mcmartin; i just realized what your liberal arts major must have been: revisionist history.
pump it up tyee!!

So, sirjohna, enlighten us, where is McMartin wrong?

The real story here isn't the facts that McMartin has reported. The real story is that the Sun, Province, Times Colonist, all the TV stations, with Global taking the lead, and CKNW with its Liberal cheerleading open mouth shows, are complicit in foisting this disinformation on the public.

Not because of incompetence on their part, but because of an ideologically driven view that the public's right to have facts reported must be subservient to the agenda of supporting the BC Liberal party. Support that is not limitd to their editorial pages, or their columnists, but to their actual reporting. Can there be any more timely reminder than the fraudulent reporting of the "Teacher's Strike" in the last days of this campaign?

If you think this is a serious matter, I submit you really have only one option. Cancel your subscriptions to those papers, and stop listening and watching those stations.

Several years ago I decided on that path. It is annoying, but not as annoying as subjecting oneself to that constant drum beat of propoganda. It means I subscribe to the Globe and Mail, skim the Georgia Straight on line, read my local subscription free community papers, listen to CBC radio, and Rafe Mair on 600 occasionally. None of these sources is perfect, but they are the best of a bad lot.

One thing I can tell from reading the posts on the Tyee. I have managed to be as well informed about factual matters and what is going on in the province as are the Liberal party supporters who participate in the Tyee comments by doing nothing more than repeating Liberal Party Talking points to "support" their arguments.

SO WHY NOT GIVE IT A TRY? If you find you miss the Sun, Province, CKNW, TV news, etc. after a month or so, you can always sign up or start watching again. If you find you don't miss them, you save some money, and probably lower your blood pressure, which has obvious benefits to your health, which will help alleviate the pressures on the health care system. A WIN-WIN solution.

Back to your pasive/aggressive compulsion I see, sirjohna. Too bad. Yesterday I had rather hoped you'd discovered how to type in ideas rather than adolescent raspberries.

For example, perhaps you could offer a detailed alternate explanation of the factual record and the audited numbers.

No? Not in your whoopee cushion job
description?

Good article, Will.

The GLOBE AND MAIL (May 14/05 Comment pg A16 titled WHAT MR. CAMPBELL HAS ACHIEVED IN B.C.) I wonder who wrote this editorial? It is just unbelievable that one of our better papers would put out an article like this.

YOU HAVE TO SEE IT TO BELIEVE IT! Somebody should tell them to read The Tyee or the book Liberalized.

It's become quite clear that a large number of Campbell supporters now fall into the "dead girl or live boy" category. Their hero would have to caught in bed, on tape, "live at 6 on BCTV NewsHour", with one or the other for them to even begin to question his sanctity.

For them it's of no consequence that he has repeatedly lied to the people of BC ("don't know Doug Wall", "only had a few glasses of wine", "won't sell BC Rail" and on and on), treated some of the people like second and third class citizens ("no more bus passes for you old timer", "shouldn't have gone blind then should you?", "abused women don't need no steenking services" and on and on) and lavished further riches upon the already wealthy, on their friends and special interest groups ("make a quarter mil a year? here's a tax handout", "no need to pay those fines salmon farmer, salmon farmer is our friend, precious", "oh, yeah, you can have as many raw logs as you can lug out of the place, want a hand?" and on and on)

For Campbell supporters who don't care about the lying, the giveaways or the corruption the cry forever will be "Viva El Gordo, Viva, Viva".

If you find yourself at a Liberal event, by chance or by design, let that be your cry:

Viva El Gordo!!! Viva!!! Viva!!!

I just picked up my Globe.I'm so disappointed in the Globe. And, I hadn't even read p 16. I just scanned the headlines. I'm not paying for propaganda. The quality of that paper is steadily declining.

In a fair media this would be the lead story on the Sun. I just watched the news on global and it was so biased and provincial it was unbelievable. I stopped buying Canwest a long time ago and when they call to sign me up, I tell them when they start reporting the news, I will subscribe.

I decided a while ago that when the election is over I'm not participating in that media anymore. As it is, I lalso isten to American progressive radio (710am Kiro 9-1am and 810am KGO San Fransico) and read on line. Shockingly, Canada doesn't have any progressive media. The Tyee comes close, but seems to be under pressure to provide the Reactionary viewpoint.

If Campbell gets in and Harper does as well, I'm moving to Spain or maybe England for a few years. I really can't bear this adolescent, domineering, abusive, authoritarian, bullying, low-toned, fascist environment for much longer. As well, it will mean the end of my country. I can't bear to watch it self destruct.

I'd ask sirjohn to pump it up as well but it seems there's nothing to pump. Great piece, MxMartin and appreciate the other comments as well

redrivergirl: I have my ticket bought too, just in case, the two of THEM would be two too much to take...only I was thinking... it's really hard to find a country worth moving to these days...that the neo-con view hasn't corrupted...England has Blair the Betrayer...maybe Iceland...I'm blonde...I'd fit in...I could hide out for awhile...and visit you in Spain, if that's okay. :-)

There is Sweden, Holland, Germany and France. Swing a bit back and forth but always more progressive than here.

I haven't bought the Sun or the Province in years. I'm done with the Globe now too.

It's always amusing to read articles that hail the NDP's financial acumen written by people with little or no financial background.

The facts are that the NDP's last two "surplus" budgets were because of two events:

1. the California energy crisis, which allowed BC Hydro to sell $1 billion worth of power to them. Ironically, California never paid for most of it because they accuse BC Hydro (and others, including Enron) of manipulating the price. Most of that money is still in dispute.

2. A $1 billion "accounting change", that involved no real cash-- just a bookkeeping entry -- to account for public sector pensioners accepting pension liabilities of that amount (thank you BCGEU), in exchange for the right to co-manage the employee pension fund. (That NDP rip-off of public sector workers could easily make a book unto itself).

The structural deficit was real and growing. Face it, the Fast Ferries gang wrecked this province financially. No amount of revisionism will ever change something that thankfully, most sane people ackowledge.

It's true, Lynn, the whole world is experiencing another wave of colonization. But, Europe has the advantage of being very old and seeing a lot of movements over the years. Also, I think Canada, so vulnerable because of her location, and two founding countries and its admirable multi-culturalism, is vulnerable to a nasty breakdown.

I often wonder about women and people of colour who would be for such a fascist government because as they increasingly gain power, the racism, classism and sexism bigotry and intolerance, which underpin its popularity, will rise to the surface. What do they think made Canada the way it is? It is in large part, the progressive viewpoint of the last forty years.

The benefit of leaving Canada, is that while other countries are experiencing this, it is more painful, I think, watching one's own country and one's own people become traitors and cheap overseers.

Yes, Frank. That's it for me with the Globe too. I'll miss the book review and the crossword. But, the only really effective counter movement to this Laissez Fair Capitalism that is free from manipulation, is to vote with our money.

hear that, Martin knows more than the auditor general.

Fact is Martin its now that we are running a "structural deficit". High transfer payments and high commodity prices.

",,,racism, classism, sexism bigotry and intolerance..."

Yes, we can visit. Drink tea and plant a garden. :)

I'll try it again. Arg.

"...racism, classism, sexism, bigotry and intolerance..." I don't know what is happening to that comma. The image was a smile.

AS I said, the Globe is the best of a bad lot. But it is better than nothing. It has recently added a three page BC supplement, and although it did prompt me to write the managing editor threatening to cancel that subscription too if they didn't do something about Gary Mason, the columnist they hired from the Vancouver Sun,there is at least some balanced reporting.

In today's paper there is a report from Rod Mickleburgh. It does not seem to be available on the free web site. I will quote only the last paragraph of the item to give you a flavour of what he reports.

"...it would be nice if the news media tried harder to understand what normal collective bargaining means, and not manufacture issues in the heat of an elections campaign...."

Martin: On 1., I never heard of this, but even if it is true, so what? Revenue is revenue. Cudos to the NDP for developing BC Hydro into an energy exporter.

On 2., let's see some cites. The auditor general, as the author states, who is hardly on the NDP payroll, went over the books after the Liberals took office and verified that huge surplus. I think he would have noticed a 1$ billion shortfall.

Also, what you can't deny is that after they took office, the Liberals posted a total budget deficits of 6.4 billion dollars - as much as what the BC NDP stacked onto the debt during their entire time in office. Same amount of debt in half the time, and leave us not forget that the NDP had to deal with a worldwide economic slowdown during the first half of their watch, while the Liberals held down what was for the rest of Canada economic good times.

While the Globe and Mail is a right-wing business oriented paper they are at least sure enough of their ideas to publish alternate opinions, Murray Dobbin, Maude Barlow, Jim Stafford...

The Canwest and Sun newspapers are not so brave so we get propaganda instead of journalism.

Wow! I've had a couple very good friends say they'll leave Canada if this or that happens and I'll say the same thing to you Red and Lynn: "careful of the door hittin yo ass" I appreciate your sympathies but must say am disgusted with the willingness to jump ship. Jews tried it, blacks tried it everyone's tried to find a corner to hide in where the bogeyman won't think to look but... oh looky here what I found... a dodger!!! enjoy your time in spain or iceland or wherever y'all end up.

yeah yeah yeah, ndp's surplus as they were leaving office is all due to revenue from energy exports and a shell game. I don't even get all this "they left us a 'structural defecit'" and "the liberal surplus is all due to transfer payments" It's all really a shell game and it's all shit. We're all hook line and sinker over the "deficit". Wasn't even in the cards 20 years ago. Not to suggest it's irrelevant. But it is a bit of a paper tiger. All the "great" bully nations of the world have been built upon "fuck you, I ain't paying that debt. Hit the road." Not sound economics, I know, but it makes me think, at any rate. I have a buddy who vows never to pay income tax until he's convinced he's not being gilted (sp?) one of every two cents. Can't say I disagree with him on the gilted part. And he's not partisan... just pissed off.

Thanks for your understanding and compassion, jtothemfk.

Yes, but look at the Globe's front page. An article about Igali. Another story? That pensions are being abused.

Anyone paying attention to what is happening in Iraq this week? Major news stories. What about United Airline's pension ruling by the US Republican judge? Honestly. I wonder what the Globe ran with in Ontario. I'll check on line. I'm about to read the paper and so I'll check out the article, wstander. I wrote the Globe too. I guess they are probably getting a lot of mail from readers.

redrivergirl: So well said. What I identify with the most, is the sadness, the tug, you convey, about losing so much of what is good about this country.

As Canadians we are so bashful about expressing the love we have for this country that it surprises us when hits so unexpectedly and deeply...but I do love this country. And it is very clear Campbell and Harper do not. They have national inferiority complexes about being Canadian... that we aren't quite good enough... dysfunctional thinking that is clearly destroying us as a nation.

Maybe... that surprising depth of feeling that is so well hidden beneath our very Canadian reserve, our reticence to declare our love of country... will, in the end, be our saving grace.

And Frank...I'll stop at Holland and France on my way to have tea with redrivergirl. If we're lucky we'll all get to stay put.

Red, I haven't read the globe's recent output but in my mind it's not such a bad paper. I never referred to the globe in my post directed to you and lynn. What I was saying is that you should make a stand from where you stand, don't go running off to greener grass.

Lynn, I agree with you that Harper, Campbell and their ilk do have a kind of resentment, more, revulsion towards our fantastic country. So if Campbell gets in again (likely) or Harper takes the national helm (possibility) is your "answer" simply to pack up and leave? If so, your love of country runs about as deep as my pockets

You might be right, Lynn. Canadians are strong and determined, we just don't like to make a scene. But, we're not weak.

Another thing about the bogus pension story in the Globe, they use that lazy lead, '...some critics, say the pension system is being abused'. It's the 'right wing echo machine's' favorite expression. Some people say.... Some people claim. Yep, some people like the Fraser Institute, or the American Enterprise Institute.

jtothemfk is saying that all the "rah rah America" guys decided to stay in Canada and take it over instead of moving to the US which I've been telling them to do for the past 20 years.

I live in the Lower Mainland and all cities look and smell pretty much the same so I could care less about moving, especially as I take my company with me.

But you Lynn are in God's Country and surrounded, for the most part, by people whom share your views. I would think that would make it tolerable.

Maybe if Harper wins I'll just check property prices in Ocean Falls. It may still be Canada but you'd never have to see neo-con policy up close.

jtothmfk, I bet you're a guy.

While, I can hear that it would be upsetting to hear that some progressive people would leave Canada, it is not unusual that they would desire to do so. It has nothing to do with not loving the country.

Anyway, we can have this conversation when you drive Lynn and I to the airport. If you want to visit, you're welcome.

Where is 'God's country - if that's okay to ask, Lynn? I live in the Lower Mainland too and I'm getting very tired of it. It has changed so much.

jtothemfk: We'll just be gone for awhile but we will be organizing revolutionary forces overseas...you didn't just think we would be suntanning on Ibiza did you? :-)

We will return in full force... and with troops. :-)

We will be able to speak Spanish with an Icelandic accent... which should definitely confuse the neo-cons.

We have a plan. :-)

We'll send it to you on a postcard.

Tell no one. :-)

Media monopolies do little to promote a diversity of reporting, editorial views, and futhermore, they concentrate too much power in the hands of the few...all of which is detrimental to democracy and the ability of citizens to keep politicians upfront and accountable.

Regardless of where you fall on the political spectrum it may be edifying to inform yourself fully of the extent of the Canwest media monopoly. Check this url out and see for yourself, make your own conclusions.

http://www.cjr.org/tools/owners/canwest.asp

jtothemfk is saying that all the "rah rah America" guys decided to stay in Canada and take it over instead of moving to the US which I've been telling them to do for the past 20 years.

Gotta tellya, Frank... I'm not sure to what you're referring with comment above. Please explain.

Red, what gave my gender away? Was it my lack of romanticism? or lack of humour? on the coin toss you nailed it cold! I actually consider myself both a bit of a romantic and humorous but I simply can't abide by people taking the out. Yes, of course progressives have left Canada and found their home elsewhere for reasons as various, deep and shallow as you can think of. Just pisses me off to see good minds fuck off because this Jack ass got elected or that law was passed. Like I said above, run run and run some more but the bogeyman'll find ya. Stand where you stand and spare us all the apologist's line: "I love Canada... but" I think of the self and the concentric circles (for an abstract visual model) spreading outward with friends and family forming the closest circle and neighbourhood community and on and on just being an extension of the self with an ongoing and mutually influential dialectic happening. Not to suggest you should by into that particular philosophy but I'm just saying you're a flat out runner but you'll never get away from the dialectic. But I hear tomatoes are easy to grow there in Spain, so.... enjoy

lol, Lynn!!

redrivergirl: The God's Country Frank is referring to? Near Desolation Sound. ( How's that for irony?) Frank's right...it's beautiful here...lots of inlets to hide out in...hmmmm.....

I'm staying. If the Lying Liberals win on Tuesday, we will need to get right to work to voice our displeasure, not only with them, but also with Canwest, the BC Press Council, the CRTC, and anyone else who is guilty of getting in the way of democracy, if there is such a thing.

Regarding the Sun and it's choice of news - I'm really angry.

Gotta thank Will for this excellent bit of information. I've been getting a lot of mileage out of his last brilliant piece "Campbell Misled Public Re NDP Finances", also published by the Tyee.

Thanks Will, thanks Tyee.

To the people who move from Green to NDP, thank you.

"Gotta tellya, Frank"

I was just saying that the pro-US guys have generally always stayed in Canada and made Canada more like the US rather than leave.

I assumed your point was that if they stayed, so should we.

Thanks for the clarification, Frank. And yes, let's not just take flight. It's all what ya make of it. Signing off now. BBQ host and all. Cheers all.

jtothemfk,

I nailed your gender for a few reasons.

If one is a woman and sensitive, she is aware that values that support this movement are anti-feminine. Not just the feminine gender, but things that are classified and categorized as feminine. One example is their environmental policy, which is a rape of our primorial Mother.

They have modified that resistrictive, but slightly less punative, policy influencing, image of woman as mother. Social services, for example, would allow a single mother to stay home with her children, and be satisfied by just humiliating her in the welfare process. That image has now changed to woman as worker, which enables them to say, as they did in Germany to a woman on welfare, there is work in the (now) legal brothel. Either take the work, or you're cut off assistance. It's primary purpose, is the elimination of social all programs. Or, as Norquist said, the drowning of government in the bathtub. If woman is not seen as mother, then she can be treated the same as a single employable male. If woman is seen with her full identity, then society would have to reflect that and that is the antithesis to Laissez Faire Capitalism.

Much of the the dirty work of this colonization, here in the Western World, can be likened to adolescent chimpanzes, marauding and displaying. What female chimps usually do when this takes place is retreat until order is restored. We are so like the Chimps. My sister as a young, first time mother, would get upset because complete strangers would approach her with advice and judgements (doesn' t the baby need a hat - when the baby adamently refused to wear that hat!) I used to remind her that this behaviour was just like the ape kingdom. You've seen them haven't you? All the group is very interested in the baby. They inspect it and have a lot of bonding and engage in a lot of fussing with it. In countries like Iraq, the chimps are making a vicious raid on another family group. The only way they will win in Iraq, is by being a most brutal and sadistic occupier. As, raiding chimps have been known to be.

I think a rural candidate alluded to this by saying something like women (generally) aren't interested in looking like a hot player on the international stage, they are interested in their community.

This is a long winded way of saying, that along with the feelings of betrayal, the feelings that come from the abuse of those in official authority, the personal results of a deliberate and sustained psychological attack on society, and the theft of one's resourses, including years of volunteerism, and bequeathments to public assets, a woman also has to cope with the rise of hatred against her gender, and perhaps worse, a repudiation of non-gender specific, traditionally feminine, qualities adn strengths. And, as well, a public square where the testosterone is much stronger than desirable for a contented, healthy, balanced, functioning family group.

I won't be presumptuous and speak for Lynn, but can you understand why we might want to go to Spain and plant a garden?

In response to the Globe and Mail publishing an editorial in today's (Sat., May 14) issue repeating the same lies and falsehoods that normally only the Vancouver Sun, The Province and The National Post stoop to, I have a suggestion.

If we all get together and e-mail, or cut and paste, Mr. McMartin's story on the lies the BC Liberals have been telling for 4 years to the editors of the G & M and The Sun and The Province, than maybe they'll be forced to listen.

The power we have is in the numbers.

Imagine if hundreds of people send this story to anyone and everyone affiliated with the mainstream press.

Maybe we could ALL make a difference.

How's this for starters:

Imagine the shame of those who work for this embarrassing company CanWest. Imagine the sick feeling they must have every day when they go to work, knowing that they are backing up an acknowledged liar, adulterer, and criminal. Imagine their disgust with themselves, knowing that they too are liars, and complicit with Campbell's despicable actions.
I couldn't do it. I'd quit before I'd sink that low. No paycheque can replace one's integrity.

The Grope and Flail is most assuredly the best of our pathetic lot. Until The Star decides to publish a national edition which we should all urge them to do forthwith.

Unfortunately, emails to Christie Blatchford that disagree with her are as meaningful to her as the same would be to Marcus Gee. "Golly gosh, people read my column, isn't that swell." All it does for them is confirm their importance. It will have no effect whatever on their opinion.

Letters to the editor expressing opposing views, if well written, concise and civil have a better chance of making it to the page. A dash of acidic humour/sarcasm is OK with The G&M if it's well scribed.

Tuscany, definitely Tuscany.

is responsibe for that drivel? She who came from the National Post?

A source told me that he did some wine tasting today and was particularly fond of the cab-melot.

Didnt he promise not to drink anymore?

Campbell in Winery
May, 14 2005 - 12:00 PM

OLIVER(CKNW/AM980) - Premier Gordon Campbell was in liberal-friendly country in the Okanagan this morning as the clock winds down on the provincial election campaign.

The featured event of the morning, a tour of the Burrowing Owl Estate Winery in Oliver not exactly a hard day on the hustings but the Premiers making no apologies.
"we've been on Vancouver Island twice we've been in the Okanagan twice, we've been in the north twice, we hope to be in the Caribou twice we've been throughout the Lower Mainland we believe that all of British Columbia deserves to be elected in government"

Campbell says the focus of the next three days remains getting the Liberal vote out because despite the lead in the polls.

"You know, accidents happen in the election."

Pardon the typo - should read cab-merlot, as I'm sure you figured out.

Just for a larf, I emailed the link to Will's story plus his other great piece "Campbell Misled Public re NDP Finances" to about twenty papers around the province. At least a few editors will have the opportunity to read them. Maybe a few of them will change who they vote for. They were all from the BC Newspaper Group. I didn't think Canwest would care much.

Tonight I think I'll start sending those links to the BC Business Council. Why don't a few of you join me. Turn up the heat a little. If they hear from a few us.....well, ya never know.

http://www.bcbc.com/Default.asp
http://bcnewsgroup.com/sites.html

RE The editorial in the Globe. Usually when I want to read word for word Liberal press releases I just pick up anything Canwest touches. The Globe was always a nice change from those other papers ( which dont really qualify anymore as papers )How sad to see todays editorial in the Globe blindly endorsing Campbell and ignoring the mass of damage he has inflicted on this province. ( by the way ..stop calling the rape of the province to benefit only businessmen a booming economy ) Silly of me to believe that a paper exists that has real news anymore. Guess Ill stick with publications like Monday, Georgia Straight and the Tyee to find out what is actually going on in the world.

I think it's important to know what "stuff" the Sun, Province, et al are publishing so that I know what rubbish many are taking in... then you can have good conversations with them when you present a countering point of view from alternate media....Perhaps I'm too much of an optimist, but I find many people are too busy to be well informed and whoever has their last forms their opinion....

Re: CAMPBELL IN WINE COUNTRY

Who is it who doesn't know the BC Hurtland well enough to know that Caribou is an animal and Cariboo is a region?

A very good article, certainly something you would not read in the Asper press and CORUS (NW 98) radio.

A chap named Martin some comments back (well quite aways back) was going on and on about the debt of the FastFerries. White elephants they were, thet cost the treasurey about $450 million. The annual subsidy for the SkyTrain Expo & Millennium Lines is now over $200 million annually, or put another way - a FastFery fiasco every two or so years! And yet we are building more of it! It is quite possible that with the RAV line, we could see this annual hidden subsidy rise to almost $300 million!

No fiscal restraint here, its gung-ho for more light metro, mostly built as an extremely expensive subway, on a route that doesn't have the ridership to sustain it.

Certainly the Premier and his brother would be screaming bloody blue murder if the NDP were building AV!

Speaking of the other Campbell, isn't he in a conflict of interest with his show on NW? He slams all, except his brother that is!!

"If the Lying Liberals win on Tuesday"

-if Jazz?Lets face it:its a done deal.I'll be happy if the NDP pull down 30 seats,although I'll settle for 20-25.Yeah,it'd be great to see Campbell run outta' town on a (BC)rail,but it aint gonna happen-certainly not after the recent Liberal/Canwest/ BCTF shenanigans.All those panicky soccer moms thinking "strike" will wind up holding their noses and voting for Governor Gord.Nothing motivates voters like good old timey fear mongering.

On McMartin's story: just proves the old saying that "figures don't lie; but liars can figure". Never completely believed the NDP story that their surplus was as big as they wanted us to believe. Never believed the Liberal line that the NDP's books were in as bad shape as they wanted us to believe. Haven't believed a Liberal budget since 2002.

On a second Campbell majority: perspective is everything. On May 17, 2001 many pundits and arm-chair political junkies (including me) questioned whether the NDP could ever recover. Four years later, we have people saying how upset they will be if the NDP doesn't form gov't. I agree with sonic931: 30+ seats and I'll turn hand stands; 20-25 seats says that they have done their job.

On "Prime Minister" Harper: if this becomes reality, we can thank Messrs. Martin, Chretien and their thugs in La Belle Province. How can anyone who has read a Gomery transcript or watched the proceedings vote Liberal? Unfortunately, many voters feel that they can only choose between the corruption of the Liberals and the social conservatism of Harper. Meanwhile, Layton and the NDP don't seem to be doing very much to take advantage of what could be a historic opportunity for a major breakthrough.

On Moving: I understand the frustration behind those comments. However, isn't that really saying that you give up on your ideas?

"B.C. Crown lawyers sue government, say Liberals broke law

VANCOUVER (CP) - British Columbia's Crown prosecutors filed a lawsuit against the provincial government Friday, saying the Liberals broke the law by passing legislation to settle a contract with the lawyers.
"No one is above the law and even the lawmakers have to abide by the law," said Michael Van Klaveren, president of the B.C. Crown Counsel Association.

The lawsuit, the first of its kind in Canada, names the province, Attorney General Geoff Plant and Labour Minister Graham Bruce for allegedly acting in bad faith and abusing their public offices.

In March, the Liberals passed legislation that gives the province's 400 prosecutors a 13-per-cent wage hike next year but wipes out an arbitrator's ruling that called for the increase to be retroactive to April 2003."

The above is the beginning of an article posted today on MyTelus. More of the same from our provincial Liberals under "Gordo" backed up by his loyal servant, Graham Bruce. May 17th cannot come too soon to get this gang of liars, cheats and bad-for-the-economy party out of power. There has been way too much damage done over the past four years.

Cast a vote for change and let's move forward in making this province, once again, once of the best within Canada to live and work in!

Just a working stiff...

Is it me or has no one caught onto the distinct irony of our so called sober premier taking a winery tour? Wonder if there was any tasting to be done, or driving to be had?

By the way gordo, thanks for coming out and releasing your direct talk to the citizens commercial... the one you filmed on the beaches of vancouver. Nothing reminds people of what an a**hole we have as a premier as much as 2 minutes of him lying to their faces.

In regards to the thread, all I can say is that the Fiberals manufactured a lie and told it enough times to have people believe it. It's truly sad that there aren't more free media outlets (free as in not influenced by advertising or outright bribery by the right side of the spectrum) in the mainstream.

Will, excellent article on perhaps the greatest deception played upon the people of BC.

Great comments on a very good article.

Thanks especially to the commenter way, way above who says that we will need to work hard after the election, too, to keep government and media a little more on track. That's good advice.

I love your fierce reaction to that despicable Globe and Mail editorial, which was unsigned (I feel sure Christie Blatchford wouldn't stoop so low).

I scorched my screen telling G&M what I thought of their bad, bad journalism ... and have been depressed as hell, trying to figure out why a non-CanWest, and a non-B.C. newspaper would betray every principle of good journalism ... for what? I can sorta comprehend CanWest's sleazy motives (nice to have a government in your pocket, I guess) but what's driving the Globe? Where's their pride? Crikey, where's their shame!

"Are you insane?" my message to them began, quietly. And picked up from there.

sail_junkie,

"On Moving: I understand the frustration behind those comments. However, isn't that really saying that you give up on your ideas?"

I would disagree. Canada is full of people who came here because they put their "ideas" ahead of their country. Whether it was American Loyalists or the French, Scots, Irish, Ukrainians, Germans etc, this country is full of people who left somewhere else for what they considered to be a good reason, a life closer to what they wanted.

Re: Globe's decline.

Just look at the pre-Sporting Life front page today.

Mason....puff-piece again....huge spread/pix...profile of another 'Star Candidate' where there's no there there.

Squeezed to one column on the side... Mickleburgh's point by point 'Smackdown of the Smear' - and no end of the column rider about how both the NDP and BCTF deserved it crap; its an uncategorical statement of how the entire issue was knowlingly manufactured.

Anyway...who did Eddie the G hand the BC bureau to?

Mickleburgh, who's slogged it out in the trenches and does his job like a real reporter, or Mason, he who will go soften everything to mush to ensure future Access (of Evil) everytime?

Did I even have to ask?

____
But back to Mr. McMartin's excellent post at hand....one thing that is interesting is the BC LINO* Party's obsession to raise the spectre of all things 'structural' prior to destructing them.

deficits....bureaucracies...ministerial organizations....school boards.... hospital boards....hard public assets....soft public assets....contracts....collective bargaining...

It's almost a fetish, this 'structural' correction thing.

And it has also long been a flack/hack talking http://pacificgazette.blogspot.com/2004_08_01_pacificgazette_archive.html point.

____
*LINO: Liberal In Name Only

Darn, sorry.

Didn't know format wouldn't take html-based links.

BB code - just replace your "<" and ">" with "[" and "]" for formatting. A link can be added as is, no coding needed eg: http://www.yahoo.com

I did not know about the points that Will McMartin made about the account changes that Harcourt made. We should really question all of what we read in any media and they are certainly not always wrong.

Nevertheless, I do believe that the Harcourt gouvernment did inherit a large deficit from the outoing Social Credit government. It did not help that Bill Bennet was a neoconsertive in the same gendre as Gordon Campbell. I cannot remember that barage of changes he implemented, but we already had a lean civil service in BC as a result. A lot of the government was already gone by the time the NDP came into power and government revenues were down as a result of the recession partly caused by brain-dead neoconservative changes.

The Socreds spent a lot of money by low balling mega projects. They would tell us it would cost X dollars and before we knew it, it would cost 3X dollars, then 4X dollars, then on and on until it cost vastely more than the initial cost that sold everyone on what a great idea it would be.

The Vancouver convention centre was good. The public transit is good, but far more expensive than it should have been. BC Place is a white elephant that is barely used and is now relatively old. The cost for Expo continuously increased as time went by. All of the megaprojects were far more costly than the Social Credit government planned for. Will the RAV line will be the same? It seems highly likely.

BC Liberal and Social Credit are the same thing. Gordon Campbell is a Socred, which is now called a capital C conservative. For those of you who have not been paying attention, I will obnoxiously tell you that the Social Credit people took on the name Reform then Alliance before "amalgamating" with the PCs to become the new Conservatives. I would be surprised if there are any real liberals in the BC Liberal Party. Would Linda Reid in Richmond East be the only exception?

SueC--

There's a guy, BFD, who posts occasionally over at my place who makes a pretty cogent argument that there is actually a huge battle going on at the moment between the two factions of the LINO's.

He centers the center around John Les and the former deputy premier's husband with the redmeat stake apparently being driven in by Rich Coleman and and Kevin Falcon.

____
It's in the 'It's A New One To Consider' thread from a couple of days ago.

(thanks tommymoore above, just too tired now to make index fingers work properly, will try to do it properly next time).

Thank you for this piece but I was already aware of the information. I checked it out, and already knew that the Auditor had confirmed the surplus, and that it had been registered Federally. So the Lieberals couldn't change it. That 1.5 billion surplus did in fact become a deficit, but not due to the NDP..due to the Liberals creating those extra Ministries, giving themselves a 32% increase in pay..the first time they sat their bums in the Legislature seats, and all that money they gave away to the richest in the province. Volunteer boards for hospitals were turned into cushy spots for high salaried CEO...especially if they were American, and our Crown corps/possessions were sold for pennies on the dollar to the lowest and the most morally defunct companies they could find. Bad record elsewhere? Under investigation?? The Campbell Liberals think you will be a strong candidate for hire...just based on that alone. Yes I knew what was a lie and what wasn't. I also stopped subscribing to the Sun and other large newspapers in this our beleaguered province, some time ago..around about 2003. I don't read them. I stopped watching tv, matter of fact I haven't watched tv since my job loss (position made redundant at Medical Services Plan..and given away to Maximus ...ya know that American company that comes under the auspices of the US Patriot Act??)

There are alot of reasons I boycott the news media...main one is there is no honest factual reporting that I can see. IF..and I say if the Opposition is reported on at all..its NEVER the front page, you have to look for it somewhere on page ten. I also haven't forgotten the Lieberals mad plan to stop the vaccination/immunization programs..matter of fact slash them to nothing. Gee....polio and other stuff here we come...I note that plan didn't stick around for long, maybe they realized they would have to cough up too much money to fix that ghastly error in judgement. Oh and I loved the idea of taking away the audio tapes Reading program from the Blind, it kind of reminded me of pulling the wings off a housefly..ya know...I am sure Campbell dabbled in that specialty as a small boy...maybe he even tortured his brother Michael.

Anyways I am glad that 3 days before the election..the light bulb has finally gone on for some of you folks...me..I've been keeping score the last four years. As I told my last MLA ..Brian Kerr, an email came in to me..touting Gordo..dear Gordo was going to be reading a book to a child in some school somewhere. Know what I said? "Gordon Campbell is a human?? Since when? How hypocritical. Why don't you save this tripe for someone who has long-term memory loss. I will be voting and it won't be Liberal.
end of story. That wasn't the only letter my Lieberal MLA got from me. I was happy to hear that he is not running for re-election. Good riddance to the YES man..good riddance to bad rubbish.

Speaking of brother Michael - he must be so sad about a program on CNBC every night - what's his name Miller who a big Bush supporter and the ugliest of the ugly American - his attitude is "do as we say or we'll blow you away cause we're the superpower and don't forget it." When Michael Campbell was filling in for Mather on CKNW talk show he would shill for
Fox news and the Miller show (I can't for the life of me think of his first name)

Forgot to say it has been cancelled.

He (was) Dennis M. I saw his show several times.
I'd watch if he had interesting guests, but soon became sick of his hawkish tone.
Dennis appears to be a born again right winger.
In a former life, especially post Saturday Night Live, his comedy would lead one to think he was an anarchist or nihilist. His main schtick then was unrelenting cynicism regarding all politicians and anyone else in the public eye. I couldn't stomach his tone then either: uniform negativity.
It must have been in a transition period some years back where I heard him disassociate himself from his former comedy by saying it was just a schtick for him, an angle to use. It didn't reflect his beliefs. A few years after that he came out as a born again Bushie neocon.
I'm glad to see his show gone, although he may just end up in a new Fox News show.

Thanks for all the links. I'm on it.

A pox on both FIBERAL HOUSES.
Enough is enough.

The Fiberal, Machiavellian monologue is; a
monotonus, monody of monolithic monomania.
Mendatious to voters, with malodorous, malevolent malice.
Gordo's malignant, mephitic malfeasance must
be manacled to mortifying, minority status by the voters, with merciless, moral outrage.

While I too am disappointed with the Globe editorial, I really must say Rob Mickleburgh's column ought to be posted in every newsroom in this province.

His coverage of the labour beat at Pac-press, long before Conrad Black or the Aspers shit all over anything balanced, was the most thorough in this province.

His criticisms of the sheer ignorance of most reporters on labour issues, as exemplified in The Vancouver Sun and Province and most radio, including CBC, is the best I've seen yet.

How fucking sad that in a province shaped by the guts of workers who dared to stand up and die to stop the brutalities of the coal barons, their paid thugs and the police, we see journalists today who don't even know that history.

Do journalists (who enjoy the benefits of some of the best labour contracts in the world -Van-Sun, Province and Times Colonist), not know the difference between a newsletter updating contract negotiations and the step-by-step process laid out for strike votes in BC?

Do people who go to university to study journalism and then work for years in large newsrooms in Vancouver, not realize by now that relations between Campbell's Liberals and BC's teachers are poisonous?

Does it not dawn on them that a political press release might tweak the truth a bit?

To simply parrot the shrill cries of a cynical Gordon Campbell without a glance at the content or the context of the newsletter, in my view, is far worse than simple incompetence.

In this world I'll take what ever positives come along and the Globe certainly offers far more balance (a positive) than the others in BC.

Allan, I take it you don't read the Province too much any more so I'll let you in on what they are saying on page A20 in their editorial "...The province supports a second term for Gordon Campbell's Liberals. In that term, the expectation is that the Liberals will attend to the needs of seniors,families and the less priveledged of our great province.
It is this paper's promise to you that we will hold the Liberals to account for those expectations...." that's the headliner of it and the final statements is "...Judging by the latest opinion polls, the results of Tuesday's vote should be more balanced and more representative of the full range of B.C. Citiezens.
Having said that, it is our opinion that the Liberals clearly deserve a second term to lead us further along our current, exciting recovery path."
The middle is full of brown nosing crap pleading the plight of the Liberals with all the adversity, you know 9/11, SARS (they should be thankful we still had in house cleaners then), bird flu, Softwood trade dispute (seems they didn't know it was coming and how much this province depends on that resource income!?!?!?!)
I got to admit it would have made me laugh a whole lot harder if not for the fact that way too many people read this tripe and are not inclined or educated enough to decipher the truth out of it....

"It is this paper's promise to you that we will hold the Liberals to account for those expectations...."

My question for The Province: why start now?

verso, my thoughts exactly....and pretty much what I said to them....I'm just curious do you think that GC would listen to them or any others more than the evil little voices in his head ? God knows he doesn't listen to the little people voices outside of it.....

The Province has an editorial page and staff? And they don't write about sports or mooooovie stars? Who knew?

Between the two rags the Province is is the raggier.

I don't even believe what they say about sports or mooooovies stars.

Excuses to sell advertising space...both of them. Dreadful betrayals of journalistic tradition.

In our age Shakespeare might have written : The first things we'll do, Let's kill all the lawyers, Then we'll round up the journalists.

wstander says:

The real story here ... is that the Sun, Province, Times Colonist, all the TV stations, with Global taking the lead, and CKNW with its Liberal cheerleading open mouth shows, are complicit in foisting this disinformation on the public.

Not because of incompetence on their part, but because of an ideologically driven view that the public's right to have facts reported must be subservient to the agenda of supporting the BC Liberal party. Support that is not limitd to their editorial pages, or their columnists, but to their actual reporting. Can there be any more timely reminder than the fraudulent reporting of the "Teacher's Strike" in the last days of this campaign?

allan--

Spot on re: mickleburgh.

And what we in this province must do is start to recognize the real thing in this province and ignore, and even be derisive, about the rest.

For example, all you have to do is compare Mickleburgh's work to the rest of the mush, above the fold, from Gary Mason on the same page of the Globe yesterday.

___
apologies to others who are tired of hearing this from me, but I believe it's a critical point, because if this had been immediately denounced on Thursday night the Smear would have been erased immediately and the onus would have been on the Liberals to respond to the question of motivation for deceit. Now, instead, it sets the stage for worse stunts than this next time around.

Thanks Blonde Pitbull. These are just rags now as Banquos ghost says. Discount them when ever you get the chance and all the people who continue to work for them. Don't give me, it's management, the editor etc. - all of us, not just journalists, have had to go up against authority when principle is involved, have had to draw a lime in the sand, and face we may lose our bread and butter. Can't stand the coddling anymore. They and their soldiers who continue to facilitate this self-interested agenda are destroying us.

They need protesters at their complicit press doors, need to be humiliatingly revealed as the sham they are. (Apparently the BCTF is taking legal action against that lie as Campbell has not made a retraction.)

Why don't they just cut to the chase, quit wasting good paper, don their red and blue party hats and just hand out BC Liberal election brochures door to door...

a lime in the sand? Well that too, some years ago...meant "line in the sand"

Hey, something's really strange on this thread.

It's been almost an entire day and not one fascist, neocon or liar has posted.

In fact, the one story you'd think they would be trying to distort or hide under a cloud of lies, hatred and just plain ignorance, has seen but two outbursts from the fringes and there is much speculation that they were posted by the same person using different names.

They'll scream if you point out that farmed fish stink. They call you a pinko if you suggest more equitable tax policies and they'll blame the poor and handicapped for being alive.

But when the biggest lie created by the Liberals in the past four years is found to be nothing more than an ugly lie, they hide.

Wow!

allan--

Perhaps their contracts expired at 12:01am of the 15th.

you could be on to something...they are nowhere to be found on election central either... seems the plumbers have left the building

The real problem in this election will be the GREENS!!

They MUST consider voting NDP!!

Lynn, you're welcome, I guess. I'm not so certain I understand what you mean by discount the "rags" or the employees. I take little as gospel truth (in reference to politics and business)where ever I read it unless I can verify it. Those two categories constitently operate with the idea if you don't get caught it is okay to lie, cheat and steal; to screw the people you deal with as long as you somehow benefit.
Listen, I wasn't happy with a lot of the NDP and their crap but it took the Liberals to really piss me off. Then I started researching various stuff they said and found that some was "twisted truths" and some was total crap...

Canwest doesn't understand "truth", or "democracy", or "balance", but it does understand money. I put them on my boycott list years ago, along with Walmart, Pattison, farmed salmon, and every other business that says it's ok to screw your neighbour, and rape the planet. You can't reason with them, but you CAN hurt their bottom line. And that, they'll listen to.

Very good story, Will, and thanks for exposing more of the bunk behind the very creative "structural deficit" that so many people who ought to know better still cite as factual. I think the two points that Martin made way up there somewhere about reasons for the NDP surplus in 2000 are also accurate, though they don't detract at all from Will's central point--which was that the "structural deficit" was manufactured as a standard political tool.

It should be added that the "structural surplus" was not just a handy weapon for bashing the NDP. It was also used to justify unprecedented cuts to our most vulnerable citizens. ($150 million in cuts just for the developmentally disabled alone, despite numbers growing by almost 10% a year!)

Since resource royalties represent a good chunk of our revenues and commodity prices are unpredictable, the NDP surplus in 2000 was no more a sign of fiscal prowess than the current Liberal surplus--both were based on windfall revenues and are just part of a regular cycle.

The bigger story, as many have pointed out, is how our mainstream media allow the Liberals to get away with patently manufactured propaganda that turns a surprise surplus into a "structural deficit" (or other recent examples like the "BCTF strike plot"). It's simply partisan nonsense to claim that the Liberals were fiscally competent for doing this year exactly what the NDP were slammed so badly for doing in 2000.

While the NDP's mistakes prompted media hysteria, where is the outrage over Liberal follies? Has anyone recently tallied up how far RAV is already over budget before it's even started!? How about the Premier hiring his cousin-in-law/sleepover buddy/Liberal backroom boy Doug Walls, despite his bankruptcy and fraud investigation, to badly bungle the endless restructuring at the Children & Families Ministry while forcing cruel cuts for abused kids and disabled people. This after his pre-election promise to "stop the endless bureaucratic restructuring" of that Ministry. ...and then claiming he didn't know the guy.

That story alone told so much about character and judgement and leadership and trust and yet I don't think I've even heard it mentioned in the election coverage, apart from forums like this.

Whoa ladies (Red and Lynne) we can not afford to lose a couple of wonderful citizens like you. Hang in there! we love you . I understand your frustration at the people buying the big lie. Tyrants have been able to usurp freedom form people, since time immemorial with this scurrilous tactic. I am getting old, but I want to stay and fight ‘til I am called home. We need our own media. God bless the TYEE, but damn the CBC, (which I love) the other single bastion of democracy and free speech in this land, who have betrayed us in their missing of the big stories and in not reporting the lies. We need to boycott Can West and Global. We need to create our own radio free BC.(eventually TV). What a great model Tyee has presented. If we can finance class action suits against the Libs with donations over their Hydro sell off, surely we can finance such a our own media outlets in the same fashion.

David Beers and all of the contributors to the Tyee are the best thing that has ever happened to journalism in our province (country). They are the epitome of journalistically responsible with very slim, if any, bias. I do not see David being pressured for content, except by his own fair mindedness and professional integrity.

Where else can absolutely anyone contribute their immediate reaction to any story presented with assurance of equal time and space.

Unfortunately some of the cowards out there who like to call people names and taunt individuals, in a feeble attempt for commentary are successfully diversionary, without being responsible. “Those who have responsibility with out rights are slaves”
“Those who have rights without responsibility are parasites” anon.

I respectfully suggest that all commentators should have to present their complete names along with what they say. We do not need addresses (except for Tyee to check name authenticity ), but we need responsibility.

There will still be The Reitsmas and the type that called Carole James from Prince George, pretending to be a parent. Heaven knows the Tyee commentaries are beleaguered with them, but at least they would have to be a little braver and more responsible in their diatribes. Passwords would continue to protect us from imitators.

Blonde Pitbull: I meant discount, in terms of valueing them as a means of finding out the truth, as a news source... and disregarding them in terms of real investigative journalism. They are not newspapers by and large, they are rags, and most of those who now work for them, by and large again, just diminish the profession of journalism. Discount as in shun, not worthy of recognition.

Thanks for your encouragement, dgb.

Personally, I would't feel comfortable giving my real name to an online public forum. Perhaps if I were male, I'd feel differently. I think most online forums use 'handles' and nicknames, for that reason.
Just my 2 cents.

I think the Liberal Communication team's (as opposed to genuine Liberal supporter's) posts are pretty easy to spot because they follow the same formula and use the same diversionary debating tactics.

Thanks for this quote, I hadn't heard it before, it's so true!

“Those who have responsibility with out rights are slaves”
“Those who have rights without responsibility are parasites” anon.

I echo redrivergirl's comments, dgb. And red I "got" your post above, we are losing all that nourishes, nature itself, and our protective social systems under neo-con ideology. (We are dangerously imbalanced.)

I would say we are losing all that "sustains" but I have come to hate that word since every lie and every ploy by Campbell began with that deception...by manipulating the idea of sustainability.

What is the big deal about teacher strikes anyway? I don't recall any days being lost to strikes the whole time I was in the k-12 system. My kids have been in it for 10 years and I vaguley remember a 3 day loss years ago. They have lost way more school days to snow and inclement weather than teacher strikes.

Seems it's okay for our rural kids to go to a 4 day week, and causing a lot of problems for parents with what to do with them on Fridays. The Fiberals don't give a damn about that. This has been a huge slap in the face to rural communities, but hardly a word about that.

islandtides.com

Now there is a nice little paper.

Lynn, does it sound like I take the Province as gospel truth? But it's hard to know what they are saying, thinking, be able to rebutt the slop that the populace is being fed if you don't keep up. It is actually quite easy to read any paper in this city they are left on buses, in starbucks, restaruants, lobbies, etc...I'm not telling you to buy it just to hold your nose and read it...If y'all are really serious about bringing them to task then it is a necessary evil.

The funny thing about Campbell complaining about teacher strikes is that he took his own two children out of school for two weeks every year so the family could go to ... you guessed it ... Hawaii! Teachers are so hesitant to go out on strike anyways. Campbell is just trying to use this as a wedge issue. The scary thing is how successful he looks at doing it. Sigh.

verso, my thoughts exactly....and pretty much what I said to them....I'm just curious do you think that GC would listen to them or any others more than the evil little voices in his head ? God knows he doesn't listen to the little people voices outside of it.....

I honestly don't know. I can't figure what drives this man, besides his ideology.

A GEM from Rafe Mair ( of all sources )May 11, 2005

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It seems that Premier Gordon Campbell will not be coming on this show prior to the election, as promised. The reason, no doubt, is that he might actually have to answer some tough questions backed up with cross-examination. I frankly couldn’t care less. Contrary to what politicians would have you believe, they are not good for ratings and, at any rate, we’re not in ratings.

Let me this morning simply speak as a voter, and if the Premier were here, I would make the following comments.

I voted for you in 2001, Premier but there are a hell of a lot of things you have done and left undone that make it impossible to vote for you again.

I didn’t expect you to ignore the Auditor-General’s report and the report of the public servants in the Finance department, made available to you immediately after the election, demonstrating that the NDP left a surplus of $1.57 billion …and since you knew that, I must point out to you that when you said “it was worse than we thought” and the province is in “a serious deficit” that you would tell such a clear falsehood. Moreover, when you gave the well-off, a $2 billion tax break on your first day in office, you gave the NDP surplus to the likes of me, not the homeless, the sick, the elderly in need of a long term bed or to those who badly need a helping hand.

I didn’t expect that you would hire a kissing cousin of yours, Doug Walls, who was an undischarged bankrupt under investigation for stealing $1 million, to look after $600 million of our money in the Children and Families Ministry … I didn’t expect you to deny you knew the man, even saying that your wife doesn’t know all her cousins when in fact Walls was a prominent Liberal, a man you had stayed with and that you had gone all the way to Prince George so you could lease a car from him.

I didn’t think you would be so mean-spirited to instruct your Speaker to refuse party status to the NDP.

When I voted for you I didn’t expect that you would renege, twice, on a deal with Crown prosecutors where both sides would accept the arbitrators’ decision.

I did not expect the Campbell government to increase the public debt of this province by 4.3 billion dollars so that they could arrange a surplus in the last year to bribe the voters with.

I took you at your word when you promised you wouldn’t sell BC Rail … now are we to accept your word that you won’t sell IV+CBC or BC Hydro?

I didn’t expect the homeless to increase by 75% under Gordon Campbell.

I didn’t ever expect to see my province as a place where a poor person, often mentally ill, could go to jail for begging.

I didn’t elect the Campbell Liberals to see food banks increasing the number of children it serviced last year by over 41% and the adults by 16%.

I expected the Campbell government to keep its promise to build 5000 new Long Term Care beds. As listeners will know, this is likely the single most important Health problem because as the baby boomers get older, the shortage of long term beds becomes more important – the presence of long term patients in acute car beds is the main reason surgical lines are so long … so we have this curious result – because older people who need long term care are in acute care beds, their seniors colleagues, perhaps family or friends, can’t get the elective surgery required because there are not enough acute care beds.

I can’t believe that the Premier, his health minister and his minister in charge of long term beds would make a promise to build 5000 long term beds and to make that promise on my show several times then renege. I cannot believe that suddenly, out of the blue, comes an excuse that there were too many LTC beds in bad shape so they had to look after them before building new beds … an excuse that we didn’t hear until Shirley Bond was made minister and she had to scramble for an excuse to get out of the credibility mess the government was in.

I didn’t believe that Gordon Campbell would lift the moratorium on fish farming and then, after two Pink Salmon runs in the Broughton Archipelago were all but wiped out, would refuse to save this year’s run by fallowing the fish cages which produced the sea lice that have been destroying the smolts as they migrate to sea. I honestly didn’t believe my ears when you told my audience on March 1st this year that not only would he not help the wild salmon but that he would take no responsibility when the run fails next Fall!

I cannot believe that I heard the you in the leaders’ debate boast that you had reduced unemployment in an aboriginal Village from 85% to 30 % … that instead of being ashamed of yourself, you would boast about coming to the aid of native villagers by bringing in a filthy business like fish farming, thus insulting them, and further damaging wild salmon stocks the absence of which is what caused the villagers the problem in the first place.

And this leads me to the future – I cannot support a man and a party that is going to hand out fish farm licenses all up and down the coast as soon as he is elected and will open up the British Columbia wilderness to his pals, both here and abroad, so that tourists can shoot our Grizzly bears and Mountain Sheep.

Moreover, I don’t believe that the present prosperity has much if anything to do with the Liberals and everything to do with the increase of commodity prices over which the provincial government has no control whatever.

This premier and this government, with a couple of exceptions, have been mean-spirited, philosophically opposed to helping those who need it, destructive in the extreme of the environment and come to the people with no vision except to say elect us, we’re better than the NDP.

Make the environment an issue – it’s yours to lose

If you want a better choice in ’09, vote STV in 05

Blonde Pitbull: My post above... I was thanking you for bringing it to my attention. The rest of the post was just a general comment not aimed at you at all. I should have put a pargraph break in and I didn't. My fault. Sometimes I write something off and it seems perfectly clear at the time and then I re-read it and well, it's clear as mud.

I realize when re-reading it over it sounded like I was talking to you when I said: "don't give me..."... that was a general comment, not to you, because everytime I say the reporters have to share in their responsiblity for this often shallow, partisan reporting, someone pipes up but the editor through management is making them do it. I'm tired of hearing it, if journalists, themselves, don't see that they are now helping facilitate the neo-con agenda, then hope dwindles for any kind of a free press or a free society. They are sadly now a contributing factor.

So I apologize for the misunderstanding, it was a sloppy post on my part. I've always valued your commentary. And I agree, no problem with reading the papers wherever they pop up in grocery line-ups etc...

Great read from Raif (of all sources).

Mein Gott, just got in and I'm pooped, but some of these threads are sounding pretty depressed, even many of the generally optimistic stalwarts here.

So, I don't know whether I'm pleased or not that I am not the only one not feeling good about the way things are shaking out here. Hopefully, it is all a media creation, and they and ourselves will all be wrong in our assessment of the public intent. (And that is a real possibility.)

That said, both the NDP and Greens have failed, I think, from their centrist positions, win this hype-hop election or not, to sufficiently carve out positions for themselves separate and apart from each other, or that awfully distinguishing even from the Neocon Libs. There is too much blurring of ideological and programme lines, and not evough specifics all along the line to be really believable, hope raising or inspiraing-, and it is possible to be even so in defeat.

This has been one of the most bland, blurred and uninspiring elections in my living memory. (Sorry Carol, you're "nice", but that just ain't good enough.) It has been the march of The Clones, from start to finish.

And with the corporate media and public broadcaster ramping up their open and naked propaganda psyops campaign coming down to the end, overwhelming any and all alternative voices, it can be bumming, understandably. And to none more than moi.

Still, there is that little voice echoing in my other ear that keeps saying, "Careful, careful. Things often have to reach their bleakest point, before they turn around."

And I really do think that is the fact as well in this instance. Matters are not going to reach a point where folks simply have to smarten up and move, until they get to that point where they are at their worst. (It's like we're a bunch of drunks and smack freaks.) There are more illusions and "get rich" kind of fantasies that need to be squeezed out of the system and public attitudes and hopes yet.

So I think we all just need to chill out a bit here, and I know, sometimes I'm one of the worst. And eh, that trip to the coast of Spain, even Iceland (Iceland!! Now that's desparation!), or for me, who aims lower, say a bicycle trip deep into the bush, do it. Life has to be enjoyed as much as one can, while its happening, regardless, don't ya think?

But life, politics and economics move at their own pace, even when the direction of development is clear-, in my experience. So while we live and enjoy ourselves as much as possible, we should just keep our eyes on the ball, throw a monkey wrench into the works of the system whenever we see the chance, attempt to stay sharp and not get sucked in ourselves, and just do as much and what one can. (Especially organize and try to find ways of "assembling".)

I mean, nobody hates status quo society more than I do. I know damned well. And nobody has spent longer in the political wilderness, on the outside of things looking in, than I have. I'm reconciled. I may even go to my grave in this condition.

But eh, this fucking sexist, amoral, me, me, me ,classist system really is digging away at the construction of its own grave. Stay healthy and stay strong. With luck we will all get to that place where we put the fucking boots to it, and ass kick into that hole in the ground.

BUT, if I'm going to reach my own grave first, I want to be able to say, I had a blast all the same. And I am. I'm having a blast. :-)

Love yas. None of you are allowed to slash your wrists. :-)

Nighty night. :-X

To return to an earlier question of press accountability ... I'd really like to hear what other commenters think about that BCTF fabrication, which I find so disturbing.

I mean, is it really OK for a newspaper to print something they know to be untrue, to cause damage by which they (or their cronies) can reap a benefit, and nothing happens?

We've seen enough of it in the past, from the NDP "deficit" right up to the BCTF "strike vote". I just cannot fathom how this can keep happening in an enlightened society. And nothing happens.

If a citizen tried to gain a benefit by telling lies about a neighbour, everybody knows that a citizen wouldn't get away with that. There's a remedy in law. So how come CanWest keeps getting away with it?

If Joe Blow promises to fix your roof for $1,200., and you give him the job, he's obliged to fulfill his obligation ... or there's a penalty in law. How come Gordon Campbell is never obliged to keep his promises?
Is there no penalty for breaking his contract with us, his employers?

The CanWest misinformation was leaked to the Liberal Party the night before it appeared in the Vancouver newspapers. A Liberal Party official called it a godsend to their campaign. But it was a deliberately planned assault upon kids, parents and teachers, who surely have an absolute right to be protected -- not harrassed -- by their own society.

What do you think? Are we all just helpless victims? Is there no protection in law against such blatant disregard for the public good?

mary; bctf fabrication? hardly. the plan was to strike next september. full scale. ask jinny sims yourself if you want.

.

Thank you to JDC for the little gem.

As workers of this province, we all should have the right to strike. Gordon Campbell is stating that the NDP are putting teacher's rights ahead of student rights. What happened to John Q Citizen having the right to remove the only thing that an employer can understand? - their labour. By deeming teaching an essential service, Gordo has hog tied the bargaining rights of the BCTF - is it so wrong to want to better one's self through the collective bargaining process.

Additionally, he agreed to arbitration with the Crown prosecutors and when he did not like the result, he changed the outcome.

I never have and never will vote Liberal - I have faith that the public will see through the smoke and mirrors and hype and vote with their conscience. I want to be able to do the "happy dance" on Wednesday morning following the election.

My thanks to all of those who cared enough to post information or their views on this upcoming election - strength is knowledge and knowledge is power!

Yes, Dear Jinny did say that the union had no plans to strike in this school year. I even believe her, as unlikely as that prospect might seem. However, Dear Jinny did not say anything about a strike vote for the fall session. Dear Jinny is just selective with the truth. That makes Dear Jinny untruthful. And if you are a BC Lib you have to just love Jinny.

The Libs don't believe in public education at all. That's why they're trying to destroy the teacher's union and the nurses union for the same reason. Soon everyone will know.

Mary, newspapers print small retractions when they get caught out, but by then the damage is done. The best way to hit them is through their pocket books. There are websites online that list non-progressive companies and where they put their money. I choose never to spend my money in any of their businesses.

I agree BC Mary. Surely that is libelous, criminal? You're right, why is nothing happening to address this? The BCTF through their lawyers has said they would sue Gordon Campbell if he did not retract the defamatory statement. My guess is he doesn't retract anything...so I don't know where it all stands now. (The letter is on the BCTF website).

Just for the record to understand the degree of fearmongering by the present government when it comes to teachers and strikes.

In the last 12 years not a single school day has been lost to teacher strikes.

I bet that fact would surprise those who have apparently bought this anti-teacher and anti-strike propaganda, hook, line and sinker.

"In the last 12 years ot a single day has been lost to teacher strikes" is not the truth. But then most of you "pinkos" don't much care for the truth anyway. Nor would you recognize it if you saw it. And you people blame the libs for using Goebbel's big lie theory. In fact there have been days lost to teacher strikes on several occaisions. And every government, the NDP included has legislated them back to work. There has to be a better way. I support binding judicial arbitration.

Here's a good web site to check out companies before you spend.

http://www.responsibleshopper.org

I don't know that it did as much damage as they wanted because after all parents are in the schools. They see what is happening there.

You may support binding judicial arbitration. Clearly, the BC Liberals don't. Just ask the Crown.

And wild coyote, very profound. ( "hea-lic" in Icelandic). :-)

Well as hard as it may be for you to accept rdg, not all Liberal supporters are knuckle dragging neanderthals. I was even an NDP supporter once- until I figured out how tired and worn out all of their cliche arguments were... and how incompetently they always seem to manage our economy.

There are many parts of the Liberal record that I do not like and cannot support, but the province has to pay the bills. I'm hopeful that they were just misguided and have learned from some of their mistakes.

At any rate when it comes to a choice between misguided and just plain incompetent (like NDP governments always seem to be) I guess I'll stick with misguided.

BC Mary:

Sure it's disturbing. The BCTF is the latest "piece de resistance" served up by the Liberals. Over the past few years I've been apalled at the media bias and the slant in which they write their stories. I feel as a british Columbian that I'm no different than a ramshak dweller in Zimbabwe when it comes to freedom of press and journalistic integrity.

As I've been telling my wife lately, all we can do is vote and all we can do is hope OUR candidate gets chosen. All we have control over is whom we vote for and the riding they represent. I'm fortunate enough to live in a riding where I can make a difference (North Island). It's really tight and we are doing our part.

I will never again subject myself to, or subscribe to, the propaganda put forth by the Crapwest media whores. I will never accept the jackboot gestapo Canworst filth on my doorstep. I have written to both our local media brothels (North Island Coourier and NI Weekender) and have instructed them to skip our house. Reading the fiction on a day to day basis is bad for your health, and your peace of mind.

Vote on Tuesday and that's all we can do.

My dear friends.We are about to witness the reinstatement of Gordon Campbell to the office of premier.I know how depressing this situation is for all of you,and I want you to know that I truely feel your pain.That said,I fully expect Carol James to win back at least 25 seats.Lets celebrate that and look to the the future.

So Jeeves, how is it that the whole world is wrong and only you (figuratively speaking) are right? All the media outlets and commentators in the province and country have been bought? Gee maybe it's a plot. Sounds like some German guy from the 30's. You know, the guy with the funny mustache. He had it figured out too. Blamed the Jews. He even had a solution. Turns out that he was paranoid delusional, just like a lot of the commentators on this site.

Anyway, time to go. It's late. Just 2 more sleeps. Don't get so depressed that you can't get out to vote.

I Say:

Canwest Media Corp. (Cretin whores) donated over $30K to Campbell in 2000 in the leadup to the election.

Let me ask you this: A media empire that donates to a political prarty - is there no chance of some skulduggery in your little world?

Wake up. Oh ya... you just went to sleep.

"All the media outlets and commentators in the province and country have been bought?"

Actually, have you ever looked at the high level of media concentration in Canada. I know some believe the Sun and Province compete with each other or that all the little locals are independently owned by kindly old men but it isn't true.

As for the economy all I ask is you look at the numbers. If you still want to vote Liberal I wouldn't dismiss you, but I just can't see how anyone can look fairly at the economy under both the NDP and Libs, their respective challenges and how they coped and come out the other side thinking the Libs did a good job.

I predict the Campbell Liberals will be contracting out public education to American firms next. Just as privatizing hospitals, billing services etc, education will now be delivered to our children via low paid staff. Demonizing the teachers is the first step towards this.

crh; if your last comment is not in jest they you need to grow up.

Just remember that when Walls was in the midst of the bankruptcy proceedings he was 'hiding' his income from this rather strange position where he seemed to have carte blanche on government funds. Who is 'covering' up the details on this or is the privacy law in play?
This is the BIG scandal of the campbell liberals.

Big scandals of the Liberals...hhhhhmmmmmm.

It's quite possible we'll never know what the upshot of the various Campbell scandals are.

Friendly judges, compliant media, followers who don't care that lies are told...we may never know for sure.

But look over there...Glen Clark.

Yeah look over there...four years ago at a little wooden deck and a hunting knife that was given in payment for it. Yeah such a big scandal..certainly overrides what the Liberals have done, exporting jobs here there and everywhere, selling BC Rail, selling off half of BC Hydro..BC Ferries..Medical Services Plan. All to Americans, we Canadians aren't good enough for Gordie. How bout looking at the Lib's creation of extra ministries..in the time and place when they are saying we are a have-not province, and are laying off workers left right and center. I don't understand why its okay that the visitors to foodbanks have increased by 50% since Gordo came to power, when asked about this on his campaign trail, he stood there with a big blank look on his face. Oh...people yeah forgot about those,...do they count? Gordo boasts about job creation but job creation of part-time and low balled wages does not help those people to raise their kids and take care of bills. That means they visit the food banks in order to keep their heads above water. I wish people would look at these things instead of putting their blinkers on..holding their noses and pretending it didn't happen, because it didn't happen to themselves.

The selling off of to private industry of our public heritage is perfectly fine with CanWest et al because they too are private industry. They exist for profit. Nor for public service only for private profit.

The historical role of a free press in a democracy as being the people's watchdog is mostly a dead issue across the board but in the case of CanWestGlobal it's not only dead, it's been mouldering in the grave for a number of years now.

The press today, now that it's owned by large publicly held corporations, is in a terrible bind.

This is not to excuse them for abdicating their traditional role.

But they might have told us they were just Gordie's bitch now.

StandupforBC, you are totally on the ball! As long as people themselves haven't been affected, they largely don't care, but I think there has been a lot of us who have been affected by Gordo, and they don't need motivation to go to the polls. Do you know that in my riding, which pollsters think will go Liberal, there are more NDP signs on lawns. The Liberals are not proud enough for the most part to put their signs out (or maybe they are scared because the signs in public places for the Liberals have been defaced.)
Banquos ghost, did you hear the ad today on various radio stations that stated that the Vancouver Sun, the Province and the Times Colonist are all backing the Liberals. And here I thought there was supposed to be at least an attempt at objectivity in the press. Guess they dropped that guise in their last minute desperation!

There has already been a shift from public to private schools in this province. What happens to a public school that is shut down in the lower mainland? It becomes a private school. Multinationals that specialize in setting up private schools have pounced on the north shore inparticular. Parents want their children to be educated in small classes with lots of resources. The private schools have those and parents are willing to pay. sirjohna, to suggest that crh should "grow up" because of his suggestion that Campbell wants to privatize our school system is demonstrative of your ability to comprehend the reality of Campbell's actions in regards to public education in this province.

It's fine for Global "Lib" and Canwest "Con" to editorialize for their political cronies. They own the editorial page. What is despicable,is their absence of their reporting of real scandals, real events, and and real issues, all the while editorializing in their so called news coverage. They are a dismal mess and so far removed from journalistic integrity as to be pathetic frauds.

yep, I heard on CKNW that James was denying plans of an inheritance tax. Sooo typical of that station. Of course their news during the campaign would never lead off with anything negative about the Liberals like perhaps the name Basi which has not been mentioned at all.

or Lara Dauphinee..remember her? I think Gordo's soon-to-be ex wife does. That's who that oily-faced pissed turd was putting the meat to in Maui. He's scum, and will screw us completely is elected.

(if he is)

classy post tommy. you represent the left very well indeed. ever wonder why they won't hold power for a very long time to come?

sirjohn why don't you go play mr. fork meets mr. outlet?

sounds kinky dude. isn't this supposed to be a family website? i.e. did you 7 year old come up with that one?

Actually Sourjohna, education already is contracted out in the states. Public money paying private companies to deliver the service. Sorry to burst your bubble.

I also would like to stop referring to private schools as private. With public money injected into these institutions, they should be referred to as P3's. (funding up 19% under the Liberals)

If this story is to be believed and I should say that I have no knowledge one way or the other,what was that big teary eyed appollogy made by Elizabeth Cull,the then finance minister for submitting a phoney budget in 2001.I would really be interested in some truth,because as a voter I am totally fed up with the lies and half truths told equally by both sides.May be we should all vote Democratic Reform because thats exactly what we need.Party politics has had its day.

England? Iceland? Spain? Hell, beam me up Scottie, I want a whole 'nother planet!

My big question, which I've asked before, about the N.D.P. surplus, is why didn't they spend more energy exposing this lie themselves? Why didn't they defend themselves?

Mel from Calgary, when you say that the N.D.P. "didn't take it out on the poor and infirm", well, you must have still been in Calgary (or were not paying attention) when B.C. Benefits was made law. I was a welfare rights advocate at that time and I can tell you that the N. Dippys, while they SAID they weren't taking it out on the poor and infirm, introduced legislation that did just that. I can give you examples of the lives they devastated if you like. And yes, the Liberals were even worse, but that does not excuse it.

I'm not a pacifist, but I must deplore the fact that social democratic governments the world over are not even bothering to, in Gandhi's words, practice "non-violent non-co-operation with evil". They co-operate with the evil corporate agenda all the time, and that includes the B.C. N.D.P.

Anne..I guess you weren't aware of the reason why the 3 month wait was implemented for new residents to BC applying for welfare. The reason was....Ontario and Alberta had given alot of their welfare people bus tickets to BC. Thats why. The reason being they were trying to stem the flow of these people somewhat. They (the NDP) were castigated by the Federal Gov't who literally said: If you implement this..no transfer payments for you. The NDP implemented and the war with the Feds was on. So..budgetary concerns aside, what would you do? I happen to know about this because I was working for the BC gov't at this moment and time, and saw the large numbers of medical insurance applicants from the social services sides of things (all from out of province), ..it was huge we couldn't keep up with it. I figure the NDP had to do something about it..what would you have done?