A Word of Caution

After seven consecutive years as political leader of a province with the worst child poverty rate in the country, you might want to be careful about asking if he's kidding.

Try not to nudge the giant too hard, Bill. He might wake up and start stomping on baby chicks.

Sorry, Bill, you're not the leader ...

... thought I should apologize for my grammatical error before you hit me with a defamation suit. ;-)

We have only ourselves to blame...

...for we have amazingly agreed to a fatal recipe where 35% of the electorate makes a democracy.

Upon assuming power, our political system is poisoned with rubber-stamp voting in the House (almost exclusively along party lines) by these fraudsters who dare call themselves the people's representatives.

And once a new election is about to be cooked up, we are offered a few tasteless public care-packages with the sustenance of stale popcorn.

Then while we dislodge the kernels from out teeth, we are served up some toxic propaganda which washes back our recollection of all past indiscretions, crimes, and treacherous acts of the incumbents.

And just to make sure we keep in touch with our Host, for it is only through his hospitality we had a chance to dine at all!, we most graciously thank him for the meal by re-electing his restaurant to cater for another four years.

Electoral reform is our most pressing issue if democracy is a concern; this much should be obvious to all but the least enlightened observer. Yet, stupefyingly, it always boils down to these two buzz words -- 'the economy'.

This is, evidently, just about all we really like to chew on before an election, even knowing our government never operates its wing of the economy in favour of anyone but its corporate friends.

Perhaps the racist and elitist Winston Churchill had it correct: "The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter".

I like to think things aren't that bleak but I'd be blind not to see history has certainly been on Churchill's side.

Embarrassed and Ashamed

I did not vote for the current government but, for some reasons, I am embarrassed and ashamed to admit I am from BC these days. I cringe everytime I see a picture of Gordon, Colin or Rich...or the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval running Children and Families these days.

Persistent Undermining of Democracy

Campbell and his corporate funders make the Bill Bennett Socred era look like the salad days! This neocon group has come full circle on notions such as 'free market' and 'competition'. This is the hightest concentration of power BC has ever seen in one office. Similar to the way GW Bush ran Texas, it's a private back room club of divvying up 'de business' between friends, highest bidders and corporate backers. Most of whom who don't even live in BC. It's like a fire sale auction. Inventory clearance! All product must go.

These pernicious, awful policies will have consequences for us real people for years and years to come.

Great coverage as always.

overspending

I would like to see a list of the charities these celebrities gave the 50 thousand dollars to and contact said charities to see if they received any of the promised funds.Just curious since it's my taxes that's being spent.

GiveMeABreakPlease

In the beginning of this administration you had to believe Premier Campbell and his PABites had the province firmly under control But they forgot two core principles that are in my PR text book:

1. Never lie when executing crisis communication. And I'm sorry Mr Campbell, the HST is a crisis communication situation for you.

2. Never talk down to your audience. BC residents aren't stupid. We know spin when we hear it.

If they had tried the truth on the HST and Olympic spending I fully believe they wouldn't be in this position. But they believed residents didn't have the mental capacity to learn or understand their reasons for these expenditures.

Now PAB and the Premier appear to be paying.

Gotta be here........now

Better hurry, because by next year the background visuals will be changing to reveal spiderwebs of powerlines, humming powerhouses and linear penstock clearcuts. Every lake and fjord from Harrison to Bute will be industrialized by private power producers. I wonder if the celebrities hired know of what is happening behind the scenes.

Good Artticle Bill But What Would The NDP Do?

As per the norm great article Bill. As my opener states okay, so lets put the shoe on the other foot so to speak. The NDP is in power what would you I wonder be writing about in your articles?. Okay, I think that the NDP would have told the electorate prior to the last election about the deficit, the drop in revenue, the increased cases to welfare and of course the HST. In essence I think that any other party that we have in Canada would have told us the truth from the get go. Yes I agree with the other posters and yourself regarding the ads to promote the HST, this I think will make people even more angrier than they already are. Remember, despite the spin (and I bet that there is more to come on this from the BC Liberals) Campbell and company are bullies and nothing more. Carole James and the NDP are not bullies, quite the opposite. Although every party has had problems in the past I think that the electorate should consider the lesser of these two so called evils. Campbell out and James in, it's simple. Recall will begin and the BC Liberals already know that there time is short.

No assumption

As I've said befor, if we want change we had best not assume that the majority have had enough of this. The only way is to fund your other choice and work on the campaign. It is all about 'getting out the vote' which takes local financial and human resources. The time to start is now.
Liberal suporters will come out at election time and will have funded the party to the max. The Libs mail leaflets and hire phoners while the others use their person power to knock on doors, set signs, and call from meager phone banks. Even candidates do these meanial tasks when they should be speaking to targeted voters. The votes have always been out there. It is all about 'process' which requires resources. OMG,please help.

I have to disagree that 'we know spin'

Rosaleeta, when you state "...BC residents aren't stupid. We know spin when we hear it" can you kindly offer up some examples of this being prima facie true, i.e., without hindsight?

We are a culture that feeds on spin, and it starts immediately. That is why there is a trillion dollar PR industry -- because it works.

I do not know how many people you have tried to 'inform' about the shenanigans of government in any meaningful way. But I do know this -- it takes an awful lot of effort to convince a person that the TV version of events is not scripture.

Hence, Campbell has been elected not once, but three times.

Slogans?

I'm getting confused with all these blody slogans.

Is it?

BC, You gotta be here!

Supernatural British Columbia

BC: The best place on earth

or

BC: The Most Corrupt Place on Earth.

You gotta help me out here. I need to know what to put on my postcards.

Well Samuidave...

A really good, recent example of "we know spin when we hear it" is the over 700,000 names on the Citizens' Initiative petition that is currently being verified. And we don't have to put in any effort to convince people. The Lieberals are doing that all on their own. And doing a fine job, I might add.

Bigger and bigger lies.

Photo caption:

"Really....my last one was only this big."

Idea

Campbell is a businessman that has always collected a government pay cheque. How is that possible? Are any Liberals really business people?
I would think most people collecting welfare would do a better job with managing a budget. If a welfare person can spend only $6 per day and live (not much of a life) but still gets by! Then we should hirer people on welfare as consultants!
Carole James could you please quit. Adrain Dix could win in my opinion.
James and Campbell have both collected public funds for life.
Are we talking about the public good, or just the race for the power to shake the Queens hand. The Queen, AKA the richest welfare bum on the planet.
End of rant...

There are no free rides

Spending all that money all that time, going hog wild, like it was a free ride as media steps up to the plate.

Good Point there Watts

Althought I don't think it would matter who the Liberals came up against as party doesn't play fair and media is the hook. Campbell is out of the race and a great many voters would like him out of office putting Carol in the drivers seat and we know how diabolical she is not. Unless the economy in BC does some sort of a miraculous turn about I do believe things could get pretty uncomfortable for the many business men/women MLA's that run the present majority government.

Forthcoming spin

I can hear it now. If tourism increases in BC, the BC Liberal Party will credit the olympics. They will commission a report from Jack Mintz that will show that without the investment in the Olympics and related advertising campaign tourism would have fallen precipitously.

If tourism remains stagnant or decreases, the BC Liberals will blame the condition of the world economy. They will have Jack Mintz create a report that shows that if we hadn't invested in the Olympics and corresponding advertising campaign, our tourism numbers would be twice as bad.

Actually

The second report is already begun, carnkypants. Every Olympics host city since (and some before) Los Angeles has suffered a decline in tourism the year after the Olympics. All the Olympics did for those sites was front-load the tourists into one year that they would have gotten in two. Just like happened with Expo here in BC.

Mintz. Huh. We should ask GWest to check the list of Orders-in-Council and see if his name has been added to the PABlum list in the last year or two....

Nice article Bill - especially the eerie parallel between Dear Leader and Dear Loser, Gord Jong-il and Kim Campbell.... er... no, wait....

Bob Watts

Your rants really could use a little freshening up. How about you start a new one, to have the NDP frop up Delaney? Nobody, not James, not Dix, not Guy Gentner, not even the resurrected ghost of Tommy Douglas could get the NDP reelected in this province without serious lying and gerrymandering, and the Fiberals have too big a head start. Everyone knows what it takes is serious lying and gerrymandering... or a third party. That's the only way it'll come about.

So let's get started. Who's in for a "Draft Delaney" movement? I'll throw in a hundred bux, just to make sure the BC Conservatives hve a TV ad and a seat at the leader's debate, just like Gordon Wilson....