It’s that simple.

The same thing is true for Rustad. He has a set of beliefs that a growing number of voters are turning to, but that shouldn’t paint him with any brush. If you don’t like what he’s selling, don’t vote for him and his candidates.

When Eby was campaigning for his party’s leadership he vowed to institutionalize the mentally ill and drug addicts. After he became premier he did an about-face and rejected the concept. His long ties to the civil liberties movement doubtlessly impact his policy.

Again, if you don’t agree with him, that’s fine. That’s his belief and he’s entitled to have it. Just don’t vote for his candidates, that’s the best message you can deliver. And, if you do vote for him, you’re buying what he’s selling.

All candidates deserve respect. They offer to serve us and lead us, depending on who gets the most support from voters.

South of the border in the U.S. that’s another kettle of fish, the vitriol has evolved from character assassination to the real thing, with a candidate for president targeted by a shooter. Granted it's different in the States because they actually vote for individuals rather than group representation.

Donald Trump is a bully and a loud mouth, but he’s got nothing on the Democrats who practice this type of debate around the clock. Watch any of the Congressional sessions and they are not about legislation but about one-upmanship and smear.

This week’s hearing to get to the bottom of the Trump shooting brought a five-minute tirade from Democrat Congressman Jerry Nadler about everything under the sun, smearing Republicans, but not a whisper about the performance of the Secret Service and the FBI.

Americans also lie like a mattress, the truth has no place in their campaigns. Trump spews whatever stirs the fervor, but Kamala Harris does not take a back seat, twisting the truth like a pretzel. It’s difficult to sift the bulls**t from the truth, if there is any.

Thankfully our election will be over before theirs and we’ll be spared some of the mudslinging, at least here at home. Well, maybe some hangover from those who lost the election.

You have to keep in mind that to sling mud you have to stoop into the gutter to pick it up. So don't smear Eby, Rustad and the others, but seek solutions to homelessness, drug policy, crime, housing, the cost of living, our health care crisis and anything else that’s important. Even pot holes.

July 16, 2024

Travellers Lodge housing plan covers most of the bases

At first glance the B.C. government’s move to convert vacant Travellers Lodge into housing for the vulnerable is the best solution to date. It is designed to provide more than just four walls for those in need. It’s more than a band-aid, it appears to provide actual solutions.

There has been a lot of debate about institutionalization for mental health and the attendant problems. This approach goes about as far as you could hope without actually forcing patients into treatment. It's the next-best thing.

Not only will those voluntarily moving in have a roof over their heads, it’s the support services that make the difference. The building is as close to made to measure as you could find, 78 self-contained studio units with private bathrooms.

This project connects the missing link by including physical and mental health resources. That’s the root of most of the problems faced by the homeless, the cause and effect of a lot of the addiction problems they face.

Residents will pay $500 per month for rent, which will include two meals a day and laundry services. They will have access to life-skills training, employment assistance and counselling,

This measure will not sweep all the addicted and homeless people off our streets, but it will hopefully interrupt the flow into homeless encampments.

As MLA Sheila Malcolmson pointed out, it will help people to get ready for other affordable housing. The new units will be for people now in shelters, adults older than 19, including those who are ready to minimize exposure to alcohol and substance use.

It will be vital to keep a close eye on this development to see how much of a solution it will be. The concept looks good on the surface.

YOUR COMMENT

July 15, 2024

We need to change

the way we do politics

After Saturday’s assassination attempt on Donald Trump it becomes even more urgent that we take a second look at the way we do politics.

Hopefully that happens immediately now that we have just under 100 days left in the general election campaign in our province.

In my Perspective on Thursday (See below) I raised the danger of spreading hate in politics. It’s not only in places like the U.S., we have it right here, across Canada and in our province.

You can feel the hatred against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, even from some from within his own party.

The U.S. Democrat Party immediately pulled campaign ads off the air and is vowing to tone down the rhetoric. No more Hitler or fascist labelling, we hope.

We have incendiary campaign commercials here. An NDP ad airing last week focuses on Conservative leader John Rustad and United leader Kevin Falcon attacking them personally, tying them together like Dr. Evil and Frankenstein, questioning their integrity rather than talking about policy.

The former BC Liberals for years campaigned against the leader of the NDP rather than the issues. All parties are guilty.

The most recent poll shows the NDP and Conservatives in a dead heat to win the October election at 37 per cent each.

Recent election ads attack the individual. David Eby and John Rustad are not bad people, it’s their policies that should be the debate. Both of them have only the best of intentions for our province, with different interpretations of how to get there. Attaching labels like far-right or far-left extremist are the problem.

All parties and many speakers are guilty. They need to look at what they are putting out to the public, some of which borders on hate speech. Somewhere down the line they have been convinced that these types of attacks work. They need to quit accusing and start debating.

What happened in Pennsylvania is a wake up call for everyone, B.C., Canada and the U.S. Are we listening? All it takes is a single deranged person swallowing the hate message and striking out.

A classic example close to home has a University of British Columbia professor posting on social media wishing the assassination attempt on Trump had been successful. Dr. Karen Pinder posted saying, “Damn, so close. Too bad” screenshots of Pinder’s account show. Then, in response to a reply wishing the shooter had better aim, Pinder said, “What a glorious day it could have been.”

That’s all it takes.

July 13, 2024

Election campaign should

be about things that matter

The name-calling and labelling have begun. Political parties need to recognize that for every “far-right extremist” they see on the election campaign they are a mirror of “far-left extremists.” Denigrating anyone serves no purpose other than to divide people.

A lot of the problems facing our province are neither left wing or right wing, they are political problems and a lack of will or ability to solve them. Our messed up health care system is not a left or right problem. Closed emergency rooms in rural areas have nothing to do with ideology but with the inability of those in charge to solve the problem.

Already obvious in the first campaign TV commercials is the outright lies they tell without having to look you in the eye.

Money is the root of most problems, but elected officials try to please all of the people all of the time. They need to set priorities and scale back vote-buying handouts to special interests.

Many of our problems today are the same as the ones we had years ago under the B.C. Liberals. They still exist and neither party has been able to solve the them.

The closest any issue comes to ideology is the homelessness many British Columbians are suffering under. Premier David Eby refuses to accept institutionalization of people with mental health problems, but he’s not the first. Decades ago successive Liberal and NDP governments decided that the mentally ill should be “integrated” into the community.

They closed facilities like Riverview, and similar programs, thus creating today’s problems – integrating the mentally ill onto our sidewalks and parks has done that.

It doesn’t really matter whether they are government-approved for recreational use or bought off the street drug dealer. There’s an inescapable fact, and that is if you do drugs you die.

Housing affordability lies partially at all levels of government, federal, provincial and the municipal. Over-regulations has jacked up the cost of housing with ever-rising development cost charges which in reality are taxes. Then there’ the Liberal/NDP property transfer tax which adds to the cost of buying a property.

So don’t let the politicians on the campaign trail fool you into thinking it’s all the “other” party’s fault. They are all to blame.

I could go on about the long list of issues, but they all have the same bottom line. Each party is shouting from the roof tops about how terrible the other parties are, in in many instances exaggerating or outright lying.

All of them fail to focus on what they will do for us, likely because they don’t have the answers themselves. And when they don’t have the answers they resort to name calling, and that doesn’t solve anything.

From the North Shore Daily Post

Taxpayers have had enough and they are fighting back

Ladysmith voters’ rejection of an Alternative Approval Process for a new city hall demonstrated that taxpayers are tired of the ever-increasing load they are forced to bear. Frankly what the result showed is that they’ve had enough.

Two AAPs were launched in Nanaimo earlier for a public works operations centre, and they failed due to technical problems in the process. However it was not a cut-and-dried process, there was enough vocal opposition and citizen action that there was a distinct possibility, even likelihood, that the the borrowing bylaw would have been quashed.

That tax fatigue was obviously the driving force behind the Ladysmith rejection, nearly one third of eligible voters registered their opposition. It would not be wrong to suggest that residents are tired of all levels of spending, particularly on projects and causes they are not sold on. There are enough such issues in Nanaimo at present that it’s not surprising the taxpayers are fighting back. They just recently got their tax bills, emphasizing the cost of government.

As for the process, I have never bought into the concept of claiming the right to spend money unless voters sign an objection, even though only 10 per cent are required to block an AAP. What makes it popular with politicians is that the process is so onerous that gathering opposing votes is almost insurmountable.

Drop back a couple of years when some promoters had grandiose plans for a new sports complex in town. It went to referendum and some 80 per cent voted against it. That was an accurate indication of taxpayers’ objection to the proposed spending.

City hall is studying other options to get borrowing authority for the operations centre, but the idea of another AAP is still alive. They should think very carefully about another back-door process. They need to lay the cards on the table, and if they still want to go ahead, put it on the back burner for now and hold a referendum at the next civic election. The project has been on the wish list for a number of decades, and may be needed, but it’s not so urgent that it can’t wait for until the next election.

It might be good advice for provincial politicians chasing votes for the October election that taxpayers may have had enough of handout promises, with their own money.

June 22, 2024

A lot of class, it's all low class

Respect is built over a lifetime, but it takes only an instant to destroy it. Canadian-born actor William Shatner has unleashed a vile, bleep-laden assault on open-pen fish farming in British Columbia. Shatner and others who appeared in the video should be embarrassed by their lack of class, including former Canuck goalie Kirk McLean. The video was reportedly produced by Vancouver actor Ryan Reynolds . We should be able to expect a higher level of decency from them. First Nations involved in open-net salmon farming have called on Shatner and Reynolds to apologize for the profanity-laced video. Check it out HERE

Politicians play dangerous

game with identity politics

The old melting pot, or one-size-fits-all ideas don’t wash any more. The province has announced a new francophone health centre will open in Vancouver this fall. More than 80,000 B.C. residents listed French as their mother tongue in 2021, more than half of them in the Lower Mainland.

It’s not a question about building new health facilities, they are needed, but on the penchant of governments to engage in identity politics by categorizing projects where and whenever they can.

We already have a health authority dedicated to First Nations and now another one based on the French language. The philosophy appear to be to conquer and divide.

If it was a question of population size we would also have an Asian health authority and an Indo-Canadian health authority. It might be impossible to find and You and Me health authority.

Who is benefitting from
safe-supply drug push?

Maple Ridge member of Parliament Marc Dalton has sent out disturbing revelations about British Columbia’s “safe supply” drug program and who is benefitting from it.

"More than 42,000 Canadians have died as a result of disastrous radical Liberal-NDP policies. Members of the federal Health Committee heard damning testimony on the “experts” behind British Columbia’s so-called “safe-supply” program," said Dalton.

Dr. Julian Somers, an addictions expert, told committee members that the same BC public health officials who implemented this safer supply policy then went on to establish companies that financially benefited from the program’s continuation.

Dr. Perry Kendall, BC’s inaugural Public Health Officer, left the public service to launch Fair Price Pharma, a pharmaceutical company which looks to provide a safe supply of heroin to those struggling with addiction. Mark Tyndall, his former deputy Public Health Officer, founded MySafe, a company which supplies opioids via vending machines.

Dalton said both of these companies benefit directly from the continuation of the failed safe- supply experiment. Those who produce and sell the products driving this opioid crisis are making money off the suffering of others. Somers said it is no surprise that Dr. Bonnie Henry, whom he described as Kendall’s protege, believes in the legalization of hard drugs.

At committee, Somers described BC’s approach to addiction policy as “dangerous and imbalanced” and “prioritizes drug liberalization and legalization, and largely ignores addiction prevention and recovery.”

Provincial Conservatives lay out a smorgasbord platorm

The new kid on the block, the B.C. Conservatives, have a long and challenging road ahead in getting voters' attention, and to that end have brought forth an ambitious platform for voters for the October election. I have never seen a campaign platform laid out so openly. From My Perspective it’s interesting because it is so different from the rest of the bafflegab were are usually fed during elections. It's so different it will give voters a choice – this or that.

I have never seen a campaign platform laid out in this way. My Pespective makes it interesting because it is so different from the rest of the bafflegab were are usually fed during elections.

The cost of living is on many people’s minds these days and the Conservatives have four planks in their platform on that topic.

First they pledge to end the ICBC insurance monopoly. They also want fuel prices brought under control, particularly through axing the carbon tax.

Another sector that affects most British Columbians is the crisis in the housing sector. They want to get prices under control by promoting development of new housing supply while cracking down on money laundering that has inflated prices along with criminal activity.

Daycare is another irritant for British Columbians and John Rustad’s party offers support new parents directly with the costs of daycare, while boosting the private sector to create new daycare spaces. This plan includes forming partnerships with municipalities.

The platform also zeroes in on the economy with the standard Conservative message – lower taxes and smaller government. They want to bring in balanced budgeting and boost small business opportunities.

The future for energy and the environment includes scrapping the carbon tax which is a major factor in driving up the cost of living. On that note, the also want to dramatically expand B.C.’s natural gas production and LNG export facilities and reduce global emissions through the displacement of coal-fired electricity in countries like China.

They see pipelines as the safest and most economical means of transporting oil and natural gas and are essential in getting our resources to market.

The Conservative platform also pays a lot of attention to forestry, mining and resource industries. They want to clamp down on activists who illegally interfere with resource development through illegal blockades, harassment and violence. They suggest holding them legally, and financially, responsible for their actions.

In education, the platform calls for funding of all levels of education, including privat schools, home schooling and public education. Another plank wants political bias and

ideology taken out of B.C.’s education curriculum immediately. “Schools must be places of learning – not tools for activism and indoctrination.”

Government funding for post-secondary institutions will be re-allocated to promote and incentivize training in essential fields such as medicine, engineering, and skilled trades.

Health care is on most British Columbians’ minds, and there’s no shortage of ideas in the platform. Top of the list calls for serious reform to address shortages in physicians, nurses and ICU capacity. They also want to offer choice and competition in health care services. It also addresses wait times for health care, incentivising post-secondary institutions to train more RNs, LPNs, and physicians through government funding and support for these programs and students.

There’s much more in this smorgasbord proposed changes. It also focuses on mental health, legalization of drugs, crime, and even the way judges are appointed.

Check it out for yourself HERE.

Our world appears to be spinning out of control

Every now and then the moon aligns with the stars to throw our planet out of whack making you question the sanity of everyone everywhere.

DESPITE A HOUSING CRISIS, our regional district has decided it’s a good time to update regulations affecting people living in recreation vehicles. If the updates go into force a lot of people living in RVs in the central Island will have no more than six months at a time before they have to move. What then, pull up stakes and spend a fortune on moving to another RV park for another six months? These are not pop-up tents, they are motor homes with full facilities, connected to services in commercial settings. They are part of the housing picture.

ALSO THIS WEEK WE LEARNED that three B.C. communities that had been promised the moon after massive flooding in November 2021 got nothing but the finger from Ottawa. Abbotsford, Merritt and Princeton spent a lot of money on studies and reports to satisfy Ottawa bureaucrats only to be told their 500-page application back up wasn’t sufficient.

That comes after Prime Minister Trudeau visited the area during the disaster he hugged one mayor and promised “we’ve got your back.” Justin did not tell him what that really meant. As one of the mayors wondered aloud, if it had been along the St. Lawrence, in Ontario and/or Quebec, would it have been a different story?” These communities are getting it in the back alright.

Now some people are floating a proposal to flood Sumas Prairie permanently to return it to a lake that existed 100 years ago. The proponents say it’s no big deal, only $1 billion to buy the farmland and flood the area which is one of our largest food-producing areas.

HERE’S AN INVESTMENT idea for someone wanting to make a few quick bucks. Sell something every vehicle should have – metre sticks – to help drivers determine their distances. New regulations went into effect this week to keep vehicles at least one metre from pedestrians, cyclists, wheelchairs, etc. The concept makes good sense, but how can a driver determine what distance 39 inches is while zipping along at 30 km/h? Thankfully the regulation includes “at least” in determining how far, so to be safe, keep your distance. Now if we can just get cyclists to observe the rules of the road.

EVERYTHING ELSE CONSIDERED, the October provincial election is sure to be a lively affair as the political ground undergoes massive shifts. More B.C. United/Liberals are abandoning ship and going to the Conservatives hoping to gain enough strength in a few months to even imagine toppling the NDP government.

What was wishful thinking in some quarters not too long ago is getting the attention of Premier David Eby who is refocusing his political darts at John Rustad’s Conservatives instead of the fading United. BCU has more money and more organization than the Conservatives, but if the current trend continues who knows what can happen? When a building crumbles, a firm foundation doesn’t do much good other than a rebuilding from the ground up.

AND WHILE WE’RE THINKING ELECTION, now would be a good time to start keeping track of all the promises we’re going to get from the government and those would hope to form government. We should sort them into specific categories that would determine their value, how many are good for the province and how many are political frills. While we’re at it, we could also tick off whether promises are serious . . . or just vote bait that will never see the light of day.

Everyone will promise, cross their hearts, that they will solve the drug crisis and the homeless problem and crime that goes with it. What we need to hear is what, when, where, how and how much along with a firm timeline.

Our medical system remains in shambles, with lots of room for new ideas and promises. With those we also need specifics. How many of them will be realistic and how many of them will be pie in the sky? It’s easy to promise a new hospital here or an emergency room there with no timeline. And who will promise to rehire the heath care workers still fired because they would not take vaccines? That comes in the shadow of U.S. Congressional hearings which put great question on the way the whole COVID scheme was handled, including masks, vaccines and the major shutdown.

Will any party do something to restore private property rights which have been decimated by the present government? Your home is not your home any more.

Those are good starting points, it will be tough to find others to classify as top priorities. Beware of the frills that look good, cost a lot of money, but don’t really amount to much.

COMMENT HERE

Political right beyond

last-gasp reconciliation

A broken marriage that never worked in the first place has seen a last gasp reconciliation crash on the rocks.

It was never a truly harmonious marriage, there were too many hurdles as provincial Liberals and Conservatives tried to co-exist. Even the name was sand in the gears, Conservative found it hard to swallow being labelled Liberals, especially with the natural disdain for the federal Liberal Party.

With the next provincial election coming up in less than five months, and the Conservative surging in the polls, there have been pleas to unite the political right to avoid a split vote which might see the NDP returned to power for another four years.

There have been behind-the-scenes moves to get the parties together, but that effort was a loser from the start. It’s hard to say who played hardball the most, but the rift goes way back to when Kevin Falcon opened the door to the rebirth of the Conservatives when he kicked John Rustad out of the former Liberal party over climate and carbon tax differences.

That was a guaranteed winning issue for Conservatives and now that Rustad has revived them from the scrap heap it’s kind of difficult to buy into the idea of co-existing with United, especially when it’s been made clear that Falcon would demand to be the top dog. With Conservatives at 32 per cent popularity, and United battling for last place with the B.C. Greens, both at 12 per cent, it doesn’t make much sense to retreat to non-contender status. The NDP still sits comfortably ahead with 42 per cent support.

Rustad issued a statement that appears carved in stone, saying “with certainty that the Conservative Party of BC and the BC United Party will not be merging before the upcoming provincial election this fall.”

He adds that Falcon declined offers in December, 2023 to discuss a possible merger – with a single message from Falcon stating, “F#ck Off.”

With that kind of welcome, Rustad says he’s committed to running candidates in all 93 ridings, and he intends to keep his promise. He ads this election is between the Conservatives and the radical BC NDP. He’s committed to restoring common sense in British Columbia.

Rustad is dealing from a power hand at the top of a winning deck while Falcon stands at the dock after the ship has sailed.

We welcome your comments HERE.

QUOTABLE – Like drug use, bank robbery is a crime. Politicians could hand out free money in front of the banks, and look at how many lives we could save.

Five months until election,

race has been uneventful

Today marks five months until election day in  the province in October and nothing we’re seeing is sparking excitement so far. Premier David Eby is busy applying bandages to everything in sight while not solving anything.

BC United leader Kevin Falcon is not making a blip on the radar as his party continues to struggle for relevance.

B.C. Conservative are at an all-time high in the polls likely because they are not BC United. The latest Abacus Poll shows the NDP with a six-point lead over the Conservatives. BCU and B.C. Greens are sharing also-ran status.

Eby is a classic example of too much government, hung up on ideology. Instead of real fixes he and his party are playing word games. They are bent on slogans like “stigma” attached to criminal activities. Removing the stigma of drug use is simply an attempt to make it normal and acceptable. It’s the same with the homeless problem, again trying to get us to accept it as normal. That’s also the victimhood approach with nothing but stigma.

The safe supply of drugs has not reduced the over all number of deaths in the province, it keeps going up. Yet Eby keeps insisting it is saving lives, but he doesn’t provide evidence. The concept has been proven wrong, but the premier is exhibiting his stubborn streak by not budging.

Property rights have been trampled on by the government as a means of solving the housing problem. Investment income and/or profits are portrayed as evil. You can’t own a property and leave it empty or use it as you personally desire. Or rent it out on a short-term basis. They talk about supporting housing but government itself is a big obstacle with the property transfer tax and untold red tape.

Who will invest in housing, or anything, when government is the problem?

By struggling to be all things on all issues, the NDP is not solving any of them. Granted, Eby cannot produce more doctors when there are none. The numerous shutdowns of hospital emergency departments in rural areas is the classic example, even though it’s a matter of not managing the problem. Health care worker shortages? There are 1,800 health care workers on the scrap heap over COVID vaccine edicts in contravention of the Canadian Charter of Rights.

It takes money, of which there is not enough due to misspending in areas that are not necessities. Government installation of electric vehicle charging stations is one example. When the demand is great enough the private sector will fill the void. That goes along with lavish subsidies for wealthy people to indulge in vanity electric vehicles.

There are too many areas of government intrusion, like grants for anything and everything. Why should taxpayers foot part of the bill for a home owner installing new windows? Or converting to new energy sources like heat pumps? Those grants don’t reduce the cost of anything, they just shuffle the cost to someone else. More feel-good designed to buy votes.

Look at the huge federal financial money for day care. Instead of supporting privately-owned facilities, money is being directed to the education system for pre-school and after-school daycare, propping up CUPE.

We have an overload of WOKE mentality stressing diversity, equity and inclusion which translates into cradle-to-the grave babysitting, destroying personal initiative and responsibility.

It’s hard to define Falcon who hasn’t been offering anything other than slinging dirt balls at Eby at every turn while not offering a reconstruction plan. British Columbians recognize the problem, they are looking for viable solutions.

Rustad is selling a conservative agenda, leading his party to unheard heights in the polls. Now they have to put some meat on the bones. Rustad and MLA Bruce Banman and their inexperienced party hierarchy have a massive job on their hands convincing voters to make a course correction. They have to prove how less government will improve British Columbians’ lives.

Merger chatter about the Conservatives and BC United is a distraction, it doesn’t instill confidence for the future. Eby is already using it as a scare tactic. From this vantage point it would not unite an opposition creating a bigger force, it would fracture it even further. Remember, it was the Liberals who booted Rustad out of that party.

In politics, always blame

someone else for mistakes

Politics is all about deflection – blaming someone else for your mistakes. Our illustrious prime minister was in the province this past week pointing a finger at Meta, aka Facebook, for depriving Canadians of local news on that social medium. That is particularly critical now with the wildfire season when British Columbians need up-to-date news reporting.

Let’s backtrack here, Mr. Prime Minister, you were the one who tried to extort Facebook and the company responded with blocking links to Canadian news. But he continues to point the finger in other directions, not recognizing that when you point a finger there are three other fingers on that same hand pointing back to you.

A look in the mirror might put things into perspective. He might see clearly whom the blame belongs to. And then again, he might not.

Is Eby finally getting the message

on drug and street disorder backlash?

24-04-28 – Premier David Eby’s ideological steadfastness appears to be coming to bite him in the butt on drugs and attendant crime. Public backlash to decriminalization of drug possession is finally making him change direction, if ever so slightly.

The Safer Drug program is likely a large influence on the latest opinion poll leading up to the October provincial election. For the first time in his term as Premier the NDP sits in second place now behind the B.C. Conservatives. The latest Mainstreet poll shows the Conservatives at 39 per cent support, three per cent ahead of the NDP. The United/Liberals remain at 15 per cent and the Greens are at seven per cent.

It's a given that politcal polls go up and down like a yo-yo, but the latest one should give the premier a message, more than half of British Columbians are not buying what he's selling.

He has given an inches when perhaps it would have been more appropriate to give a yard when the government moved to address one part of the drug problem by outlawing use in public places. It’s still drug use causing social disruption. It remains to be seen how British Columbians react to the band-aid Eby is applying.

In the past Eby was a voice for civil liberties, and that has him preaching against institutionalization and mandatory treatment of addicts. He sees the safe supply concept as an answer but that is proving false, drug deaths are still rising and those safe drugs are being resold for the street market. He keeps repeating that it is saving lives, but he provides no evidence to back that up.

With his insistence on civil liberties, we incarcerate people for many crimes. Rob a bank and you can be sentenced to jail where historically that meant rehabilitation was part of the deal. Heck, even for killing someone you might have to spend time behind bars in today’s judicial system. However, using and selling drugs is illegal but our government wants to protect their “rights” against mandatory treatment and what is known as rehab. Their civil rights are not protected when they are beyond the point of helping themselves. 

Data centre elecricity use
leaves unanswered questions

The recent focus on electricity demands of cryptocurrencies and artificial intelligence data centres around the world raises new concern about a rezoning last April for a data centre on East Wellington Road.

The bylaw rezoned the properties to I3 with data centre as a site specific permitted use. That could put a severe demand on our electricity supply on Vancouver Island.

Director of Planning and Development Jeremy Holm says the intention was to develop a data centre to serve businesses and organizations that store computer servers and associated components in off-site facilities. It did not go into specifics of the data to be processed.

A demolition permit was issued last October for the removal of an existing single family dwelling on the property. However, no development permit application has been made at this point, giving the city a second look at the impact of the project. We don’t have enough information on the full impact of this project.

The applicant will be required to comply with any BC Hydro standards to ensure that the data centre is appropriately sized to the electrical supply for the use.

That’s the big question as more and more data centres are cropping up to mine Bitcoin and train AI, they could double electricity demand by 2026, thanks in large part to cryptocurrencies and artificial intelligence.

Demand for electricity increases naturally with growing populations but new needs such as electric vehicles put a further squeeze on demand. That raises the question about the environmental impact of creating sufficient electricity supply which in other jurisdictions around the world means increased fossil fuel use to create the electricity.

From what I can dig out, the city – council and staff – still don’t know what type of data will be processed here. City council is fortunate it has a second chance to get a lot more information about this proposal.

Why we have such a

major shortage of doctors

British Columbia has a major doctor shortage, why is that?

The Sooke News-Mirror had an informative report on the West Shore Primary Care Society which is recruiting foreign-trained doctors. Alyssa Andres, executive director of the society, said they are bringing in doctors from Australia, the United Kingdom, South Africa, New Zealand and other countries. They have signed nine contracts for family doctors. It will be able to support approximately 11,250 patients in the community.

Now here comes the rub.

The immigration process is the biggest headache, and the red tape associated with trying to bring people to Canada, says Andres. They have to advertise for at least 30 days in three online publications to ensure no Canadian doctor would like to apply for the position.

Then they have to find an immigration expert, file a Labour Market Impact Assessment, pay $1,000 to Service Canada, and wait 10 weeks to verify the need for more doctors.

Then Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada moves in, and the doctor applies for a work permit. Once they are in Canada, they can apply for permanent residence.

Bringing these doctors to the community costs the society around $30,000 to $60,000, including all the related fees and legal and administrative costs.

Explain to me why we have a doctor shortage.

DEI – all about finding the

lowest common fenominator

24-04-15

DEI proponents – Diversity, Equity and Inclusion – reacted in high dudgeon after I breached this subject last week.

First comes diversity, herd everyone into the tent, regardless of special interests, indoctrinate them with the entitlement expectation. Include race, ethnicity, gender, orientation, dependency, all in one big congregation.

Once you’ve done that you create equity, catering to every imaginable victimhood to line up for special benefits in order to reach the lowest common denominator.

When you have them all rounded up and the minorities are all turned into a combined majority, make sure they are endowed with limitless special rights and handouts.

It becomes the socialist Nirvana, where total dependency erases personal responsibility and initiative and political propaganda trumps free speech.

Many toss around labels like fascism at anyone who does not buy into their mantra. The dictionary defines fascism as total control by and dependence on those in charge, like government, making everyone a ward of George Orwell’s 1984 Big Brother.

Longer mortgage pay back

will be very costly in the long run

24-04-11

The extension of some mortgage amortizations to 30 years from 25 years deserve a closer look because of the actual cost of buying a home by paying for an additional five years.

We’ll use an $800,000 mortgage as an example, with a five-year term at five per cent interest.

On a 25-year amortization the monthly payments would be $4,653, for 300 months. You’d pay principle and interest of $1,400,000 over that stretch.

Converting to a 30-year amortization, at the same interest rate, would have a monthly payment of $4,270, lower by $383 per month. Over the 360 months, that would amount to principle and interest of $1,570,000. That is an extra $135,000 in interest and principle for that same $800,000 mortgage over the extended repayment.

Problems piling up for Eby

heading into election period

“If it weren’t for bad luck I’d have no luck at all” could well be the old country tune from the days of Hee Haw ringing in Premier David Eby’s ears.

Just what you don’t need half a year from an election is scandal, but that’s what is dogging him these days on more than one front. People are asking questions and are looking for answers.

The Safer Drug program has blossomed into a major pain for the government. And just when they needed it the least, they’ve had to begin an investigation into the distribution of climate change/carbon tax funds.

The Safer Drugs program has turned into a headache of migraine proportions with the revelations that the program simply is not working. The supposed safe drugs are winding up in the hands of drug dealers who are reselling them on our streets.

Their own legislation legalizing possession of limited amounts of drugs is backfiring, not allowing the government to control open use. They’re in court now over limiting drug use in some locations – near playgrounds, school yards and the like. Homelessness and street crime are part and parcel of the bigger issue.

At the same time health care workers are speaking up about drug use and weapons possession by patients in hospitals. Again, the legalization gives patients the right to use and health care staff have been instructed not to intervene. That last thing you need is a patient high on drugs with a weapon in his/her hands. It puts nurses and other patients at risk.

Health Minister Adrian Dix has called a task for to examine the hospital drug use issue.

The latest reports now raise questions about governent-funded housing where staff claim they have had to resort to wearing gas masks at work due to fentanyl smoke in the buildings.

The philosophy of wide open rights to almost anything goes back to Eby’s earlier career defending human rights from every direction. Now that the shoe is on the other foot he’s learning it’s not that easy to adapt. Mandatory involuntary institutional drug treatment, which he sort of promised during his leadership campaign, didn’t survive after he became premier. He did a 180-degree about turn, and now he may have to consider doing another 180 in the opposite direction.

The rights of the minority are taking over the safety of the majority.

The carbon tax funds issue at this point is more smoke than fire. It remains to be seen what the inquiry will turn up, but the haze hovering on the skyline is more than enough for now. Any time kickback accusations enter the dialogue there’s reason to duck for cover.

When the truth

gets sacrificed

It’s sad when the truth can get you in trouble, lest you hurt someone’s feelings. Ask Post Secondary Education Minister Selina Robinson who stepped into it when she stated fact that pre-1948 Palestine was “a crappy piece of land.” She got raked over the coals, left and right, mostly left, and had to apologize for hurting feelings.

In a B’nai Brith panel discussion, Robinson commented on young people’s lack of knowledge of the Holocaust, saying 18 to 34-year-olds have no idea about the Holocaust. They don’t understand that Israel was offered to the Jews.

It had nothing on it, there were several hundred thousand people, it didn’t produce an economy, it couldn’t grow things, it didn’t have anything on it. That is a statement of fact, some may not like it, but fact should not fall victim to hurt feelings.

Mosques and Islamic associations now want Robinson fired. They say no NDP MLA or candidate for the next election is welcome in their sacred spaces until Premier David Eby takes action against Robinson. And that, my friends, is extortion.

Beware the Boogeyman,

injecting hate into politics

I have a love-hate relationship with politics. I love it while despising a lot of aspects of what is really a game played to select how and by whom we are governed. We’re told that we must accept that black is white and white is black.

American politics has operated this way for decades, vilify your opponents through fear based on misrepresentation. In other words, lie like a mattress. The Americans go to the polls this November and it’s getting messy to the point of involving their judiciary in influencing the dialogue. That behaviour is beginning to rub off on our politics north of the border.

Our federal election is not for another 20 months or so, but it’s becoming clear that we’re in for an American-style campaigning in both this year’s provincial and next year’s federal elections. Prime Minister Trudeau and Mini-Me NDP leader Jagmeet Singh are trumpeting how we are in mortal danger if Donald Trump returns to the White House next January.

They are auditioning the mantra that Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is a mini-Trump. It’s the fear smear, first fear of Trump and then equating Poilievre to Trump and by extension, comparing Trump to Adolf Hitler. They accuse Conservative MPs of using “MAGA tactics” likening them to Trump’s Make-America-Great-Again mantra.

It’s difficult to comprehend how that slogan could be turned into a negative ­– who would not want to Make America Great Again? Or Canada? Canadians are frustrated at the price of goods, falling behind through inflation, housing shortages, failing health care, rising crime and more. These are great election talking points that the Conservatives are plugging into.

Political strategists believe they can take a message about making the country great again and twist them into something to be perceived as negative. It could be a misjudgment of the pulse of the electorate.

The fear campaign sounds like a recognition that voters may turn in that direction. That’s what it’s all about, what voters perceive as best for their interests. Making our country great again certainly sounds appealing, voters might just buy into that and reject the boogeyman theory.

Pay me now or pay me later

Political promises are little more than

a grand shell game

Good politics does not guarantee good governance. Dangling the shiny object in front of voters can spell political success but that usually wears off under the bright light of reality.

With about 22 month before the next federal election, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has the shiny object, his promise to “axe the tax”, to eliminate the carbon tax which is at the heart of a lot of our country’s challenges. It brings in a lot of revenue to the wild spending of Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government, but it’s a real burden to many sectors of the economy. It is constructed so that massive increases are already built in, costing more each year.

The promise to eliminate the tax could be a winner because it’s something taxpayers and voters can buy into. Not too many people voluntarily hand over their hard-earned income. As far as election goodies go, this one on the surface looks like a winner.

It’s after the election when the sheen wears off that we have to worry about. Governance is generally based on income and outcome. You can’t simply get rid of a revenue source without replacing it – and the carbon tax is a big one. You have to replace it with other revenue, generally known as a tax. With this one, increases are already built in.

Former Premier Gordon Campbell made British Columbia the first jurisdiction to adopt a carbon tax, trying to convince us was that is was “revenue neutral.” The first numbers tossed around made it appear that our income taxes would be reduced to match the carbon tax revenue. Campbell tried to convince us that would be the case, we’d break even, and save the planet at the same time.

B.C. Liberals grudgingly conceded later that the carbon tax revenue was much greater than projected, therefore costings all of us more than the supposed income tax savings. They didn’t further reduce our income taxes to make up for the windfall. As an aside, if any program is revenue neutral, then why bother? It’s simply putting a new label on an old package.

The promise to axe the carbon tax will likely earn a lot of votes, but to make it work will require some fancy maneuvering. If elected, Poilievre will have to initiate new revenue sources or cut government spending, hopefully the latter, or a combination of both.

There’s a catch though for British Columbians. A prime minister can eliminate a federal tax, but in B.C. it was brought in by the provincial government. On top of that, the B.C. NDP diverted the carbon tax into general revenue rather than leaving it earmarked for so-called climate action.

Like the old shell game, put an object under one shell and move a whole bunch of them around and see if you can guess under which one it is hidden. As much as we may love the shiny bauble, we need to hear which shell it is under. The problem is that usually reality doesn’t set in until after an election.

As the old Fram oil filter commercials used to warn us, “Pay be now or pay me later.”

WEF should scare the

living crap out of us 

The World Economic Forum sounds so important and powerful. It’s a place where the ultra rich, better-than-thou elitists gather regularly to impact our lives and our future. And impactful they are even though none were ever elected to this august body. Their only qualification is their power through their personal wealth.

They gather to lecture the rest of the world about the dangers of climate change and how we all have to reduce our carbon dioxide production, to the extent of simply breathing. They boast about how they are creating a new world order, a Nirvana, heaven on earth. It’s not about getting rid of fossil fuels and controlling the amount of carbon dioxide, which will be impossible to achieve, it’s about control of every aspect of our lives, with them on the throne.

Our own prime minister and deputy prime minister are real fans of this world agenda.

The devotees go to this exclusive shindig in private and charter jets that spew more CO2 per second than any human might in a lifetime.

They lecture how we should all get rid of our fossil fueled transportation, yet when they arrive in Davos, Switzerland for their wine and dine they all take Bentleys, Rolls Royces and Lamborghinis, their limos while there. Not a Tesla in sight.

Most of us have known the WEF exists, but it’s a distant elitist group than doesn’t affect us directly, or so we are lulled into believing. They’ve convinced a huge portion of the world about climate change and how we must adapt and make changes, even in the light of their extravagances. Yes, we’re impacted.

Recently farmers have become a target, arguing that methane in cow flatulence is a threat to the climate, not to mention the pollution from fossil fuel tractors. All over Europe farms and agriculture are being targeted.

They are already playing that game in Canada with the carbon tax scam foisted on famers. It never improves the climate, it only threatens survival.

One new target got little mention after the most recent Forum, and that was the biggest single food crop in the world. Rice feeds more people than any other staple, and now some in the WEF are preaching its elimination. The way they explain it, rice is grown in flooded fields, using up a lot of water which we should conserve. That’s a no-no. But the rice harvesting process takes only the yield, the actual rice, leaving the plants and stems to decompose in the water. And guess what, that produces methane which escapes from the water into the atmosphere.

Controlling the world food supply naturally means there won’t be enough to go around. However, the brains in the WEF preach that planet earth cannot sustain our population, therefore we’ll have to reduce the number of inconvenient people in the world. Not them of course, just us peasants. To the political left it's a redistribution of wealth, but it's only distributed to the rich, not equally to all of us.

At the latest forum, Scammer in Chief Al Gore left everyone with their tongues hanging out. He intoned there’s money to be made from this New World Order, lots of it, and he invited them all to get on board.

From every breath we take, to livestock, frain fields and rice paddies, we’re doomed. Just how many tons of cow farts and rice farts are exuded by Gore in a single trip as jets around the world sipping champagne and dining on caviar while pretending to save the world?

IMAGE MEDIANET
Home of The Daily Buzz, Nanaimo's comprehensive news source

Owned and operated by Merv Unger

Maple Ridge, British Columbia