Carole James must go!

This is what Grumpy would have done. If I was the leader of the opposition, I would have voted against the pay rise and campaigned on the fact that if elected, would pass retroactive legislation to make the pay rise illegal and compel those receiving it to pay it all back within 60 days or face 2 years less a day in jail!

Campbell couldn't squawk because he used legislation to overturn signed contracts with the health-care workers.

I think such a tactic would have struck a cord with the public, enough to win the next election!

But no, the wet noodle over and over again demonstrates how unfit she is for the position!

Shouldn't they atleast read the legislation?

One would expect that your MLA would atleast know what was in a bill he or she voted for. Too bad that isn't always the case. Many of our MLAs in "safe" ridings are just plain ignorant about the issues. Perhaps reporters could quiz MLAs as they leave the legislature as to what they just voted for. That would be interesting.

same story again!

OK Rafe, we got the picture!

You have now re-written the same article a few times and we have caught on that you are admitting to not have earned the money you made while elected.

Actually it is nothing to brag about, and it looks silly that you of all people talk about other politicians lacking backbone!

You were quite popular at the time, and if your conscience bothered you, the correct thing to do, would have been to make a statement, cross the floor and sit as an independent member, taking your chances at the following election.

To preach to other MLA's now looks mighty arrogant, saying in effect it was OK for you to milk the system, but not so OK when others do it?

I do agree that James was a poor choice for the NDP, maybe once again proving that party is so concerned with "doing the right thing" and selecting candidates who could be classified as "figthing the glass-ceiling syndrome"?

Yes, It would be great if females and visible minorities were better represented, but the point of any political party should be to WIN, not to appease the voters with this kind of benevolent action.

In my riding the only candidate who could have made the NDP look good stepped out of the nomination race, leaving two tepid choices.

So, when bitching about how the NDP manages to look silly, the answer lies with the membership!

It is possible to make your voice heard at the only level where your input has any weight.

The democracies that really work also have large memberships within the parties, voting at election is only the culmination of all the preceding effort.

More than a Free Vote--a Policy for the next election

Rafe, I get your point, but if we were to compensate politicians according to how much meaningful power they wielded we would have to give Gordon Campbell a multi-million dollar raise.

I think there is a middle ground between the Tielman/Mair opposition to pay increases and the package recommended by the Commission majority and subsequently introduced into leglislation. (or between Campbell as the reform populist of 1997 and Campbell as the executive of the bourgeoisie in 2007)

It hinges fundamentally on (1) having a standard public sector pension, such as those typically administered by the Public Service Commission and (2) having future changes to MLA compensation linked substantially to real incomes and wages in the province, instead of to future changes in the "managerial" job classification. The NDP could still get out of its corner, by making the additional commitment to a normal pension and maintaining a link (I suggest at least 50% of future raises) to the wider society.

I elaborate this reasoning at http://markcrawford.blogspot.com/2007/05/lending-democratic-ear-to-bc-mla-pay.html .

Right On Rafe!

It needed to be said that MLA's have a very inflated opinion about what they do. This is reflected in their attitude about how much compensation they really need for their "work". There are a lot of people who have voted NDP in the past for no other reason than they do not like the Campbell ultra-right "liberals". The NDP's dismal performance with their increased majority may simply turn off enough folks to give Campbell another term.

Rafe is right about the purpose of the Whip. The very title should be an affront to anyone who believes in democracy. That the title should be paid extra is a disgrace.

Rafe does not mention the power of the Premier to influence compliance. Cabinet appointments should not be one person's decision. The premier or leader rewards those who toe the line and punishes those who think for themselves.

What really pisses me off...

about this whole affair Rafe, is that in all the bullshit I see coming from the printed media (I don't watch TV) on this raise and pension is slanted against the NDP. And in particular Carol James. Where the fuddle duddle is all the outrage against the Liberals for even following up on this raise.
One of the so-called commissioners said she was against this and went so far as to say that this package was not what she voted for. It was changed behind her back while she was in Europe. So the recommendations were not unanimous as most would have you think.
This whole thing is just a power/money grab by the liberals. They blackmailed the NDP into taking it by adding a clause that had nothing at all to do with the recommendations. They said if if anyone didn't sign on the wouldn't get anything, "for all time"
What kind of utter crap is that. Blackmailing MLA's. This is not a democracy anymore in this province. It is a dictatorship. The time has come to rise up. Damn I'm mad. The Liberals started this mess, Not the NDP. Who gives a rats ass if Ms James doesn't have the political savvy to trump them. She soon will. Let's start talking about the utter crap that the LIBERALS are doing in the legislature.

5 Stars for Relevance

Well said Rafe. This issue may not be news but there are very few issues more consequential to society. Do we or do we not have any interest in establishing a democracy?

When the next election comes around the media will inevitably exhort us all to vote. They will tell us that declining to do so is close to treason. They might as well go the extra yard and tell us specifically who to vote for.

If there is no candidate on the ballot willing to do the job - that is to actually represent the people - then don't vote for anyone. If you have time to go to the polls and fill out a ballot that achieves nothing then you have time to waste. There are other ways to exercise your democratic rights.

Anyone get the impression

Anyone get the impression from the local media that Campbell is reasonable and sincere while James and the NDP flip flop to betray their principles? Well the NDP clearly lost my trust but this lies in the gutter with the Liberals. It's the voting system which needs to change because right now our polity doesn't speak to most of us. STV will mitigate the power of parties and replace a party caucus with a few independent voices in the legislative assembly. I'm all for that!

A league of one's own

Agree. No surprise, though, since we have a co-opted/corporately-complicit media. If we value our rights and freedoms we gotta figure out how to overcome this daily toxic dose of subterfuge known as "the news".

But that's the crux of the problem, the Loyal Opposition under the present leadership does not seem to want to rise up. It won't say out loud that this is not a democracy. It won't say out loud this is utter crap. It won't utter the word treason even though the present government has sold out the assets and the resources of this province and even more dearly the rights of the citizens of this province as well. The NDP seem unable to say out loud, boldly and clearly, that the aforementioned treasonous actions are overwhelming evidence of dictatorship, rather than democracy in this province.

Instead the NDP continually reveals itself as willing to play ball with the Campbell team in what is clearly a corrupt league intent on pitching fast-paced, anti-democratic, legislative curve balls. The NDP joins in the pretense of the Fiberals' distracting legislative committees, it joins in the pretense of silly round tables intentionally devised to go nowhere. It joins, joins, joins instead of vehemently refusing, refusing, refusing, to do so.

Why continually participate at any level with those willing to committ treason against the people of this province? Take a bloody stand...it's what the job of opposition is all about.

The Campbell Liberals have shown over and over again that they are willing to go to any length in their betrayals. The NDP as the Loyal Opposition, on behalf of the people of this province, must show it will go to any length to oppose those betrayals. It ain't called having the courage of your convictions for nothing. And no matter what kind of media you got, people not only respect courage, they respond to it.

As for giving MLA's a real job, one that is meaningful and one whose pay is deservedly earned, that is really up to us - we must create a new political/economic structure where accountability to the people is paramount...where it is built into the system and defines it. ( Coyote and Peter Dimitrov wrote many excellent comments in this regard ). Where selling off any aspect of the people's assets, our resources, our railways, our water, our power without the full knowledge and agreement of the people will be called the treasonous act that it clearly is.... and will be punished accordingly.

Lynn has it right!

I don't expect anything from the Liberals except pork barreling and nothing on the pay and benefits issue surprises me including their change of heart on "gold-plated pensions' since 1996. It is the NDP that keeps disappointing from the last election on.
They had a milquetoast platform. If they had come out and said that in their first six months they would repeal X pieces of legislation and introduce Y changes, there might have been something to get excited about. It has been downhill from there and alive makes the correct assessment about the NDP always needing to address gender issues even when the women is not the best choice.
It is the NDP's performance here that has become the focus just because we expect better from them (and they were entrusted to be the opposition) rather than be sucked in by Campbell on an issue that has no redeeming value. If James has not learned in the past two years, she won't be learning enough the next two and Grumpy is right.

Bill Tieleman replies

Thanks for your kind comments Rafe but some readers here might get the impression from your column that I think MLAs deserve more pay - which I do not.

I have written that they are well compensated at about $76,000 - an income that puts them in BC taxpayers' top 10% - plus a $7000 annual RRSP - which is over double the BC average RRSP contribution of $3000. And last year only 31% of Canadians even made an RRSP contribution.

MLAs also get a 0.9% annual pay increase.

This whole process was a travesty and furthermore no politician should get any self-voted increase without first facing the voters.

Thankyou Bill Tieleman for statistics

Politicians' salaries in the top 10% is rich enough. In a functioning democracy, the elected representatives must be able to identify with the ordinary citizen, so that they will work on behalf of the ordinary citizen. Public sector is (or should be) about service, not about maximizing personal pensions etc while leaving the rest of us scrambling for the basics.

The Capitalist Ideal.......

.....was once presented as the office boy who works his way up in the corporation, and by dint of hard effort, becomes president of the company.

Now the Capitalist Ideal is to find (or create) a sinecure. The hardworking office boy is regarded as a sucker or a loser.......

...consolidation of media is directly undermining democracy

Lynn:

I think this describes the unseen enemy when we think we're buying a NEWSpaper these days ...

The media propaganda model lives on
Tor Sandberg
rabble.ca Canada - May 28, 2007

Windsor — On the day after over 300 media critics, students, journalists and independent media pioneers from around the world converged on Windsor for a conference that drew, among others, Noam Chomsky, Edward S. Herman, Democracy Now's Amy Goodman and rabble.ca-founder Judy Rebick — Toronto Star columnist Antonia Zerbisias wrote an article noting how the mainstream media largely ignored the event. “[T]here are no corporate media here but me,” wrote Zerbisias. “Until yesterday, even the Windsor Star had not showed up and had only given the conference a scant paragraph or so notice.” ... Not surprisingly, while the mainstream media ignored the event, conference members in general gave a resounding endorsement to the propaganda model. Speakers drew attention to the continued concentration and consolidation of media ownership both nationally and globally to warn that not only was news becoming more corporate-interest friendly, but was also directly undermining democracy. ...

In addition to writing a column on the event, award-winning journalist Antonia Zerbisias was invited as a keynote speaker and gave a chilling account of how she has noticed the Toronto Star change under the pressure of competition and a switch in management. Through multiple redesigns, Zerbisias noted how her column, one of the most prominent media critiques in a national paper, has slowly been reduced to fewer and fewer words. “It's not easy to get something in under 600 words,” lamented Zerbisias, questioning how she could provide in-depth reports on complex political topics in a column that is now half the size that it used to be. “What we are doing right now is creating a newspaper for people who don't read newspapers.” ... All these ideas, all these new possibilities, but you would have never known had you only read the Windsor Star, the mainstream media, or failed to read more deeply into Antonia Zerbisias' column of exactly 600 words. Clearly, the propaganda model lives on. But we need a strong independent media to fight it.

***************************************************

From a very good little news service at:
http://saltspringnews.com/

***************************************************

Who's to blame

This discussion is not about right and wrong, it is about optics. Is it possible, instead, to discuss principles? The NDP may have bobbled this politically but it's the government's legislation, and it's the government that should be called to account.

It may be a good thing that Tyee readers can be critical of the party most of them seem to support more often than not. That's healthy in a democracy. But more likely it is depressingly familiar to see the left chewing on its own foot again. Not that I mistake Rafe for the left, but many readers seem to have adopted him as one of theirs.

An independent newspaper speaks with a different voice.

A tale of three governments
By Jerry West
The Record - May 28, 2007

If government had an odour these days we would have to wear gas masks. From Ottawa, Victoria and Washington, the stink is overwhelming.

{Snip} ...

In Victoria, the BC Liberal government continues to wallow in manure. Unless there is a change of heart in the Liberal Caucus, the government will pass a bill shortly giving MLAs a fat increase in pay and benefits — an increase put forward by a commission of three persons handpicked by Premier Gordon Campbell who are hardly representative of the majority of people in the province.

The increase has received opposition widely across BC and is opposed by the NDP Caucus. If greed consumes the Liberals and they pass the bill, the NDP MLAs have committed themselves to giving their raises to local charities in their constituencies.

The MLA cash grab is a sleazy move by the Premier, but it pales beside some of the other issues in which this government has become entangled over the past six years. If one recalls a few years back the Premier was arrested and put in jail for being a drunken sot operating a vehicle on a road on Maui, a transgression over which any honourable person would have resigned public office.

Later that same year the RCMP raided the BC Legislature seeking evidence in a case involving corruption that reached into both the BC and Federal Liberal parties, an incident that an honourable government would have fallen over and gone to the people for a renewed vote of confidence.

Honourable is not an operative word for this government, however, and the case has been dragging on for over three years, mysteriously receiving little attention leading up to the 2005 election. Allegations of bribery, tainted deals and political dirty tricks connected to the Premier's office are now coming out as the case makes its way through the courts.

Had this kind of activity come to light under the previous government, the mainstream media would have been instigating a lynch mob with daily headlines and editorials from the moment of the first raid. Yet under this government it has dragged on forever with little notice.

Stephen Harper, George Bush and Gordon Campbell are birds of a feather. They lead governments riddled with corruption and incompetency and pursue policies that are inimical to the welfare of the majority of the people that they govern. The good news is that they are all running out of time. The question arises, how can we do better in the future?

.............................................................................................................................

Jerry West is the editor of The Record, an independent, progressive newspaper published every other Wednesday in Gold River, British Columbia. [Ed Deak has a regular column in The Record, too. - BC Mary]
.

Grand slam

The "consolidation of media is directly undermining democracy."

I agree.

I would add the bad news is so are we.

But our principles are also about what we will tolerate.... and by that toleration what we allow to happen.

That goes for all of us, and yup, it even includes the nice NDP, journalists, the left, the right, middle earth....

History is full of despotic governments that should have been brought to account and were not. Perhaps, the question should be what will be our response when they are not brought to account.... how do we plan to defend ourselves and the freedoms we enjoy against tyranny and corruption?

As in tennis, much is in the response to the play made against you. Knowing how the Campbell crew operates: beware the unexpected drop shot.

Food for Thought

Rafe always raises issues that are worth thinking about, even if I don't always agree with his views. Another aspect to this topic hasn't received much attention: why don't we have a 'blue ribbon' panel consider BC's minimum wage earner? Or how about a panel to consider a fair social assitance rate. Seriously. Now that would be good social policy!

MLA's Pay

The problem is that the real purpose of the MLAs is not to represent their constituents or even their conscience but rather to decide who is the government. After that they just have to show up to vote. They even ring bells so that they know when to come. If for example they vote against the government (or with the government if in oppostion) they destroy any chance of a cabinet post, risk being expelled from the caucas, and losing their nomination in the next election (when was the last time an independent was elected in BC).

It is time that we adopted a presidential systme with separation of the executive and legislative branches. That would give MLAs a modicum of independence, voting against the executive would not cause it fall or be embarassed and they would not be elegible for a cabinet post. There are a lot of other advantages to this system as well.

This just confirms my belief

This just confirms my belief that we don't have a democracy; it is a myth that is propigated by the politians and the mass media.