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NDP leader won office making promises on smart meters, raw logs, women's equality and much more.
Adrian Dix speaking at 2011 NDP leadership convention. He's made promises then and since. Photo by Christopher Grabowski.
NDP leader talks with The Tyee about ads, agendas, working with BC Liberals, and more.
Motivating the left-wing base the way to beat the BC Liberals, he says.
Martyn Brown's book seems to support how the NDP leader practices politics.
A New Democratic Party government led by Adrian Dix would expand child care, reduce fees for seniors' long-term care, ban the cosmetic use of pesticides, put a moratorium on independent power projects, stop renovictions and create disincentives for exporting raw logs.
The BC Liberal Party this week accused NDP leader Adrian Dix of making a "secret promise" to the B.C. Teachers' Federation to scrap the foundational skills assessment (FSA) test, even though that's something he'd long ago committed to publicly.
FSAs are standardized tests given to students in grades four and seven to assess how their schools are doing. The Fraser Institute has made an annual practice of using them to rank schools against each other.
"If it's official NDP policy to eliminate FSAs, Adrian Dix should just say so," the Liberals' press release quoted Education Minister Don McRae saying.
Actually, Dix has. "The Foundation Skills Assessment test is no longer useful and needs to be replaced," Dix said in an announcement nearly two years ago when he was running to lead the NDP.
"I have worked with educators and parents before and after being elected as an MLA, and fully agree with them that it is critical that we have accurate student assessment," he said. "We need to develop a comprehensive approach, which incorporates teachers' daily observations in the classroom, and then provides schools the necessary resources needed to help students."
The CBC this week quoted NDP education critic Robin Austin saying his party supports broadening the FSA tests rather than scrapping them outright.
Ironically, the same CBC story quotes BCTF President Susan Lambert saying she believes minister McRae himself does not support the FSA tests in their current format.
A Liberals' caucus spokesperson says the minister does support keeping the FSA, whatever impression he may have given to Lambert.
A Dix government would start a Ministry of Women's Equality, get rid of the foundation skills assessment (FSA) for students and allow teachers to negotiate class size and composition as part of their contract bargaining. It would reinstate a tax on financial institutions and raise corporate taxes.
Those commitments and others, all publicly available, run contrary to an assertion that has become common in Victoria that Dix won't say what he wants to do if the NDP forms government.
With the NDP ahead in the polls, Premier Christy Clark's talking points in the past year have included suggestions that Dix has a secret plan for the province. The Liberal Party she leads has pushed the theme, often echoed in the media, with a "Searching for Dix's Hidden Plan" website.
In one year-end interview, Dix said people wanting to know what an NDP government would do should look at what they supported as opposition in the last year, rather than dwelling on what's been unsaid.
More instructive is to look at what Dix said in early 2011 while he was running for the NDP leadership, a time when he stressed he was being specific about his promises in his appeal to party members to vote for him. They include proposals that would change the economy, health services, education and the environment.
Some of them Dix has repeated frequently since becoming leader, but many of them he has not. While they may not add up to a full platform and they leave policy gaps, it is worth remembering what they were.
Raw logs and women's equality
While the website for Dix's succesful leadership bid appears to have disappeared from the internet, The Tyee held onto copies of his announcements. In some cases they are specific about dollar amounts, in some they just indicate his intentions, and in others he identifies policy changes that would transform sectors without great expense to the government.
Following are commitments on some of the province's higher profile issues:
- Using financial disincentives to discourage raw log exports. "I am calling for a major increase in the provincial fees levied on raw logs harvested on Crown lands for export, and for a new provincial sales or earnings tax on raw logs exported from private forest lands," he said;
- "I am committed to a Ministry of Women's Equality to ensure that all agencies and all ministries are moving forward on issues impacting equality for women, including the Premier's Office," announced Dix. "The Liberal decision to scrap the ministry was a step backward that I will reverse";
- "I am also committed to expanding legal aid and supporting and financing women's centres and centres dealing with violence against women";
- "I am committed to expand child care, to initiate a provincial childcare system and to pressure Ottawa to play a major role in such a system";
- Reversing the BC Liberal's hike in fees for seniors in long-term care, which in 2011 transferred a $54 million government expense to seniors and their families;
- Stopping the smart meter program;
- Placing a moratorium on independent power producer contracts;
- Renewing the B.C. Utilities Commission process to restore public accountability, restoring moves in recent years that took things like smart meters out of the BCUC's review;
- Enforcing employment standards and improving "the provisions for workers seeking to organize and bargain collectively";
- Reversing B.C.'s position on the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with the European Union to protect the province from "soaring" prescription drug and health care costs.
Health and education
Several proposals addressed education:
- "Changing the school funding formula to help keep schools open" and "increasing the resources and services for students";
- Ending the current Foundation Skills Assessment program (see Sidebar) and replacing it with something more comprehensive;
- Restoring teachers' right to negotiate class size and composition;
- Eliminating the interest on student loans;
- Creating a grant program for post-secondary students with a budget of $100 million a year, building on a plan to restore grants of $18 million a year distributed based on need, and spending $30 million towards eliminating the interest on student loans.
And the former health critic had several policies aimed at improving care and containing costs, particularly for prescription drugs:
- Requiring B.C. hospitals to buy locally grown food, a move he said would support the province's agriculture industry and benefit patients;
- Expanding reference-based pricing where the government pays for the lowest cost option when there's no therapeutic difference between different priced drugs;
- Increasing support for the Therapeutics Initiative (T.I.), a body at the University of British Columbia that gives independent assessments of the evidence on prescription drugs. The T.I. would be given a stronger voice in the province's drug review process, he said;
- Increasing support for academic detailing, a program where doctors are provided "objective research" on drugs, a way of counterbalancing what they receive in promotions from drug company representatives.
No more 'renovictions'
Several Dix policies were aimed at improving things for renters:
- "Eliminating problematic sections of the Residential Tenancy Act that permit steep rent increases and tenant harassment, and introducing new rules to end 'renovictions' and providing advocacy services for renters." Dix said he would give existing tenants the right to move back into a renovated suite after a renovation at the same rent they paid previously. He also said he would end the "georgraphic market increase clause" that allows landowners to jack rents when neighbouring renters pay more;
- Landowners would no longer be allowed to ask tenants to voluntarily agree to higher rents, a clause Dix said makes tenants vulnerable to intimidation;
- A "Tenants' Assistant" program would be available to renters to provide information and advocacy, a service that would be particularly useful to renters whose first language is other than English;
- The residential tenancy office would be required to track and publish statistics on evictions, such as how many were filed, where, whether they were disputed and whether they were overturned.
And there was a long list of environmental commitments:
- Creating a legislature standing committee on sustainability tasked with examining ways the government can integrate sustainability into government policies and monitor progress;
- Developing a long-term strategy for old-growth forests, which would include protection of Avatar Grove and other specific areas subject to immediate logging plans;
- Ending the carbon tax's revenue neutrality where the amount collected is returned via other tax cuts, and instead using it for transit, energy-efficient infrastructure and other partnerships to reduce greenhouse gas emissions;
- Rewriting the environmental assessment laws to include "sound scientific analysis, genuine participation of the public, full consultation with First Nations and public credibility";
- Writing long overdue endangered species laws following public hearings on the subject and broad public discussion;
- Holding "accountability reviews" on the public concerns about fracking, sour gas and GHG emissions in oil and gas production;
- Intervening against Enbridge's proposed Northern Gateway pipeline from Alberta's "tar sands," rejection of which would also prevent the growth of oil tanker traffic on the coast;
- Paying for an "energy conservation megaproject" that would see the retrofitting of public and private buildings to reduce their energy use, bills and carbon emissions. Dix did not set a budget or a target number of retrofits, but said "these investments more than pay for themselves through reduced utility and maintenance bills." They would also generate thousands of jobs, he said;
- Expanding the province's marine protected areas, stopping commercial development in parks and creating new parks and protected areas where more protection of natural areas is needed;
- Increasing the number of staff in parks to help the public and protect the parks;
- Establishing environmental youth teams, a move that would create summer jobs for young people and provide a pool of labour to work on environmental stewardship projects in parks or elsewhere. Dix proposed to create 1,500 positions through $14.5 million in annual funding;
- Working with First Nations, the forest industry, communities, forest trade unions and conservation groups to develop "new forest management strategies to address carbon sinks, old growth and ongoing transition to second growth utilization";
- Accelerating the implementation of the Great Bear Rainforest agreements;
- Banning the use of pesticides for cosmetic reasons, to beautify lawns or gardens where there is no health, food protection or environmental reason to use them;
- Introducing a water protection act that would prevent unregulated water pollution, protect groundwater and require management plans for all river basins;
- Closing loopholes that allow properties in the agricultural land reserve to be developed and giving the agricultural land commission enough resources to do its job;
- Establishing an agricultural policy to support local food production, processing and procurement.
Making a mandate
Finally, there were a couple measures aimed at raising revenue, making taxation fairer and paying for some of the commitments Dix made:
- Rolling back corporate taxes to 2008 levels, a reverse of the tax cuts associated with the carbon tax, which would raise government revenue by $385 million;
- Returning the minimum tax on financial institutions to where it was in January 2008, which would bring in $100 million a year.
Dix has since also said he's open to raising personal income taxes, but only for people with incomes over $150,000.
At least some observers made note of Dix's promises on the way to the leader's office. For example, Ken Wu, founder of the Ancient Forest Alliance, was particularly interested in the commitment to develop a strategy for managing the province's old growth forests.
"There's no details and he hasn't repeated it since he became the leader, but we're going to hold him to it, and all his MLAs and candidates," said Wu.
The MLA from Cariboo North, Bob Simpson, who parted with the party in 2010 to sit as an independent, has long raised concerns that an NDP government will be elected without any mandate to do anything if they fail to articulate a vision for the province.
"They've committed to proving to people they are not the socialist hordes, (so) they're not being very creative on the revenue side," Simpson said. "I would like to see more creative thinking around how they're going to realign the revenue side so they can adress some of the things that need to be addressed on the spending side."
He questioned the goal of having B.C. be the lowest taxed jurisdiction in Canada. "I think there's no reason we couldn't be in the middle," he said.
The provincial legislature is scheduled to return on Feb. 12 for the speech from the throne, followed by a budget on Feb. 19. It won't be long after that until all the parties release their platforms with the provincial election set for May 14.
When the NDP releases its platform, it will be interesting to see how well it reflects what Dix committed to during his run for the party leadership. ![[Tyee]](http://thetyee.cachefly.net/ui/img/ico_fishie.png){kind=small}
Read more: Politics, BC Election 2013
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Hakuin
23 weeks ago
Not a word about
dealing with those who have raped our province for too many years.
paisley
23 weeks ago
I'll second that Hakuin!
When Dix said on the Voice of BC how "valuable" the bureaucracy is in this province I felt ill. These are same public servants that have aided the pillaging of this province. I and others want to see a massive forensic audit of the goings on in this province and see some heads roll. It's there and it won't be hard to find and we need some fortitude not a carpet sweeper.
frances
23 weeks ago
Exactly.
It is a question of justice for the citizens of BC. There must be some accountability to us for the crimes perpetrated over the past 12 years.
Otherwise, politicians might get the idea they are above the law.
2013? Same sheep, different pen
bcguy
23 weeks ago
Let's see the BC LIberals
Let's see the BC LIberals shoved from office and a Dix government take over and do what he says he will do. Right now many BC citizens are hurting from the increased billing of services and the BC Liberals spenind huge amount of money on their favourite projects that don't help a lot of us very much or at all
ron wilton
23 weeks ago
A promise made is a debt unpaid.
I attended the all candidates meeting in Kelowna prior to Mr. Dix' election as leader.
I had personal coversations with each candidate and was assured by each one that their top priorities were...
-an investigation into all aspects of the BC Rail affair
-an investigation into all aspects of the Run of the River hydro schemes including the role of political insiders
-an investigation into all aspects of Site C dam need or viability...
and many more seeming acts of malfeasance by the present government.
I thought any one of the five candidates would be a credible premier and my first choice was John Horgan.
Mr. Dix and Mr. Horgan still give me confidence that they are men of their words, but the silence from the others is deafening.
I hope the concern of 'frances' is not founded, but I would be even more concerned if he/she had said "2013 ? same pen, different sheep".
Fiat lux
23 weeks ago
Nice ideas, but our economy
Nice ideas, but our economy is now controlled from abroad and by local exploiters, who will do their very utmost to wreck the BC economy the minute the NDP start fulfilling or even talk about any of these promises.
We now have a world controlled and enslaved with the use of imaginary money created from the air by a criminal sector.
The biggest problem is that the NDP never had the communications skills to explain to the public what was and is going on behind the scenes, but tried to put band-aids on the crimes, wounds, destruction and enslavement caused by a criminal economic theory ruling the world.
Unless humanity wakes up to the biggest fraud in history, they can kiss their proverbial asses goodbye and submit to total enslavement by imaginary capital that exists only as computer figures, controlled by gangs of criminals.
Ed Deak.
Van Isle
23 weeks ago
I think Mr. Dix has already
I think Mr. Dix has already been dragged, kicking and screaming, into the dungeon under the Ledge, tied to a chair where our 'masters' (the ones described by Ed) have lectured him on how 'it's gonna be' come after the next election. Mr. Dix has been told to 'play nice or else......'
Dannyboy
23 weeks ago
Details please?
"Stopping smart meters"
What does this mean, spend another billion to go back to analog when the rest of the worlds moving to digital?
"Tax raw log exports"
Sounds good in theory but that won't make sawmills all of a sudden start processing them. It will just cause logger job losses.
"Ministry of Womens Equality"
Groan...well, the BCGEU will be very happy with that. A new bureaucracy to shuffle paper and issue reports that for a non existent problem.
As for the rest of the boilerplate it all sounds good but.......cost?
Reinstating the bank tax and a slightly higher corporate tax will be a drop in the bucket to addressing all of these promises.
I'll more than likely still vote for them but thats a vote AGAINST the Liberals, not FOR the NDP. It's pretty damn hard to vote for the party of slimeball Moe
Fiat lux
23 weeks ago
While this article,
While this article, abbreviated here, refers only to the USA, in reality, the same gangs also rule Canada and the whole world.
http://www.smh.com.au/business/the-four-business-gangs-that-run-the-us-20121230-2c1e2.html
The four business gangs that run the US
by Ross Gittins
The Sydney Morning Herald (December 31 2012)
If you've ever suspected politics is increasingly being run in the interests of big business, I have news: Jeffrey Sachs, a highly respected economist from Columbia University, agrees with you - at least in respect of the United States.
In his book, The Price of Civilisation (2011), he says the US economy is caught in a feedback loop. "Corporate wealth translates into political power through campaign financing, corporate lobbying and the revolving door of jobs between government and industry; and political power translates into further wealth through tax cuts, deregulation and sweetheart contracts between government and industry. Wealth begets power, and power begets wealth", he says.
Sachs says four key sectors of US business exemplify this feedback loop and the takeover of political power in America by the "corporatocracy".
First is the well-known military-industrial complex. "As [President] Eisenhower famously warned in his farewell address in January 1961, the linkage of the military and private industry created a political power so pervasive that America has been condemned to militarisation, useless wars and fiscal waste on a scale of many tens of trillions of dollars since then", he says.
Second is the Wall Street-Washington complex, which has steered the financial system towards control by a few politically powerful Wall Street firms, notably Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and a handful of other financial firms.
Third is the Big Oil-transport-military complex, which has put the US on the trajectory of heavy oil-imports dependence and a deepening military trap in the Middle East, he says.
Fourth is the healthcare industry, America's largest industry, absorbing no less than seventeen per cent of US gross domestic product.
"The key to understanding this sector is to note that the government partners with industry to reimburse costs with little systematic oversight and control", Sachs says.
Pharmaceutical firms set sky-high prices protected by patent rights; Medicare [for the aged] and Medicaid [for the poor] and private insurers reimburse doctors and hospitals on a cost-plus basis; and the American Medical Association restricts the supply of new doctors through the control of placements at medical schools.
The result of this pseudo-market system is sky-high costs, large profits for the private healthcare sector, and no political will to reform.
daveyup
23 weeks ago
a government for the people
what this election will boil down to is the rich and greedy voting for the elite who think they are better than everyone else or the ordinary Joe voting for a down to earth person who will do what is right for the people and not what is only good for Corporations.
gaulois
23 weeks ago
Funding of French education in BC????
As former director of Canadian Parents for French (CPF) and a fluent speaker, I wonder if the next premier has an agenda so secret that it cannot be talked about. Public finances are certainly tight, the education system seriously hurt, and tough decisions are likely required. Call that leadership. The topic is however likely not a "vote-getter" -vs- the new canadian demography languages and wedge politics modern practices. Perhaps a media blind spot too? Déjà-vu?
lowball
22 weeks ago
Apprenticeship training
Not a mention about revising the current mess with apprenticeship training nor the effort to address skill shortages over the next 10 years.I'm under the impression Dix wanted this as one of his top priorities. (See Tyee articles Part 1 and 2 by Katie Hyslop dated July 2nd and July 3rd.)
Dannyboy
22 weeks ago
And what about
Electoral reform? I went to the BCNDP website, used the search function and found pretty much nothing other than vague references to politcal donations, not exactly radical stuff.
Will the NDP position be, well the Liberals went down that path twice and both referendums failed so theres really no point, the people have spoken, we can't just go throwing money around in these tight times, spin,spin,spin.......all of which will be "framed" by the Tyees own Bill Tieleman
Skywalker
22 weeks ago
As I see it...
...the BC Liberals can promise anything they want and it won't mean squat. few, if any will believe anything they say. Adrian Dix will win by virtue of not being Christy. They (liberals) had to come up with the "Dix has a secret agenda" line because it is easy to spin and unless you check as Andrew has done, it might appeal to some. We had that line peddled here by cool hand ever since Dix got the job. This notion might even be reinforced by a lot of NDP MLA's currently doing nothing, not even being visible in their constituency and not responding to any of the issues people are talking about.
But Dix, no matter how many things he will talk about or promise, will never appeal to everyone's pet issue. The problems and political land mines left by the liberals will mean he will have his plate very full. I do expect to see a big difference in how the next government treats its citizens.
Danny boy has already started with silly concerns about what influence Moe or Bill might have. Good grief could any two be as bad as the bunch of crooks we have in the Premiers office now? For me Adrian Dix gets a term to clean up the mess; things like reverse the trend to levy additional costs to those on lower incomes, reverse the cheap sell-off of our resources and the financial mess in BC Hydro. I'll cut him some slack. Then the next time he and the rest had better come up with something better than vote NDP cause we ain't liberal/socred.
Dannyboy
22 weeks ago
silly concerns Skywalker?
Well pardon me for wanting to expect more from the NDP than the present government, attitudes like yours are one reason for me to consider NOT voting NDP.
And yes, Moe has too much back room influence for my liking. I bet he recieves his "stipend" in cash in a brown paper bag.
Tieleman does what he's paid for, I have no ptoblem with that.
My names Daniel Trent by the way before you toss out your " you have no credibility, your an anoymous poster" deflection like I've see you do here. Your parents were obviously huge Star Wars fans I guess
Kreditanstalt
22 weeks ago
12 years & still no new ideas...
"...a major increase in the provincial fees levied on raw logs harvested on Crown lands for export, and for a new provincial sales or earnings tax on raw logs exported from private forest lands..."
And what will this do except kill some existing forest jobs? It won't suddenly make lumber milled in B.C. more competitively priced. Nor will it help reduce costs to forest industry participants, or encourage hiring.
All it will do is raise costs to the industry. Fewer raw logs will be sold and no more milling will be done.
This is dinosaur economics, but it will play well with the environmentalist lobby.
alive
22 weeks ago
My name is ---none of your business!
Way back I did post, using my name, in the local Vancouver rag --- and got anonymous phonecalls belittling me and my family --- So I have learned my lesson; and no doubt so have other posters on this site!
I tend to agree with Skywalker that Dix will have his plate full, just cleaning up the mess left behind.
Likewise, nobody can satisfy everyones pet peeves -- there will be "dark forces' leaning on the next government-- just as Tommy Douglas learned in his time!
So, Dix will need a lot of slack, but I doubt that the posters here will be all that friendly, they tend to shoot themselves in the foot.
Kreditanstalt
22 weeks ago
Still no new ideas...
Talk about the backward-facing gun!
"...a major increase in the provincial fees levied on raw logs harvested on Crown lands for export, and for a new provincial sales or earnings tax on raw logs exported from private forest lands..."
And what will this accomplish?
Will it suddenly make milled lumber cheaper? No. Will it encourage more hiring? No. Will it reduce costs and enable the industry to sell more, export more and expand? No.
But you have to remember that the "opposition" party has a different client base than does the party in power. These tax and cost increases will no doubt play well with the environmentalist lobby. But perhaps less so with rich unionized forest workers.
And what of the other policy threats?
No idea of economics whatsoever. No hesitation in infringing the right to do as one pleases with one's own property. No hesitation in spending and taxing more. And no understanding as to how the wealth needed to pay for all the new spending is generated...
Dannyboy
22 weeks ago
Another question
If thats permitted Skywalker
"a reverse of the tax cuts associated with the carbon tax"
But what about the carbon tax ITSELF? Does this infer the gas tax stays while the income tax goes back up? Cause thats the way it reads.
Mark Crawford
22 weeks ago
A Few Points
--I totally agree with Bob Simpson that the cautious and rather un-visionary approach has its own costs. I hope that the voters in Cariboo North show some vision and re-elect him (and Vicki Huntington in Delta South).
--Like every Opposition , they oppose the export of raw logs. Well, I predict that that will work--as long as demand is strong in both China and the U.S. Otherwise, it won't.
--Readers are right to stress the historically paltry nature of the agenda for democratic and accountability reform. Every other time in living memory, a party coming to power after a long spell in Opposition has made great leaps forward in transparency and accountability. Is it any coincidence that the man to break with that tradition is a long-time political insider like Dix? I understand the up-side to have an experienced lifetime politico holding the reins, but there is a downside, and I think that Bob Simpson has touched upon it. This will be a Spin-and-Control government.
Skywalker
22 weeks ago
I think an unnatural obsession with Moe and Bill is silly.
Definitely so and I don't mind that you post anonymously. I never asked for your name. I simply stated my opinion to which you reply with a derogatory remark about may parentage. Real cool hand eh? With Dix having a colossal mess to clean up I would hope that before he worries about some of these much less important issues, like your hate-on for Moe an Bill, he focuses on preventing and stopping the damage done by the liberals to the province.
Which party introduced FOI Mark? Which party bastardized the office by under funding and delaying responses to requests? You might remember all those round tables on land use plans and the consultation it provided in the 90's before making accusations about which party is all about spin and control. And, it was the whole time the MSM was cutting them a lot of slack every time. Nothing had legs. The truth is that Bob Simpson is a good fellow but he was a liberal before and his memory is a bit jaded.
Now we get Kredit still pushing the BC Lieberal message. In his mind milling logs doesn't create more jobs than raw log exporting. And, he claims the opposition doesn't know anything about economics? Talk about a dinosaur.
catchingupagain
22 weeks ago
Disincentives for raw log
Disincentives for raw log exports is too vague when, is it 4 or 5 mills that were lost in the last year?
Why not push for some affirmative statement of rebuilding mill capacity in BC?
Tell us how many mills will be completely rebuilt by 2015.
Tell us that BCHydro subsidies of electricity for natural gas compression to private companies who are planning to tanker natgas to foreign lands will pay a cost premium to offset loads on the system to BC citizens. Or, why should we subsidize private profit with our increased electricity costs?
Tell us, on ChinaFIPPA, CETA, TPP, and Nafta, that the BC NDP will stand together or apart from the federal NDP to protect BC's capacity, and protect of local products (As, won't CETA make local food services for hospitals impossible?).
Tell us if the TFWP in BC is driving down wages, and there is a disconnect between job training as a priority at the federal level and province, how a zero-raw product, zero-subsidy for resource export policy could generate funds for apprenticeships, training and retraining programs?
Will the BC NDP push for a Federal Regulator to assist local efforts to further police the FIRE sector with sophisticated operations within and outside BC?
A week before Hurricane Sandy hit NY and environs BC signed a disaster relief responder agreement with the Red Cross, yet little was seen of the RC in the initial weeks of intervention, despite donations of 100s of millions. Canada pulled funding from Hati arguing little through-put per dollar as NGO administration absorbed much. Will the NDP revoke the RC agreement and build capacity in BC for disaster relief?
Will the NDP lobby not for fighter jets but for heavy-lift aircraft with disaster relief potential?
And wage inequality in PPP or entities like BCFerries? Will NDP act against the inflation of management costs to the detriment of living wages for real workers?
What about linking apprenticeship, or mentoring programs with public works and public work services (which too often are skeleton crews)?
The fed is initiating an online 'clearinghouse' aggregator to match prospective skilled immigrant profiles with positions in Canada, will the NDP develop a variant for BC workers and jobs? (rather than the private employment services BC's unemployed must use if accessing social services?
Ed Deak and others may enjoy today's anti-Hayek/neocon/lib commentary and article
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2013/01/philip-pilkington-the-origins-of-neoliberalism-part-i-hayeks-delusion.html
Dannyboy
22 weeks ago
Stopping the damage Skywalker?
Foot to the floor in plowing ahead with frakking is not stopping the damage. It's not one bit different than the Liberals or do you think it will be co-ops cracking open the gas fields and building pipelines and not multi-nationals.
Tone down the drama please, theres no "obsession" with Moe, it's an opinion shared by almost everybody. He's as "progressive" as a used car salesman and would fit in perfectly with the Liberals
Skywalker
22 weeks ago
No Danny boy it is not plowing ahead..
There is a big effing difference between what is going on now and:
"The two-term MLA noted that his party supports the expansion of the natural-gas industry in B.C. “provided that appropriate regulatory regimes were in place”. The two-term MLA added that if the B.C. NDP forms the government next year, it will strike an expert panel to review fracking."
Sure you can argue about the composition of the "expert panel" but this is from a green party member in the Georgia Strait trying to spin it and even that doesn't work.
You also get confused as to the willingness to develop (pipe) natural gas as an endorsement of the process of fracking.
Furthermore stop discrediting yourself by mentioning repeatedly your hate-on for one or two people in the party. The drama is not evident here.
I simply don't agree with you on what you think the the NDP's position on fracking is and I don't really care what you think about Moe or Bill OR my parentage. The NDP had a much better record on the environment in the 90's than did the Socreds before or the quasi-liberals after. They can't do worse than the current bunch and Moe and Bill are a distraction for you. Period.
frank2
22 weeks ago
= What is NDP position on
= What is NDP position on carbon targets? what targets do they endorse? what actions to be taken to meet them?
Hakuin
22 weeks ago
Nothing can improve
[VIOLENT CHARACTERIZATION REMOVED. -MODERATOR.]
bleck
22 weeks ago
RE:Dannyboy - Womens' Equality Is Always Important
I think you are dead-wrong in saying womens' equality is a 'non-existant problem'. BC may be a hell of a lot better than other places around the world, but try talking to people who work in our restaurant industry (for starters) and you'll find misogyny alive and well... And I don't just mean customers harassing staff - I mean staff harassing staff.
Even as a male, I can see patriarchy still deeply entrenched in our culture, and while, like you, I question the effectiveness of the proposed ministry's ability to take offenders to task, I know that casually sweeping these issues under the rug - as if ongoing womens' struggles you are ignorant to don't exist - does nothing to move us forward.
David Beers
22 weeks ago
Hakuin
Let's keep the comments substantive. Please refrain from the violent talk. thanks
Bob Watts
22 weeks ago
Lets Face It !
Seems that we always vote for who we don't want rather than who is best.
Raw logs: On Vancouver Island most saw mills have been bulldozed. It will take 10 years to start cutting logs and start reducing raw log exports, without a long term plan we can't stop log exports, we must phase them out.
For me as a Disabled person the NDP offers me nothing. Dix could help by bringing back the RRAP program that Harper transfered to BC and Campbell gutted. RRAP use to supply low cost loans for home repairs like (Roofs) to the Disabled and poor.
I will hold my nose and vote NDP.
Funny the Conservatives in Alberta Doubled Disability Rates. The NDP gutted the Disability rates, and the Liberals perfected Food Banks and Homelessness.....
paisley
22 weeks ago
Skywalker
You claim that Dix will have a colossal mess to clean up but I haven't heard Dix talking about any colossal mess. As a matter of fact according to Dix on VOB he doesn't foresee any substantive increase in taxes just a couple of small adjustments. You really got to wonder if Dix has some rose colored glasses on as some economists are claiming BC is in a fiscal deficit which means even slashing services and raising taxes won't dig us out of this hole...a new source of revenue is required. I don't discount the fiscal deficit and frankly one has to wonder why the NDP aren't making hay of this. Who wouldn't take the opportunity to beat the so called fiscally responsible liberals about the head with this piece of news...continuously... everyday, apparently not the NDP.
Frank
22 weeks ago
Raw logs exports
Ban them completely. No piece of wood should leave BC until as much value has been added by our workers as possible.
And that should go for everything else.
igbymac
22 weeks ago
I agree, Frank,
... valued added is the obvious solution, and a far more centralized economy on the whole is desired. Of all the places on the planet, few rival BC in terms of its ability of being wholly self sufficient. So what's the hold up?
The real problem is will the exploitive potential of capitalism. And on this point, the NDP face in the same direction as the rest of the Party gangs: Capitalism is the only flag waved.
"And our type of capitalism will never fail because socialism will always be there to bail it out" (a quote from Ralph Nader's father). It's just that when push comes to shove, you can count on us people getting shoved around more and more and more.
Cool Hand
22 weeks ago
Frank
It's alot more complicated than that irrespective of the high-cost coastal industry compared to the interior industry.
BTW, the BC interior provides minimal, if any, logs for export. It's the coastal regions where raw logs are cut for export.
Now let's look at the politics of it all.
Most of the raw logs for export are cut from three provincial ridings all currently held by the BC NDP:
1. Vancouver Island North;
2. Prince Rupert;
3. Skeena;
Now let's ban log exports from those regions. No new mills will start-up as a result as it's uneconomic. All of the fallers, truck-loggers, etc. currently gainfully employed will be out of work, Bank on that.
And then the chain-reaction starts - higher unemployment will hurt other small businesses in those areas. More unemployment.
I can imagine the headlines in the newspapers and the 6 pm news - "NDP Guvmint Action Results in Major Job Losses".
The steelworkers, the truckers, the fallers, small business people, local councils, First Nations loggers, etc. will be screaming bloody murder.
Didn't I previously say that if any NDP guvmint is elected (I'm not so sure) that within 1 1/2 years of same they will collapse into 3rd place in public opinion polls - just like in 1994?
Here's a good way to start on that death spiral.
Fiat lux
22 weeks ago
Self sufficiency means making
Self sufficiency means making products from local materials for local people. It works at all levels and can be easily proven, showing it being the only and logical way for survival.
Foreign trade is necessary for resources we don't have, but it has to be limited and real "trade" with equals levels of exchanges and not for monetary purposes, selling the resources from under people's feet to buy things made elsewhere.
It is not BC or Canada who "priced themselves out of the markets", the usual fashionable crap and pretext, but the banking industry and corrupt "conservative" politicians who inflated the money supply, cost and prices for people to survive on.
If we would have a monetary system we had 40-50 years ago, we would also be "competitive" with Asian slave labour, and wouldn't have had to destroy our manufacturing and genuine private enterprise in service of the criminals of the multinational corporate mafia and their pimp politicians enslaving us with "free trade" and the "free movement of capital" rackets.
The problem is not real "economics", but criminals in control of money creation and the sale of the country by crooked politicians now controlling us from abroad, with the racket of "foreign investment".
Ed Deak.
Dannyboy
22 weeks ago
bleck
Re Ministry of Womens Equality.
When I said it was non existent problem I was only referring to what Dix had said in this article it would be created for:
"All agencies and all ministries" meaning.... governmemt workers.
Almost all government workers are union. There is no inequailty in union positions whether your a man or woman and the non union public sector jobs I'm sure are all pay graded and job scoped, again no difference between sexes.
Of course the private sector is a different matter but for them this proposed misistry would have...in my opinion...no effect whatsoever. How could it? What could it do, ORDER private business to hire more women or pay them more? No. It could not so whats it going to accomplish. It's a sop, plain and simple and a waste of money that could be used elsewhere.
Give the money to the paramedics, the last thing we need is more "ministries"
Bob Watts
22 weeks ago
Wood Products.
I live on Northern Vancouver Island and log sales are way up according to my friend in the forestry service. I can see all the logging trucks full every day.
Yet there are only a few 2 to 5 men micro sawmills that cut cedar for special orders etc.
Ever purchased cut lumber in BC, it is all number 2 grade or less, we ship out all the stuff, that also goes for fruit and beef etc, we ship all the best products out.
Funny we just had our government dock rebuilt and all the wood had Oregon USA stamped on it.
How about medical costs? My child broke her foot and Hospital gave her brand new crotchs made in China. After 5 weeks I took them back to Hospital and they would not take them back, advised, I give them away. WOW they are new not even dust on them. Your MSP payments put in the trash. I gave them to a school, hope they are never used again, LOL.
Skywalker
22 weeks ago
"Now let's ban log exports
"Now let's ban log exports from those regions. No new mills will start-up as a result as it's uneconomic."
No new mills have started up since 2002. In fact they have all closed since! It can't be any worse up there. If you ever got outside of the lower mainland you would know this.
"All of the fallers, truck-loggers, etc. currently gainfully employed will be out of work"
Most of them are out of work now except for a few engaged in the wasteful practice of exporting jobs. Why settle for a few jobs when there is more labour to be had for each cubic meter of wood cut by milling it? It is now considered uneconomic only because we let them export to mills outside of Canada. That is so dumb that maybe a little hardship for a few to get jobs for many is a really good idea. What was ever good about being "hewers of wood and drawers of water."
This is called a cool economic theory?
Dannyboy
22 weeks ago
Skywalker
Oh yeah, the NDP had a GREAT enviromental record in the 90's, I mean who can forget who they stood behind at Clayoquot Sound, the largest act of civil disobediance in Canadian history formed to protect an ancient ecosystem.
They stood behind the RCMP as they did the international forest companies bidding and arrested almost 900 protesters, it too the largest mass arrest in Canadian history.
The NDP wears that one.
And do you recall what Glen Clark called Greenpeace:
"enemies of BC" who were "waging a misinformation campaign"
Sounds EXACTLY like Harper does it not?
Hakuin
22 weeks ago
Tell you what Dannyboy
Let's toss the current crooks and liars out before worrying too much about what warts the NDP is wearing at the moment. You DO want to see the Socredlieberals gone, DON'T YOU? Isn't that what really matters in a lifeboat situation?
Mark Crawford
22 weeks ago
My Point Exactly, Skywalker
Of course I am aware that the NDP under Harcourt brought in FOI--just as Barrett brought in full Hansard and Question Period, Bennett brought in the Auditor general and Campbell brought in the Lobbysists registration Act.
Many brownie points to the NDP--and a surprising number to the Right as well. But Dix's formative years were as an insider and close aide to Glen Clark, and he leads a fairly large cadre of people just behind the scenes who also came to Victoria in the early 1990s to work in government.
I repeat: Dix is the first leader in our lifetimes--especially of the NDP--NOT to live up to this fine tradition of a great Leap forward in transparency and accountability. Is that because our institutions are so fine that we already lead the country and the world? If so, let's give some kudos to the Liberals. But if not, let us assign blame to Adrian Dix.
Dannyboy
22 weeks ago
Hakwin
A change of government is warranted and I have already stated I will *almost* certainly vote NDP. My heart is with the Greens but I live in the real world and know better, they aren't there yet.
I am just under no illusions the election of an NDP government will herald the Dawn of the New Age.
Their track record is with the corporations.
Frank
22 weeks ago
Luke
"Now let's ban log exports from those regions. No new mills will start-up as a result as it's uneconomic."
Shall we look at this line in detail? What mills are required to ship raw logs out? How is allowing the export of raw logs going to contribute to the sudden building of mills when the history of the Liberal decade shows the opposite to be true?
If we know that ever since the Liberals allowed companies to not process logs in the region they were taken from there has been a loss of mills. As anyone would expect, and did expect.
What you're saying is that we should expect the opposite to happen. But the answer is already there, history shows you're wrong.
2003 : 48,400 people employed in wood product manufacturing. By 2011 that number had fallen to 30,100.
And, regardless of your "concern" for loggers :
2003 : 27,100 people employed in direct foresty. By 2011 that number had fallen to 14,000.
Frank
22 weeks ago
Above
Numbers taken from PDF file available at BC Stats under the heading Employment by Industry
http://www.bcstats.gov.bc.ca/StatisticsBySubject/LabourIncome/EmploymentUnemployment/LabourForceStatisticsAnnual.aspx
Frank
22 weeks ago
Dannyboy
With the corporations? Perhaps fairer to say they're with the workers of those corporations.
Hakuin
22 weeks ago
then I guess it behooves to
be doing the work NOW to be positioned to cure the incipient NDP ills before they blossom after the Liberation. That includes sharpening the knives to excise the obvious cancers as well as grooming fit replacements. Couple that with the Total War the 1% of NC will unleash on the province the second Dix is sworn in. Going to be a busy time. Who knows? Perhaps a fit leader will emerge?
Hakuin
22 weeks ago
1% of B.C.
dammit
catchingupagain
22 weeks ago
Labour unit costs & Resource removal efficiences: Is this life?
Will the NDP continue by perpetuating the wealth management model of global-market 'open for business' subversion of the public purpose of Canada's, and here specifically BC's economy – that is, open to global penetration of our economy to maximize the efficiencies of 'labour unit costs' (with no attention to living wages) and zero-valued added natural resources (to benefit the rentier class 'removers' of natural resources)?
Raw logs
Raw bitumen
Hydro-electric power
Malaysian, and other private owned natural gas companies profit from odious subsidies of electricity generated by BCHydro, then maneuver giant tankers which expose our coastal ecology to tanker-towing catastrophes, to shuttle their product to its oversea destination.
Project plans for long term, decade+ use of TFW
In short, will NDP continue the charade economy which relegates the public purpose of living wages, the public good of civic infrastructure and ethical ecological management to be externalities to the cost of doing business?
If the NDP will not move to develop local capacity of the public purpose of our economy, shouldn't we better vote aesthetically? Who has the prettiest face to grace the MSN? Perhaps Mr Dix should update his eyeware the better to reframe the vision.
Dannyboy
22 weeks ago
Ok Frank
And by the same token when we start seeing frakking and LNG pileline protestors arrested...and we will... it will be because the NDP is standing behind the workers.
Not the corporations.
Hakuin
22 weeks ago
Dix will be much more malleable than
the alternative. Of course he will betray us, he's a politician. But he will be weak at the onset and the people of the province may even have a fair fight with the usual purchasers of our governments. Get him in and then get all over him. And never turn your back on the real enemy - they will be watching and waiting.
Frank
22 weeks ago
Dannyboy
That's true. But what's the alternative? Have the NDP make every decision on what's best for the environment?
kasi_visvanath
22 weeks ago
make no mistake
the NDP are basically Corporatocratic shills almost as totally as the B.C. Harperite "Liberal" Fascist Chamber of Commerce Party.....they CLAIM to be representing the workers, but i know from my own experience, working in the public sector as a Community Support Worker in Group Homes for people with mental and physical disabilities since 1990, the truth of how they actually behaved in labour negotiations.
when our contract was being negotiated back in 98 or there about, a year or two behind when it SHOULD have been negotiated....the NDP government fought tooth and nail to PREVENT any increase in wages or benefits to us CSWs. in fact we, in that sector, had to go on strike...a lengthy strike (for us) of several months...and even then, the compromise was less than pleasing to the workers (and i suspect to the NDP government as well)...
so we cannot say that they are 100% supportive of the workers in this province (or federally for that matter)....it's basically all spin, and propaganda to APPEAL to the workers for a vote...
they are MARGINALLY better in my view, in that we did somewhat better during their reign in the 1990's (speaking of my own job)...although they appeared to me to be extremely miserly, and were skinflints with public money....(which in reality is a GOOD thing for a government...to a point)....
The NDP, when in government, bent over backwards to make a friendly business environment for the "Chamber of Commerce" people....despite all the propaganda which the Chamber of Commerce and its pet party...the B.C. Liberal Chamber of Commerce Party, daily spout against them....
i suspect they would be prudent fiscal managers, as they appeared to be, when they were in power previously....again, despite the propaganda claims of their enemies....
but that doesn't mean that an NDP win in 2013 will bring in the "New Age"....the "Golden Age of Socialism" or whatever fond pipe-dreams closet socialists might entertain in the darkness of the night....things may marginally improve in some of the "social" departments....IF their lords and masters in the Chamber of Commerce ALLOW them to make improvements
Frank
22 weeks ago
A New age of socialism?
The NDP under Dix want a second term. they will be moderate in ther policies which means we can expect to be disappointed to some degree.
The makeup of their MLAs suggest there's many genuine progressives sitting there, as well as many moderates.
The more popular they are the more they will think they can "get away with" and thus the more progressive they'll be.
Let's recall that Bob Simpson seems quite popular and he's not a progressive, he's a moderate that used to be a Liberal member.
Dannyboy
22 weeks ago
Frank
I find your comment quite odd. Yes, it IS the governments job to make every decision on whats best for the enviroment.
Thats called the Ministry of the Enviroment and however many millions of dollars goes into it.
I'm done with this dead horse folks, be it resolved the NDP well form the next government and all we can do is...hope for the best.
Fiat lux
22 weeks ago
The real problems are not the
The real problems are not the politicians, but the universities where miseducated economists of all parties originate and misadvise the politicians with the criminal neoclassical economic theory enslaving humanity and destroying the Earth.
The NDP, or any other progressive party, can jump up and down, as long as this criminal theory is forced on humanity things will be going downhill until the final collapse, which may be planned by the corporate mafia to cause desperation and force humanity to beg for their complete dictatorship.
The way the Germans were forced to accept Hitler in 1933.
The minute he came into power the country was booming.
Ed Deak.
Skywalker
22 weeks ago
If "Clayoquot Sound" is the only complaint you have....
...you haven't got much. How would you have stopped the "war in the woods"? I guess by a one-sided action. Well it would not have worked. A compromise had to be made considering the problem had been left unsolved for too long. Of course critics always see the issue from the perspective that all one-sided options were available. They were not.
That is the problem with creating expectations without knowing what got us into the mess and how deep it really is. I have no time for the couch experts pontificating about Clayoquot Sound. I still contend that the environmental record of the 90's was better than it was in the decade before and better than it has been since.
Frank
22 weeks ago
DannyBoy
The environment is only one ministry of many. Compromises involving this versus that always have to be made. The NDP will side more often on the side of the environment, labour and the disadvantaged than the Liberals.
I think that's what most people want, the pendulum to return to the middle because at the moment its way over on the Right.
Waltz
22 weeks ago
Is this current?
What Andrew Macleod writes appears to be stale and dated -- perhaps an attempt to pre-empt Adrian Dix?
I look forward to hearing Adrian Dix's election platform directly from him once he decides to announce it officially.
igbymac
22 weeks ago
Frank, this is your area of knowledge
"The makeup of their MLAs suggest there's many genuine progressives sitting there, as well as many moderates."
S0 can you do my homework and quickly outline whos-who in the NDP in terms of 'progressive' or 'moderate'?
It need to not be comprehensive, just even a short list of the 'progressives' in the Party would be amply sufficient. Thanks.
_____________
As for the 'middle', it may be what people want, but it certainly isn't what the bewildered herd needs. :)
Skywalker
22 weeks ago
You are right on Frank.
Perfection is not available in politics. Anything non-BCLiberal has great possibilities.
igbymac
22 weeks ago
Skywalker
Nobody is seriously asking or expecting perfection[i], just a real change in [i]vision and direction.
On the alphabet scale of A to Z, assuming the Liberals are staring down "W", the NDP are fixated on "T".
Whereas "M" is the middle ground.
And life teaches us all we don't hit much we aren't aiming at.
Frank Lee
22 weeks ago
The point
"Which party bastardized the office by under funding and delaying responses to requests? You might remember all those round tables on land use plans and the consultation it provided in the 90's before making accusations about which party is all about spin and control."
Everybody, Crawford's point is logically airtight and inescapably correct. He wasn't making "accusations about which party is all about spin and control". He was making a point about what to expect from parties--especially the NDP, who I think that he supports--who have been in Opposition for a decade and bringing a fresh start. He then pointed out the historical precedents in 1972-73, 1975-76, 1991-92, and 2001-2002, when governments with an Opposition idealism and maybe a slight touch of naivete brought in major new improvements to our institutions of accountability. And then he made the crucial point: either major new innovations are not needed, in which case we have to credit the Liberals for "maturing" all of our institutions and policies of accountability and transparency; or they are needed, in which case we should be at the very least dismayed that Adrian Dix is the first brand new government (Glen Clark, Bill Vanderzalm and Christy Clark don't count) to do so little. Crawford then very reasonably asked whether this has to do with the fact that Dix and his cohort were in power during the 1990s and that their orientation is therefore quite different from that of Barrett, Harcourt, or even Benett the Younger in 1976 or Campbell in 2001.
Skywalker, it was the NDP which began the bastardization of the FOI almost as soon as Dix and Clark got into the Premier's office--with a general spending freeze that was extended to accountability budgets and with "maximum delay" to certain FOI requests that the government thought were embarrassing. Dix personally had his hand in at least one that I can remember. (I was working inside the NDP government at the time. I saw it with my own eyes.)
I agree that the Land Use plans and the CORE process--but they were all well underway before Clark took office. And besides, the question before us is--why is Dix the first new NDP premier-in-waiting without a major leap forward in transparency and accountability? Even Bill Bennett in 1976 and Gordon Campbell in 2001 had more on offer than this.
Frank
22 weeks ago
igbymac
I would say look no further than the 13 MLAs who made up the anti-James faction. I'm sure you would agree that Jenny Kwan, Lana Popham, Claire Trevena, Katrine Conroy, Norm Macdonald et al are on the progressive side of the party? Bob Simpson not so much but in my view, the jury is still out on that guy.
"As for the 'middle', it may be what people want, but it certainly isn't what the bewildered herd needs. :)"
True, but people have to move gradually on their own, I'm not a believer in "revolution from above".
Skywalker
22 weeks ago
Yes but what did they deliver?
"Even Bill Bennett in 1976 and Gordon Campbell in 2001 had more on offer than this."
Hakuin
22 weeks ago
:)
Amazing how closely these discussion resemble people talking about hockey.
Cool Hand
22 weeks ago
Frank
Lana Popham et al "progressive" from your view?
I would categorize her as moderate. Man... you should see the new batch of leftist social activists, union activists, and enviro activists running for the BC NDP this time around.
If Bill Vanderzalm was a a hardcore lefty as he is a righty, he would be grinning that toothy smile of his from ear to ear.
Remember moderate Mike Harcourt during the 1991 election campaign? "No New Taxes". Well guess what happened afterward.
If BC was under the same tax regime as the 2000 NDP guvmint, the government would be collecting an additional $3.2 billion annually in revenue. The BC NDP won't go there publicly this time around.
Ya see... the problem is that the BC NDP has provided the perception to many in the public that health care, education, social services, etc., etc. will all be fixed with additional massive spending.
And that MSP premiums, transit rates, you name it will either be lowered or be removed altogether.
Over the years, the BC NDP have criticized all of these areas and stated what should be done. That would add up to another ~$7 billion/year or more in additional spending.
Ain't gonna happen. And the tax increases proposed by Dix are relatively minimal. So how will the BC NDP square that circle?
Dix is no popular Gary Doer with his dour persona either.
And alot of stuff that Dix will do if he ever forms guvmint, which he doesn't state publicly now, will bite him in the arse politically. Happened to the BC NDP within 1 1/2 years of the 1991 election in 1993, when they collapsed to 3rd place in BC public opinion polls (after Reform) and the federal NDP collapsed to 2 seats in BC in 1993/97/00.
Let's look at moderate New Democrat "Uncle" Daryl Dexter in Nova Scotia. He was very popular when elected but he has abandoned his base - a letter from several hundred prominent NS NDP'ers was sent to him in that regard. Much of the NS NDP base is now lifeless.
OTOH, many in the general public also feel betrayed by the impressions and promises that Dexter made during the last campaign.
Dexter is now the most unpopular premier in Canada (according to ARS), the NS NDP is in close position to reaching almost 3rd place in public opinion and an election must be held this year.
Looks like another one term NDP government wonder.
And if there is a change of government in BC (it ain't over until the fat lady sings) then it will be a centrist, swing anti-Liberal vote, not a pro-NDP vote.
Again, BC is a centre-right province and every time the NDP is elected, government turmoil presents itself through the media. And I don't even know if ya want a BC NDP government because that will likely mean a collapse of the federal NDP vote in BC to 2 seats in 2015 as happened in '74/'93/'97/ and 2000.
Suffice to say that Dix is the most left-leaning NDP leader in Canada and most of his new NDP MLA wannabe recruits are cast from the same mold. Not a very good fit for BC government.
Frank
22 weeks ago
Luke, its 2013
BC WAS a right-wing province. But every year more right-wingers than left-wingers die off and the youngsters lean toward the NDP and Greens. In my youngest daughter's high-school class during the last federal election campaign they held a mock vote and the NDP won overwhelmingly. The Greens came a distant second and the Cons only got a few votes, behind the Libs.
The only reason Harper and Campbell won re-election is because almost everyone over 60 votes and not enough under 25 do.
Even ThreeHundredandEight has mentioned the difference in political choices based on age groups.
Anyway, you brought up Dexter, yes, he's alienated his base. Idiocy for any leader no matter what their political stripe. You never saw Harper or Campbell forgetting who their core supporters are. Its why even you admit the Liberals have lost the centrists, they're tired of a government than panders to the right-wingers all the time.
Strangely you say Dix is more left-wing than Dexter and that that would be a bad thing. It isn't because Dix won't forget who his base are. When the NDP alienates their own supporters, they lose. When they're onside, the NDP has a chance. Dix will try and keep both his core supporters and the centrists onside and I think he's a bright enough guy to know what he has to do.
As for turmoil in BC, where've you been the last 12 years? Been a lot of turmoil around here too. The Libs didn't fall into the 20s for no reason.
Frank Lee
22 weeks ago
How much did they deliver?
"Even Bill Bennett in 1976 and Gordon Campbell in 2001 had more on offer than this."
Actually, in terms of accountability and in their first couple of years, quite a bit!
Bennett brought in the modern Office of the Auditor General as an independent office of the Legislature in 1977. And CAmpbell also broght in the Lobbysists Registration Act early in his first term.
Crawford is right; historically these innovations tend to come from parties that have been in Opposition, probably because they don't have any skeletons yet. Think of FOI and CORE process under Harcourt.
Frank Lee
22 weeks ago
P.S.
And yet--Dix looks to be the exception, which is a little scary.
We should speak truth to power, even when that power prospectively belongs to the party and leader that many of us might prefer.
And surely Crawford is right to suspect that the reason is that DIx--and the fairly large cohort of political operatives who came to Victoria with him in 1990--have a perspective that is much an insiders' as an outsiders'.
A fact worth underlining: at this point in time (January 2013) Christy Clark has only spent half as much time in the premier's office as Dix spent between 1996 and 1999. The casual voter and commentator almost never stops to reflect on the significance of this fact.
Cool Hand
22 weeks ago
Frank
Well, you forget something. Many/most of those over-60 "right-wingers" were high school/university students from the most left-wing generation ever produced.
Ya know. The '60's anti-establishment generation - beatniks and hippies who "tuned in and dropped out" enjoying their groovy summer love-ins. Anyone "over 30" was not to be trusted and a utopian society was just around the corner.
Their majority political attitudes have def changed over time. Ergo, David Lloyd George's famous quote sounds like it does have some truth to it:
"A young man who isn't a socialist hasn't got a heart; an old man who is a socialist hasn't got a head."
As for high-school participation in mock elections - here's the same for BC election 2009:
http://www.studentvote.ca/bc/results2009/district.php?id=26
Most high school students aren't poltically aware and go with the then popular flow. I suspect the Reform party was a popular federal choice during the 1990's as well.
I still remember when the teach asked us Grade 4 students what everyone wanted to be "when they grew up". 90% of my classmates wanted to be a veternarian. As far as I am aware, no one in my Grade 4 class ever became a veternarian.
Dannyboy
22 weeks ago
Oh so THATS why those commercials are on TV
I didn't know there was an upcoming election in NS but now it makes sense now.
I have a cable bundle with a bunch of unwanted channels, one of which is the CTV outlet in Halifax.
I was watching something and a commercial came on and it was practically a carbon copy of the government "feel good" ads that are running now in BC, right down to the provincial flag in the background at the end and a web address to a government job site.
I'd bet money they were produced from the same template they were so similiar.
Hakuin
22 weeks ago
So why shouldn't we hunker down
Hang onto our resources, protect our environment and let the rest of the world hit the wall first? A little sacrifice now of mostly silly vanities and we as a people could be sitting pretty when the hard times come.
Oh wait, I forgot. A handful of greedy and shortsighted have stolen all our birthrights and they want it all NOW! Guess we'll have to lie back and let them take it - after all, our kids are unworthy, not like theirs...
paisley
22 weeks ago
Cool Hand
"Result in a major job loss". Lets look at the facts shall we. In 1995 we have 60,000+ jobs of direct employment in the Forest industry. In 2012 we have 16,000 direct jobs in the forest industry. The major job loss already happened. Tell us another BS story.
Feverish
22 weeks ago
Scratch the surface
I expect there will be some small victories that come IF the NDP is elected, but we may be waiting another year to go to the poles.
http://powellriverpersuader.blogspot.ca/
see the Jan 8 post for some Banacek-like dot connection.
Though it may not really depend on 'if' or 'when' the lyin' liberals are ousted, the shadowy men with orders from the new world will turn up the heat on us poor slobs that live in this province (and the rest of Canada) and the fryin' will begin in earnest.
The neo-robber-barons are backed by private security, local cops, the rcmp, the harper gov and our friendly neighbour to the south. (Not to mention a well-heeled pack of kool-aid drinkers) There is no way they will allow their strangle hold to be loosened by a bunch of whiny nature loving trouble makers. The corporate masters run the province, the country, the 'global community' so expecting Mr. Dix to stand up to their raw & ruthless agenda is a bit naive.
What is it they say? Never realized what we had 'til we lost it. It's only when we ALL realize, at last, that without the natural world we have nothing, will we see real change. United we stand, divided we crawl.
Frank
22 weeks ago
Luke
Actually the 60's (actually late 60s) generation are't seniors yet (over 65). Perhaps a few are. Not that that matters much. Its all beside the point.
You're betting that BC is a right-wing province because it was 40 years ago.
The past is the past Luke, eventually every voter from back then will be dead. And the world is changing rapidly, the makeup of communities change quickly, this isn't like the days when people spent their whole lives in the same place and voted for whoever their father did.
There's more swing voters now and certainly more swing between generations.
I'm not going to paraphrase Kruschev and say its inevitible and we'll bury you because that would be silly. No one can predict the future. Things happen. But given the last 30 years of stagnating wages and greater insecurity its only natural for people to question the system. And many are, including economists.
The future isn't what it once was (I just pulled a Wente, did you notice?), people's dreams of a better day are fading and the current system is the reason why.
If you really believe that BC will always be a right-wing province in spite of huge demographic changes and increasing poverty and insecurity you're letting your hopes cloud your thinking.
For every action there's a reaction, it just takes time.
Frank
22 weeks ago
Hakuin
Exactly, selling non-renewable energy resources to competitors is ludicrous.
G West
22 weeks ago
I've got a better quote Lukie
Anyone who's not a social democrat - given the record of countries like Sweden, Norway and Denmark compared with our own experience - is a complete idiot - no matter how old they are.
By the way, your Lloyd George "quote" is really an update of the words of Francois Guizot, who said: "Not to be a republican at 20 is proof of want of heart; to be one at 30 is proof of want of head".
Frank
22 weeks ago
Luke
By the way, David Lloyd George's party (the Liberals) has been the third party in Britain for almost a century. Since he was in power its been pretty much all downhill.
Guess he didn't see things changing all around him either. That happens when you live in a glass cocoon and ignore the real world.
Fiat lux
22 weeks ago
The real world is the
The real world is the physical one, based on physical laws and not on imaginary beliefs, religions, ideologies and money created from the air, overruling realities, always in and for the service of the proverbial 1% of history, with the idiot twins of communism and capitalism as the worst case examples.
Ed Deak.
Logical BCer
22 weeks ago
Change is Needed
One definition of insanity is repeating the same task over and over again and expecting different results. BC keeps flopping between the Liberals and the NDP and we keep expecting something different. I don't think we are crazy yet, but a couple more flip-flops and I'll believe it.
That is why I will be supporting the Greens in the next election; because it is time for change. We need a more efficient government with reduced bureaucracy and empowered front line service providers. We need a government that is socially responsible to ensure everyone has access to Healthcare, Education, and Housing. We need a government that will be stewards of our natural resources and economy to ensure resource extraction is used to benefit British Columbians today and well into the future. Most importantly, we need a government that is representational of the voting population.
igbymac
22 weeks ago
lol...c'mon Frank,
What a loaded question! hahaha
I suppose if one considers a person 'progressive' because they are looking back in the progressive direction -- but from the back of a boat sailing in the wrong direction -- then I'd agree.
That aside, thanks for the guidance within the NDP party.
Hakuin
22 weeks ago
it would be more "Logical"
to support the NDP and then turn it into a real Green Party.
People get the wrong idea about reforming political parties from within because of which party has been on top for too long. No Socredlieberal really wants any kind of change, just more evil - and HARDER! When the NDP forms the next government in the very near future it is entirely possible that decent people motivated to make a positive difference COULD affect the decisions and course of the party. If the current Greens were really thinking about the future of BC they would invade the NDP en masse and easily make a real difference, far more than the one or two seats they win going it alone.
So lets see your resolve, Green shirt wearers, are you going to take the safe, lazy path of just looking good? Or are you willing to eat the dirt and do the work to actually make good things happen?
Av Moore
22 weeks ago
Tricky Dix
Of Adrian Dix Andrew writes...
“Those commitments and others, all publicly available, run contrary to an assertion that has become common in Victoria that Dix won't say what he wants to do if the NDP forms government.“
PROBLEM: Real “commitments” or vote-seeking spin? Have we forgotten Dix's temporary fidelity to Carole James? Or his blatant sycophancy of Glen Clark?
Why expect him to do what he claims, given that he continually backs away from obvious benefits for making Public Interest commitments? Like his waffling on Enbridge and Kinder Morgan, LNG and so on?
First hints of possible disaster were Dix's two interviews with Rafe Mair. Dix's evasions, equivocations, and absolute refusals to answer any straight question with straight answers were sickening. I haven't seen anything so sleazy since the demise of Tricky Dick - “The President Is Not A Crook!” - Nixon.
Why Rafe didn't throttle Dix was a mystery until I realized that Witness Dix, testifying in his own defense, hung himself in full public view. Twice. A fool for a client indeed...
Below ron wilton lists the NDP's previously stated “top priorities”..
“-an investigation into all aspects of the BC Rail affair”
“-an investigation into all aspects of the Run of the River hydro schemes including the role of political insiders”
“-an investigation into all aspects of Site C dam need or viability...”
“- and many more seeming acts of malfeasance by the present government.”
Nice promises, no? Wait. Doesn't "malfeasance" require the expert testimony of an Auditor?
In Victoria today an elderly woman held up a sign reading, “Support John Doyle.”
Did Dix support Doyle?
Perhaps someone here can explain how Dix's continued refusal to publicly commit to reinstating John Doyle furthers the interests of Justice. By passively allowing the libs to boot our best Auditor General to Australia – please explain how BC benefits...
We're expected to believe that with a majority government Dix could never change the laws to allow Doyle to testify on BC Rail, BC Hydro\IPP, Site C, Smart Meters, etc?
Another term for Doyle to continue to expose and prosecute lib frauds just isn't important?
BULLSHIT.
No prosecutor allows an accused perp to force the most important witness to pack and leave the continent. But poor pleading Adrian - forever reluctant to recognize moral high ground let alone seize it – he says his hands are tied...
Falsus In Uno, Falsus In Omnibus.
The Chinese say a weak man in a strong position is a recipe for disaster, and for that reason I think Dix will have to be watched and reigned in very carefully and very often.
Hakuin
22 weeks ago
"I think Dix will have to be watched and reigned etc."
Most certainly. It also means he is amenable to our control, unlike any alternative from the ranks of the old enemies. I'd rather have a weak leader than some psychopath that can step on my face without a thought.
Cool Hand
22 weeks ago
Av Moore
Just after the BC Union of Municipalities convention last fall, Dix was interviewed by the various media and Dix was dodging, ducking, dancing, and sweating in front of the TV cameras.
Really horrible/terrible optics.
From Vaughn Palmer:
"the NDP leader did everything he could to duck, bob, sidestep and otherwise avoid answering the question."
"By my reckoning it took 18 questions from six different journalists before it was finally, conclusively nailed down"
"But the end of that session of Dancing with Dix, the no-longer cool NDP leader had worked up a sweat, something I’d not seen before in his scrums."
http://www.vancouversun.com/Business/2035/dodging+ducking+dancing+sullies+smooth+performance+Palmer/7311195/story.html
The Liberals will likely create a TV election ad including that footage with the foregoing Palmer quotes from the Vancouver Sun. That powerful visual will def plant doubts in the public's mind about "what Dix is seemingly hiding/covering up".
http://www.vancouversun.com/Business/2035/dodging+ducking+dancing+sullies+smooth+performance+Palmer/7311195/story.html#ixzz2HmyC7SzD
I've said it once and I'll say it again. The BC Green Party are the sleepers of the May, 2013 campaign. For once they have these environmental wedge issues against the NDP:
1. Natural gas fraccing;
2. Natural Gas/Coal development;
3. LNG development;
4. Kinder Morgan Trans-Mountain pipeline twinning.
These issues will be at the forefront for many during the campaign and make no doubt that a chunk of current NDP public support is quite soft.
Frank
22 weeks ago
Luke
If your party is betting the election on negative ads, you've already lost.
If the NDP go negative at all it will be to bring up BC Rail, cost overruns everywhere, the HST etc. Actually, its such a target rich environemnt I doubt they'll even go there.
They'll stick to a positive message and let the Liberals wallow in the muck. Libs do that well.
G West
22 weeks ago
Frank
The NdP don't HAVE to go negative: They have the Liberal record to refer to. Compared with the results of the NDP years there is simply no comparison.
Av Moore
22 weeks ago
How Adrian Dix thinks
For those interested in seeing how Adrian Dix answers policy questions the next two links will be informative.
http://thecanadian.org/k2-video/item/1342-rafe-mair-adrian-dix-bc-ndp-private-river-power-ipp-site-c-dam-environment
http://thecanadian.org/item/1672-lng-fracking-and-site-c-dam-bcs-looming-energy-boondoggle
On what the press probably should ask politicians there's this.
http://thetyee.ca/Mediacheck/2013/01/07/BC-Candidate-Questions/
On Mr. Dix odd resort to double standards there's this.
http://thecanadian.org/k2-video/item/1365-video-rafe-confronts-dix-on-lng-fracking-enbridge
You be the judge.
Frank
22 weeks ago
Av Moore
If you don't like the NDP, by all means vote Liberal if you think they're so very clean.