or the third option maybe...

Polarized politics is the hallmark of BC politics. NDP and conservative coalitions exist because nobody wants the other guy in.

Grand schemes have been cooked up on ways to elect MLA's and have them more responsive.

It's time to consider a third option isn't it?

The BC Refed party is modeled after the Swiss in that the people hold veto power over anything done by its elected officials.

The elected officials have a free vote, and the people, if they don't like what they have done, can simply undo it.

They have gone out of their way to propose something workable, and then you can turf them out and it won't make any difference because ALL politicians, including civic and school boards, will be under voter control. Not just accountable (try and define that by the way) but controlled.

How would you like to try that for a change? That's how I'm voting.

The CCF would have won in 1941 and 1952!

The CCF won the largest number of votes in the 1941 election, but second in seats to the Liberals. Had they won that election, it would have been BC and not Saskatchewan with the first socialist government in North America.

Again, the CCF won the plurality of votes in 1952, but Social Credit won only one more seat, and WAC became the government.

Only when the broad coalition breaks down does the left get to govern in this province, and with the Green Party doing very well, that is not too likely to happen soon.

well said

It's good to be reminded occasionally that those who fund political parties are the power. Money competes for control of the public purse through parties. Politics and voting is theater.

The Investment Theory of Party Politics

"In such investor-driven systems, the meaning of political competition is very different from its analogue in classical democratic theory: political parties dominated by large investors try to assemble the votes they need by making very limited appeals to particular segment of the potential electorate. If it pays some other bloc of major investors to advertise and mobilize, these appeals can be vigorously contested, but...on all issues affecting the vital interests that major investors have in common, no party competition will take place."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investment_theory_of_party_competition

A very good analysis,

A very good analysis, Crawford, I've been writing about for many years in my columns and for the past, close to 20, on these lists and blogs.

People have to realize that international big business has been on the move under a great variety of flags, slowly buying up politicians and university departments as pimps and propaganda machines for world control and dictatorship.

Their biggest coup was deregulated money creation that gave them the power to take control of the world's resources with imaginary money, and with them of all governments, calling it "wealth creating economics".

The flag they work under to collectivize economics into the hands of the biggest criminal class in history, makes no difference. Yesterday they were communists, today they're capitalists. Their purpose is always the same: Rule and steal, whether it is scripturally justified by religions, or ideologies, or economic theories.

All the same garbage legalizing crimes.

History is full of examples, but people never learn and keep falling for the same enslavement in every age, but never before at the present, worldwide scale.

We can expect a worldwide depression starting at any time, that will give them total, dictatorial world control.

Ed Deak.

Politics

"What we have here is a failure to communicate". Hopefully with what has happened here in recently, we can only hope that the NDP or other political party not connected to business will demonstrate what is said above to the electorate and hopefully the electorate will understand. Lots of "hopefully" here but it must be communicated what is happening to our province. In the past people supported the right wing because there were progressive forces there. Now graft, greed and power are all the right wing want. Perhaps there is a change coming in BC politics. Hopefully!

There are NO choices in BC

One party is the puppet of business, one party is the puppet of labour, and both just want to keep screwing over the regular taxpayer.
Business gets the HST, unions get fat public service wages, benefits and pensions.
Both ride on the back of the average, over-taxed citizens who have just about had enough of both of them.
God, please give us a REAL alternative next election!

After 2014

When the disasters that our fascist government has set in place, all start to occur, the numbskull voter will blame the new NDP government and turf them.

Exactly what is happening to Obama right now.

Good article Crawford

The "Liberals" have a very clear vision. They want to gut goverment assets, and enrich their friends.

The NDP are not evil, but they have no vision, and no reason for existing beyond their union roots.

The right are highly motivated, and hence they have ruled the province for many years, and they will probably continue to do so unless the NDP can come up with a reason to exist.

The corporate mafia would

The corporate mafia would use an NDP government to wreck the economy, blame the NDP and take over as a full dictatorship. Happening all over the world.

Wealth can not be created, only taken from others, the environment, or future generations.

Ed Deak.

Illahie

If you don't know why the NDP has been the only true political party in BC since WW2 then you're spending too much time alone in the woods.

Its the other parties that have no reason to exist, except to be anti-NDP.

There is an alternative

There is an alternative.
The Refed party, they offer solutions, they have a workable three point plan their planning is based on an existing and proven system.

They have firm internal policy that they will never take donations from corporations, or organizations in exchange for political favors.

You simply need to review in detail their mandate http://tinyurl.com/2atqgnv

BC Refed are the only BC party who have gone on record saying they will repeal the HST.

Refed are the only BC party who are on record as saying that they will make referendum results BINDING on the government.

BC Refed

Have you guys dropped the BC separatism thing?

What about the federal income tax?

Wacky Bennett mistrusted the

Wacky Bennett mistrusted the Howe St. boys cuz they're the ones who almost milked this province dry under the Liberal/Conservative Governments of the '40's. Gee, isn't it amazing how history repeats itself? I remember reading the book 'Son of Socred' by Stan Persky (sp?) years ago on how the takeover of the Socreds was orchestrated after Wacky quit politics.

@ Frank

As I mentioned Frank. The answer to your question is in the details on the website.

There never was any intention or suggestion of of separation other than disinformation which keeps its momentum through unauthorized and unsubstantiated comments placed on Wikipedia sites and blogs.

BC Refed needs to get their

I've been watching the Refed movement for a couple of years now, and while I think that the separation idea was a pipe dream (just like QC) and the federal tax thing won't work in practice, I would vote for them purely based on the fact that a lot of their policies are based on sound common sense, and that it's the best option since STV to instigate real political accountability.

I'm not a believer in the current party system. I think that it's toxic and corrupt. The vision of direct democracy presented by Refed goes a long way towards fixing the inherent problems. I've seen how well Swiss democracy works compared to our party system, as we have friends who live there. While it's by no means perfect, it's a helluva lot better than what we put up with election after election in BC.

Time for change, and just holding your nose and voting "against" one major party or the other to stop "the other guys" isn't good enough to bring it on. If Refed fields a candidate in my riding, I'd vote for them in a heartbeat.

@Refedbcdotcom

Do you guys have plans for getting your info out there? A lot of people have never heard of you, and right now with recall and the anti-HST fight, I think your message would resonate with many BC'ers.

Refedbcdotcom

It wasn't "disinformation", it was Mike (Summers?) from Vanderhoof posting here on the subject years ago. He was very anti-Ottawa, anti-East, BC should go it alone etc. And back then he was the only voice of the BC Refed party. In fact, isn't that where the name came from?

And I happen to like federal income tax. Without it what would have happened in World War II? 10 separate provincial armies each with their own equipment and supply needs? I'm sure that wouldn't have been a mess.

I like central government, its provincial governments I think we could do without. After all, there's only 32 million of us and countries like the UK don't seem to need provincial governments.

And wouldn't it be nice to have the same laws and taxes nation wide?

Rhea

I like some of the BC Refed's ideas too, especially in light of the failure of electoral reform.

However, there's some big things in what I've heard in discussions with Mike that I have issues with.

Democracy is non existent

I've felt for a long time that democracy is non existent. Ever since globalization started, around the time Brian Mulroney was PM and he signed the free trade agreement, democracy started on a serious down hill slide. Corporations began to monopolize every aspect of the economies world wide and they took control of politics by buying politicians from every party. So this article is right. It doesn't matter which party is in control. The party system ensures the MP's and MLA's obey the leader who has been bought and paid for by corporate money.

The main purpose of these

The main purpose of these phony free trade agreements has always been the killing of the democratic decision making powers of peoples and replacing them with corporate dictatorships.

Right now exports are compulsory and can not be cut back, or stopped even to save citizens' lives, e.g. natural gas, and all decisions are made by 3 unnamed "experts" meeting in secret, without records or reasons given for their decisions, regardless how much of the environment, or people are hurt.

The purpose and objectives are corporate profits and nothing else.

The presently negotiated CETA by Harper will eliminate all municipal decision making powers and open all public services for takeover by foreign corporations.

Ed Deak.

No Matter

No matter who gets in as long as it isn't Gordo and his band of cutthroats..All the incoming will get will be a huge Debt load that the Fiberals have been hiding since being in power they tell us they are balancing the books while spending it faster than it comes in and this BC Rail corruption case we need too have an inquiry on it and then who ever is found guilty put behind bars not given a pat on the back for taking the fall for the Fiberal government. As for Gordon Campbell he should have been charged for vehicle manslaughter for the deaths of those too paramedics the way they have been treated by the Fiberal government

jimorsheryl

http://www.gov.bc.ca/lbr/attachments/labour_climate_in_bc.pdf
The proportion of unionized workers has declined in many provinces in recent decades. B.C’s unionization rate in 1981 was 43.3 percent (third highest in Canada). In 2009, 31 percent of employees had union coverage (sixth highest in Canada).

http://www.bcbc.com/Documents/ppv17n4.pdf
Public Sector Workers, 222,000 as of 2009

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/subjects-sujets/labour-travail/lfs-epa/t101008a4-eng.htm
Total workers, 2,500,000 as of 2010

And you have a beef with "fat PS unions"???? Their membership only makes up a scant 10% of the workforce.

Good post Van Isle

It's not often I find headlines or a summary more intelligent than an actual article. But it is so in this case.

Mr. Kilian - how might the right reorganize? Who will lead this transformation? What more detail from when it has happened in the past can be researched and presented for contemplation - and consideration by the left?

Mr. W.A.C was more nuanced in his positions along the political spectrum than most know...or the famous headlines would indicate.

He was also ridiculously ambitious in the best sense of the word. And most all of BC benefitted.

Killian Has Found His Voice

I've always followed and enjoyed Mr. Killian's work. In this piece, he's dropped some of his historic decorum and come out swinging. And his candour is refreshing.

A well written piece about the real truth of the plundering of BC by a tiny number of corporate interests.

What's really frightening is that things are getting worse, rapidly worse. With the mainstream media solidly behind corporate control and resource extraction of BC, there is little left of a once great democracy. While life may seem "okay" tomorrow, and the next day, non-democracies have a very, very consistent record of going from bad to worse. There is little reason to think BC will be any different.

Great article!

@Reah

Your question Reah
"Do you guys have plans for getting your info out there? A lot of people have never heard of you,"

Believe me that is an uphill battle especially when you want to change the status quo. I think you and most readers of this can read between the lines here.

We are pushing very hard to become a household name. We ran 22 candidates in the last election. Our short video addresses this point you brought up http://tinyurl.com/2atqgnv

If we remain defiant enough ...

to keep voting for candidates associated with any political party, then we have no one but ourselves to blame.

As long as we do not want to be represented in government, we will continue to buy into the conventional wisdom of supporting one of the strong parties. This means you vote for a candidate representing the party, not you our your area. Your representation is dead in the water the moment you mark the ballot.

A party demands adherence to the party line. Your party shill, fraudulently claiming to represent you, now just nods his or her head in agreement with the party leader. The party leader being nothing more than a business rep.

We have democracy, all right, we just refuse to understand how we can effectively participate:

Vote for an honest independent candidate from your district, or consider your vote in full support of corporatism..

It is that simple.

Change must come from below. We are that below. Change how we vote, and democracy will be returned. We, the people, are a force to be reckoned with but only if unleashed. As soon as we cut the chain with party politics, we all walk free.

Forget

Forget political parties. They are a passe concept that hinder rather than enhance democracy. Political parties, or gangs as I like to call them, do nothing but stifle any true democratic thoughts. Political parties have a leader, who is easily identified, and a host of back room string pullers who tend to be nothing more than shadows. Unfortunately, these shadows have as much or more influence than the leader, and are accountable to no one. Unfortunately, the candidate that you vote for that is running under a party banner will inevitably be as effective as the lamp standard you see at the corner of the street you reside on.

The political party system is an archaic system of governance that was foisted upon us in a bygone era that should now be relegated to the same place as the 8-track tape player. It is time that the person you elect represents the wishes of the majority of the constituents that elected him/her, not some whims of one master and his/her marionettes that answer to nothing but a handful of selfserving backroom manipulators care nothing but their publicly supported well being. This has nothing to do with being left or right of centre, but being conned into supporting the enhanced lifestyle of someone that doesn't give a fig about how they achieve their goals, and to hell with those that get stepped on in order that the entitled get what they envision they are entitled to.

It is time to wake up and smell the coffee rather than the excrement we have been forced to inhale for the majority of our and our predecessors lives.

@Terrys_Hot

Terrys_Hot said:
"No matter who gets in as long as it isn't Gordo and his band of cutthroats."

This kind of thinking will just result in BC getting the same shit in a different package.

Campbell and his cutthroats are replaceable parts. What we need is what others here are espousing: meaningful change/reform.

and with the Green Party

and with the Green Party doing very well, that is not too likely to happen soon.
----------

The right wing Green Party always polls higher in between elections though and is lucky to get a fraction of that support come voting day.

Coalition crowd

I do think BC politics are a bit more complicated than that, Crawford. Yes, there are remnants of the 1940s coalition, but so much has happened since. Migration. Decline of the forest industry. Decline of private sector unionism. Depopulation of the hinterland. Increased Asian trade. Centralization of the media. All sorts of things for which a simple explanation is inadequate.

Rick

If you think the NDP will ever consider rolling back some of the over the top contracts civil servants have in BC you're dreaming.
CUPE wages and benefits are simply over the top, and it is because they have lame ass politicians over the barrel.
Take a look to Europe if you want to see what sooner or later will happen, when we simply can't afford all the civil service FAT.

jimorsheryl

But Europe's civil service is bigger than ours and they have less poverty.

Germany and France don't seem to be doing any worse than us so what will looking at them show us will happen if we don't cut a civil service already smaller than theirs?

I doubt the majority of Europeans are clamouring for a Campbell-esque government so that they too can export jobs overseas and see their median incomes fall.

I agree

Change will only come from below. Until the sheeple get off their couches & out of their SUVs, things will remain the same.

jimorsheryl

You are no doubt, referring to the senior civil servants:
http://www.canada.com/theprovince/story.html?id=868943a2-5543-4c68-bfe5-a7e196fd7b8f

Green Party, right wing?

With their environment protection agenda, I thought they were more to the left.

Frank

Where are you getting your information?

What Europe is finally dealing with is the fact they can NOT afford the civil service they have, and in fact without borrowing money, they have NOT been able to afford it in the past.

Nationally we are over $500 BILLION in debt, who do you think is actually going to pay for that??

We have been the most selfish, self centered generation to ever draw breath. And we have spent our grand kids inheritance so we could pretend we have this grand lifestyle.

We are deluded at best, malicious at worst.

jimorsheryl

The median income in BC has fallen since 2001. The only province outside of Quebec that saw a decline. And Quebec's was less than 1%. All other provinces saw an increase in their median income.

The Fraser Institute has launched a campaign to tell BCers that Campbell has been the best premier in Canada at keeping a lid on public spending (they don't count Olympics and Sea-to-Sky and Convention Centres).

In my opinion those two things go together along with having the lowest minimum wage and introducing the training wage.

As for Canada and Europe :

From Wiki :

"In Canada, government spending as a percentage of GDP peaked at 53% in 1992. Since 1992 spending has steadily declined in Canada to just below 40 percent in 2008".

"Spending in the United States fluctuated narrowly around 34-38 percent of GDP over the same period[9]. However, starting in 2008 US spending has turned sharply upwards to reach an estimated 42.7% of GDP in 2009[10] from 39% in 2008. Spending is expected to reach 45% of GDP in 2011[11], and stabilize at that level."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Canadian_and_American_economies#Government_Spending

And here's a link showing Europe, countries are coloured depending on how much government spending there is compared to the country's GDP.

Switzerland, Poland, Romania and Bulgaria spend the least. France, Finland, Denmark and Sweden spend the most.

The countries having trouble now like Ireland, Spain and Greece are not the highest spenders. Greece is in the red along with Britain and Italy, Spain and Ireland have even less government spending and are in the same zone as Germany and Norway.

The Right is playing on people's ignorance when they claim that government spending is threatening Europe. The biggest threat to Europe is the same as the biggest threat to the US and Canada, an out of control financial sector that sucks the wealth out of the real economy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Depense-publique-sur-PIB.png

As for Canada's debt, it wasn't rung up by spending on social programs. In fact there was a StatsCan report over a decade ago that suggested spending on social programs only accounted for 6.5% of the debt. Most of the debt came about during the time of Brian Mulroney's right-wing government. His governments ran big deficits but it wasn't because they were big believers in social spending. The money was spent elsewhere.

I concur

Mr Kilian's analysis of the plight of the CCF/NDP in BC is very good. My dad always said that the coalition of the right stole elections and that the transferable ballot..I believe used in the 52 and 53 elections...was the coup de grâce that lasted until the short-lived Barrett government...and that was a lesson of bluff calling! I see the current NDP as rather too right wing for my taste however, if it can renew itself in the next couple of years with more policy aimed at helping the majority in the province then it should not have too much trouble getting elected...they cannot however, rely on Gordo's low popularity...they must actively promote good policy...for the majority...not pander to the corporate overlords...

Frank .... thanks for the lesson or fable

Of course the median income in BC is falling... there are no jobs, unless you are one of the lucky ones to get a civil service job, which will be the last to go.
The growth industries in BC are retirees from other parts, who just bring a bag of money, and live on a pension. The other growth industry are those seeking welfare and would sooner be unemployed in BC than in Alberta.

Glad to see you have it all figured out Frank.

jimorsheryl

You sound sarcastic yet you didn't disagree.

It is what it is.

Labour and the NDP

It's a mistake to think that the NDP answer to labour, or to think that there's even much support from union members for the NDP, especially from the public sector.

It's important to note that BC had the second-leanest per capita public service when they came into power in 1991, and by the time the NDP were gone in 2001, it had become the leanest in Canada. And many of the public service employees who were released in the nineties ended up becoming contractors often performing very similar duties as they did when they were public servants, except making much greater amounts of money, especially when they themselves began their own companies who became large employer service-providers carrying out what used-to-be considered government services.

As for the union members in the private sector many of them make wages so high that they enjoy upper income tax cuts just as much as any business person thereby finding themselves not-at-all uncomfortable with the a laisez-faire business-oriented party.

My experience, working in the union movement for a number of years, and on NDP campaigns, dating back to the NDP days in government, is that the NDP are there to tell the unions what they need, and the unions better listen, or they'll "teach 'em a lesson real good." Don't forget the NDP imposed contracts on teachers and declared school custodial workers "essential" in order to force them back to work thus violating the United Nation's Declaration of Human Rights which includes the right to free collective bargaining. And don't think that union members quickly forgot about that betrayal. The problem is half of them remember why they hate the NDP, and the other half cower and remember why they must not upset their NDP overlords by doing things like exercising their right to with-hold their labour as done through a legal strike.